Mathematics
Education Researcher
Whatcom Community College Mathematics Faculty Member
RMETYC is
excited to present this spotlight on Lee Singleton and his Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning inquiry into the impacts of integrating student
activities with 3D manipulative objects in precalculus courses.
Please read the
spotlight of Singleton in the MathAMATYC Educator Vol. 9(3), June, 2018 issue.
Student success
is an important space for reflection and inquiry for mathematics educators.
Disappointing success rates within courses marking important transitions in
postsecondary mathematics, including the transition from developmental math to
college level math, and the transition from algebra to calculus, can be
poignant for math faculty at two-year colleges.
Low success rates are in opposition to the heart of the work we do as
teachers, and the goals and missions of our colleges. The balance between
ensuring our courses prepare students to succeed in future math courses,
academic programs, and careers while providing access to these opportunities
makes disappointing student success rates particularly acute when we know the
individual students who are impacted.
Lee Singleton looked at disappointing success rates within his
Precalculus 2 course as a problem of teaching and learning. The problem was frustrating
to Singleton because students who took the course were often enrolled in
programs that require strong understandings of the trigonometry concepts that are
central to the content of the course. Many of these academic programs are STEM
intensive and precalculus course itself was rarely the last math course that
students would take. The problem led Singleton to ask questions about the relationships
among the teaching and learning practices he brought to the class and how the
practices impact student success. These questions motivated his current
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning study.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is faculty driven
scholarly inquiry into the relationships within teaching and learning. SoTL
inquiry is anchored in disciplinary knowledge, and grows out of reflection of
problems of teaching and learning. It is systematic, evidence based, and made
public to advance what is known about teaching and learning and for others to
build on.
Singleton described his instructional practices prior to his SoTL study as
interactive lecture (Burn
& Mesa, 2017) with the use of web-resources including graphing
technology at times. Additionally, Singleton was capitalizing on Whatcom CC’s
3D printer by creating 3D models of contexts and structures and incorporating
them into his lecture to use as demonstrations illustrating trigonometric
concepts and properties. These practices led Singleton to wonder if there were
different ways to engage students in the material, beyond lecture,
demonstration, and problem practice.
Singleton came across an idea while reading the book Brain
Rules (Medina, 2008) that
sparked new ideas for his teaching as well as questions about student learning.
The importance of different learning styles and access to learning through
different experiences, including tactile and sensory experiences nudged him to question
if incorporating activities in which students actually use and manipulate 3D
printed objects to explore trigonometric properties would bring about
measureable differences in student learning. What would happen if he created
space for students to actually explore some concepts using three dimensional
models? Would student success increase?
Singleton applied for and was awarded an NSF EAGER Grant
(DRL #1623405) to support a SoTL study investigating the experiences and
outcomes of student learning experiences with 3D learning models in precalculus.
The grant supports Singleton in the creation of 3D models, the designing of
learning experiences in which students explore concepts using the models, the
research into the impacts of the new teaching and learning approach on student
success, and the propagation of the outcomes and efforts of his study.
Singleton is currently in the second year of his SoTL project. He has
seen increase in student success in his precalculus courses in which the 3D
models are used in structured active learning sessions in comparison to control
classes in which his traditional methods of teaching are implemented.
It is exciting to see the outcomes of such closely personal research
conducted by Singleton. The impacts on himself and his class were immediate,
and his work has opened up new opportunities for him to engage with faculty
across the STEM disciplines at Whatcom CC exploring ways that 3D printing and
student exploration with 3D models can be successfully incorporated across the
disciplines. Singleton has presented the outcomes of his research through
professional conferences at the state and local level. He has shared his
exploratory methods and his research outcomes within his institution, AMATYC,
and with wider audiences through YouTube
videos. The cycle of teaching driving inquiry and inquiry driving teaching
resonate through Singleton’s work.
Lee Singleton is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Whatcom CC. In addition to teaching across the
mathematics curriculum at Whatcom CC, Singleton has served as the mathematics
department chair, and was the Achieving
the Dream mathematics intervention leader for his college. Singleton received
his PhD in Biomedical Mathematics from Florida
State University and was a member of AMATYC Project ACCCESS, Cohort 5.
Listen to a conversation with Lee Singleton on his research here. This will link to an audio file hosted on Google Drive.
Works Cited:
Burn, H.E.,
& Mesa, V. (2017). Not your grandma’s lecture: Interactive lecture in
calculus I in the CSPCC two-year cases. MathAMATYC
Educator, 8(3), 22-26, 54.
Medina, J.
(2008). Brain rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work,
home, and school. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
To learn more about Singleton and his research, please visit:
Singleton, L. (2018, May). Grasp the Math. Retrieved from http://graspthemath.wordpress.com
Singleton, L.
(2017, November). Grasp the Math: Using 3D-Printing and Active Learning in
Trigonometry, 2017 San Diego Conference
Proceedings, 43rd AMATYC Annual Conference. Retrieved from http://www.amatyc.org/page/2017ConfProc
