What should college students know about mathematics?
Each year, more than 200,000 college students enroll in a "terminal" math course -- a single college course required for their graduation, and often the last math course they will ever take.
Until recently, there has been little agreement about what students should learn in such a course. But a new textbook written by Jeffrey Bennett of CU-Boulder and William Briggs of CU-Denver is rapidly gaining popularity across the United States, and already has been adopted by more than 50 colleges and universities.
The new textbook, titled "Using and Understanding Mathematics: A Quantitative Reasoning Approach," was published by Addison Wesley Longman of Reading, Mass. The textbook illustrates the use of mathematics in everyday situations, such as logic and problem solving, finance and taxes, population and the environment, and gambling and lotteries, said Bennett.
It also addresses the business and political applications of mathematics and its relationship to the fine arts. "We are hopeful this textbook will set a new standard for the content of terminal math courses," said Briggs.
In the past, the traditional terminal mathematics course has been college algebra, said Bennett. However, students who are not continuing in mathematics tend to find the course fairly useless and often repetitive of what they learned in high school.
More recent alternatives include courses in "consumer math," math appreciation courses and courses that teach about new developments in modern math, said Briggs.
The CU approach, known as quantitative reasoning, was developed in the late-1980s by an interdisciplinary group at the university that also began developing a math curriculum, said Bennett. "The goal of the quantitative reasoning approach is to give students the mathematical tools they need for their future courses, their careers and their daily lives."
Both authors maintain active teaching schedules. Bennett teaches astronomy for the CU-Boulder Honors Program and Briggs teaches a variety of courses for CU-Denver's mathematics department.