Spring 1998

Mathematics

Expanding math curriculum in Indiana classrooms

Besides reading, writing and arithmetic, Mathematics Professor Jack Kinney believes Indiana’s high school and middle school students need to know how to understand and compute simple statistics, solve probability problems and study discrete mathematics.

Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Sue Ellen Reed agrees, and the Indiana State Department of Education has awarded Rose-Hulman and Kinney a $175,000 grant to help Indiana mathematics teachers develop these new areas into the math curriculum of their schools.

Thirty Indiana high school and middle school teachers will attend a two-week institute June 15-26 at Rose-Hulman. Kinney will also spend the 1998-99 academic year visiting teachers and developing an Internet site that provides teachers with curriculum materials. He will also organize in-service programs for teachers.

“I would like Rose-Hulman to become a center for the continuing education of mathematics teachers in Indiana,” said Kinney, who has conducted similar institutes since 1985 to educate teachers in Indiana and across the nation in the new areas of mathematics and using technology in mathematics instruction. “All secondary schoool students need to know and appreciate the basics of probability and statistical theory. These are skills that will prove to be invaluable throughout a person’s lifetime.”