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Teaching Mathematics and its Applications Advance Access originally published online on August 19, 2009
Teaching Mathematics and its Applications 2009 28(3):131-144; doi:10.1093/teamat/hrp016
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

An integrative learning experience within a mathematics curriculum

Barbra Melendez

Mathematics Department, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Silas Bowman

Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA

Keith Erickson

School of Science and Technology, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA, USA

Edward Swim{dagger}

Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA

{dagger}Email: edward.swim{at}usma.edu

Submitted March 2009; accepted July 2009

We developed four separate scenarios focusing on the connections between mathematics, biology, and social sciences. This structure facilitated the coordination of faculty from seven academic departments on campus. Each scenario had students from different majors build mathematical models, gather information from their respective disciplines, and develop a final presentation that included a committee consensus on how to approach the problem in a practical way. As a result, students learned how mathematics plays a role in other disciplines and how insight from different points of view affects the approach taken to a complex problem.

Barbra Melendez is currently an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She is recently retired from military service and enjoying the adventure of learning to teach in a new environment.

Silas Bowman is an Engineering Officer in the U.S. Army. He was an Instructor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy from 2007 to 2009. Silas enjoys applying mathematics to everything from modifying his 1965 Mustang to modelling the conversion of corn to fuel.

Keith Erickson is a member of the mathematics faculty at Georgia Gwinnett College. His background is in chemical engineering and bioengineering, and he enjoys applying mathematics in a wide variety of subjects.

Edward Swim is an Assistant Professor and Davies Fellow at the United States Military Academy. He enjoys finding new applications of mathematics that can be included in the undergraduate classroom as answers to the question, ‘When are we ever going to use this stuff?’


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