The
Mathematics Department provides a wide variety of courses to serve
the needs of the students at Grossmont College. These include
developmental math courses as well
as the lower-division, university courses for transfer.
Our mission
is to prepare students mathematically for courses in other
departments at Grossmont and for transfer to the four-year schools.
To meet the goals of our mission, we offer pre-algebra, beginning
algebra, geometry, and intermediate algebra for students who left
high school without completing the courses preparatory for a college
education and for students re-entering academic study after being
away. We match most universities' offerings for the first two years
of study with courses in trigonometry, college algebra, a
three-semester sequence of calculus for engineers and a semester
course in calculus for business and social sciences. We also have
courses to meet the general education requirement, to help prepare
students to teach in the elementary schools, to introduce them to
computer programming, and to help them understand and use
statistics.
In recent years we have added to these course offerings
alternative courses in pre-algebra, courses for the math-anxious,
and post-calculus, lower-division courses. We have a two-unit
pre-algebra, a four-unit arithmetic and pre-algebra, a one-unit
course for math anxious taught jointly by Math and Counseling, and a
five-unit combination of the two latter courses. At the other end of
our spectrum, we have introduced courses for university-bound
students in differential equations, linear algebra, and discrete
mathematics. The department has two
degree programs, an Associates Degree in Math and an Associates
Degree in Computer Science (offered jointly with the Computer
Science and Information Systems Department).
We have very good success in placing our students in the UC and
CSU schools as well as at many other universities. In the case of
the Business School at SDSU, as an example, students must have
completed courses in statistics and calculus for business and pass a
qualifying exam before being admitted to upper-division status.
Students who take our stat and calc courses routinely pass the exam
in high numbers.
The strength of the Math Department is in the diversity and
stability of its faculty. We have people who are authors. Several
books and educational software programs have been written by present
and recently retired department members. Some have been presenters
at regional, national and international conferences in mathematics,
and others are officers and board members of their professional
organizations. Our faculty is known as an innovative faculty. The
Grossmont College Math Department is known nationally as one of the
leaders in successfully integrating technology across the
curriculum. Our
Math
Study Center is a showcase for others to imitate. We were among
the first to incorporate the use of graphing
calculators in nearly all of our courses. We were already teaching
our courses using a "multi-sensory" approach to learning. This
includes emphasizing problem solving with numerical, analytical an
graphical explorations. It includes providing opportunities for
communication by writing and by cooperative group work. It means
tutorial support outside of class, both with peer tutors, instructor
contact in a non-structured environment and computer assisted
learning in- and out-of-class.
Most of what we are currently doing to educate our students is
the result of carefully revising a successful instructional program
that was begun along with this college in 1961. The re-birth of
today's Math Department occurred in the Fall of 1984. It was out of
a CMC3 Conference in Monterey, CA and workshops that followed, that
the concepts for computer-assisted instruction, collaborative
learning and the
Math
Study Center with expanded peer tutoring developed. With
encouragement and support from our administration, not to mention
money, we launched a plan that has remade the Math Department into
its present form.
While adhering to the same goal of promoting success in all who
come to us, we are not willing to rest on methods designed for
students of the '60s and '70s to lead our students into the
twenty-first century.
