Math Across the Curriculum at UNR

Summary

Introduction

Math Across the Curriculum, conceived at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1993, aims to improve students' quantitative skills and appreciation of mathematics by integrating quantitative components into a variety of courses in the university's core curriculum.

Math Across the Curriculum was modeled on UNR's Writing Across the Curriculum program, whose goal was to make the learning of good writing a “shared responsibility” across disciplines. In the same way, Math Across the Curriculum seeks to improve students' quantitative skills and their attitudes toward mathematics by making quantitative learning a shared responsibility.

As the name indicates, the original concept was math across the curriculum, and we were aiming at a level above what one would today call Quantitative Literacy. As time went on, we learned that this was a mistake because it was much too ambitious. It would have been better to have called it QL Across the Curriculum. (It actually evolved into that as we went along.)

Therefore, in this essay, “math” may mean anything from quantitative literacy through basic college algebra, statistics, or perhaps calculus, depending on the context. Accomplishing the goal of the project required enhancing the quantitative content of courses where it existed and introducing it where it did not, thereby increasing students' exposure to applications of math in a variety of courses. Obviously this requires the close cooperation of faculty in other disciplines, and accomplishing this was the most challenging part of the project.