Collaborative Research: Tutoring to Apply Conceptual Understanding of Ordinary Differential Equations: Analysis for Cognitive and Computable Patterns.

Information

• NSF Award
• 0634049

Owner

• Valparaiso University

• Award Id

  0634049

• Award Effective Date

  1/15/2007 - 18 years ago

• Award Expiration Date

  12/31/2011 - 13 years ago

• Award Amount

  $ 219,390.00

• Award Instrument

  Continuing grant

Differential equations are mathematical descriptions useful for modeling dynamic phenomena. Problems such as describing fluid flow, the spread of a disease, and stock option prices are often solved by appealing to differential equations. When students of science and engineering learn the techniques of differential equations it can be difficult for them to move from technical, symbolic mathematical manipulations to a more qualitative, conceptual understanding. This project investigates how to tutor students in such conceptual understanding. It will study the techniques and pedagogical knowledge employed by expert tutors and try to teach these techniques to less experienced peer tutors. It will develop new tests to measure how well students comprehend differential equations on a conceptual level and study the efficacy of various tutorial methods. And it will investigate how to build software for computer-assisted tutoring of differential equations, where a computer follows the conversation and suggests some of the expert methods to the inexperienced tutor.

• Program Officer

  James S. Dietz

• Min Amd Letter Date

  9/22/2006 - 18 years ago

• Max Amd Letter Date

  3/13/2008 - 16 years ago

• ARRA Amount

• Name

  Valparaiso University

• City

  Valparaiso

• State

  IN

• Country

  United States

• Address

  1700 Chapel Drive

• Postal Code

  463836493

• Phone Number

  2194645215

• First Name

  Michael

• Last Name

  Glass

• Email Address

  michael.glass@valpo.edu

• Start Date

  9/22/2006 12:00:00 AM

• First Name

  Karen

• Last Name

  Keene

• Email Address

  karen_keene@ncsu.edu

• Start Date

  9/22/2006 12:00:00 AM

• Name

  Human Subjects

• Code

  116000