THINK TANK Math Support
The 2019/2020 academic year brought THINK TANK the opportunity to once again expand successful programing into areas where students need the most support. Currently, Arizona students have extensive math support ranging from pre-college algebra up to second semester of calculus. In the Fall 2019 semester alone, THINK TANK drop-in tutoring received almost 9,000 visits from over 2,000 students. Moreover, online and private tutoring experienced an increase of usage compared to last year’s usage. As is, students benefit from math support via drop-in tutoring, private and small group tutoring, and online tutoring. THINK TANK was able to expand the Supplemental Instruction (SI), a study group program that provides additional support to the students enrolled in College Algebra (Math 112).
Historically, there are about 2,100 students enrolled in Math 112 in the Fall semester and 1,200 enrolled students in the spring semester. With consistent enrollment, resources are often strained, and students can end up compromising their learning due to overwhelmed services during peak times. However, by adding options, students can take charge of their learning and utilize the support services that work best for them.
Drop-in tutoring provides an environment for students to work with their College Algebra content at their own pace. Students can come into any of our tutoring locations (Bear Down Gym, Rec Center, Global Center, and online) to work on homework problems, additional math problems, or simply review their math notes. Tutors are readily available to provide individually tailored one on one support. Between all tutoring locations, THINK TANK can offer a minimum of 147 free drop-in tutoring hours.
Supplemental Instruction offers weekly facilitated study group sessions geared towards the Math 112 lectures. These study groups provide an environment where students can collaborate and unite with their common experiences from their College Algebra class. Moreover, the study group leaders help students work together to figure out not only what to study to succeed in math but also how to study for it. As most math educators know, the combination of math concepts and additional and varied math problems allow students to solidify their understand of math content. Therefore, SI sessions emphasize the transferable skills of developing new math problems based on their homework, class notes, and additional problems provided by the Math department. In all, the SI program provides all Math students about 63 50-minute-long study group sessions a week.
After the first semester of providing drop-in tutoring and SI we have already noticed an interesting track of student traffic. Out of the entire College Algebra enrollment, about 10% of students utilized both tutoring and SI services. However, it was clear that on the individual level students often preferred one service over the other. For instance, a student may have gone to drop-in tutoring 8 times through the semester and 2 times for SI. Meanwhile, another student may have gone to the SI study groups every week and drop-in tutoring only during exam weeks. As we continue to provide Math support, we will learn more about student behaviors and adapt to what students need to succeed in their Math courses. For more information about THINK TANK’s math support services please visits, https://thinktank.arizona.edu/math-support.