The Math Department of Sinclair Community College is doing everything possible to help students succeed and move on in classes, according to Tom Whitehead, math professor at Sinclair.
“Students should know about the programs that Sinclair offers and everything that is available to them so they can do well in classes,” Whitehead said.
For those who may feel they need to learn math at a slower pace, students can take the 190 math series. This series of three classes (191,192,193) covers the same material that math 101 and 102 covers, but the 190 series allows the students to work at more of a conservative speed rather than the faster paced classes of 101 and 102.
“Some students may feel more comfortable with taking more time to go over the material,” Whitehead said. “It’s all about finding out what class works for you. We work with counselors in other departments so we can make sure that you are recommended to take the right courses.”
For students who feel like they need personal help outside of class they can sign up for a tutor and visit tutoring center in the lower level of the library.
The math lab is also available for students who want help. It provides tutors who help students learn the material and it has computers set up so they can watch tutorial videos and work on practice assignments and tests.
There are also different mathematics computer software the department is implementing in classes to help students learn the material.
Lynn Schutte, math professor at Sinclair, said the different software helps students “retain the information through repetition.”
“We are using three computer programs right now, they are My Math Lab, My Labs Plus, and Hawks,” Schutte said. “The Math Department is trying to figure out which programs work best for the student.”
According to Schutte the programs My Labs Plus is an updated version of My Math Lab. Each program is used online and gives a student an assignment to do for the chapter that was recently studied, and the student can work on the assignment for, as many times they need until they get a 100 percent.
“The assignments have a due date on them and it has to be finished by midnight of that day,” Schutte said. “The program also gives weekly timed tests for students to complete, but you can only take it twice.”
The Hawks program, which is primarily used in math 101 and 102 is not an online based program. Students buy the CD and they download the program to their computer.
“Hawks gives students who may not have Internet access a chance to work with computer based math software,” Schutte said. “With Hawks, the student can use the program for life rather than with My Math Lab or My Labs Plus which they can only use for the duration of the class.”
The Hawks program has three levels, which are used to help teach the student. The levels instruction, practice and certify. During the instruction, students have a chance to review the material. Practice gives you problems to work on, and certify is the actual assignment
“If you have 15 problems in the certify program, you are only allowed to miss three of them before you are taken back to practice and work specifically on the problems you got wrong,” Schutte said. “But since you are only allowed to miss three problems, if you get 12 of those 15 problems correct you will receive an 100 percent on the assignment.”
Both Whitehead and Schutte agree that those students who are putting off math classes should try and get them finished now so they won’t be caught in a particular series during the switch to semesters.
“Although there will be a few bridge classes for students who may not be able to finish their math classes before the change to semesters it is best to finish the classes as soon as possible,” Whitehead said. “You may find out that you prefer a certain type of math and you can go into that without having to worry about how the change will affect you. It’s about setting goals and reaching them.”