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RMETYC Events at the 2017 AMATYC Conference in San Diego

Research in Mathematics Education for Two-Year Colleges (RMETYC) Events at the 43rd AMATYC Conference in San Diego, CA November 9 – 12, 2...

Friday, June 15, 2018

In the Spotlight: Lee Singleton


Lee Singleton

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

Singleton, L. (2017, May 26). Engaging Math Students with 3D-Printing [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/UK5FxETSq9A