Curriculum helps BBCC students conquer math

MOSES LAKE - A new math instruction program, developed in-house, is helping students get up to speed for college-level math at Big Bend Community College.

The Emporium course was developed as the answer to a problem, that 95 percent of the students taking the college's entrance exam don't qualify for college-level math, said Doug Sly, the college's public relations officer.

Tyler Wallace, who helped develop Emporium, said the 95 percent statistic actually includes everyone who takes the test, whether or not they plan to attend college. But that doesn't change things much, he said; a substantial majority of the students who enter BBCC don't qualify for college math.

College officials promoting the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum had two ways to react to that, Wallace said. They could complain that students weren't ready or they could find a way to address the problem, he said. "If we want to get different results, we need to do something different," he said.

From that the Emporium curriculum was born, Wallace said. It's one of a number of similar curriculums that colleges across the county have developed to address the math problem, he said.

Traditional courses focus on a lecture in the classroom and math problems to take home, Sly said, but "Emporium math flips the traditional teaching model. The students' homework is watching online lectures. They do the work in a computer lab under the guidance of a team of tutors, or online at home."

The percentage of students completing the pre-college class has jumped from 48 to 80 percent, Sly said. In spring quarter 2013, enrollment in college-level math classes increased 42 percent over spring quarter 2012, Sly said.

Most people can do math, even if they don't think they can, Wallace said. It's the study habits that are the problem, he said. "Students learn by doing math, not by listening to someone talk about doing math. Often it's not that students struggle with math. They struggle with the study skills and motivation to be successful in a math class."

Attendance at the math lab is mandatory, Sly said. Homework also is mandatory.

The lab was almost full on Thursday morning, and three tutors and the instructor circled the room, looking for people who had questions.

Isaac Garcia, of Moses Lake, was a pretty good math student at Ephrata High School, he said. "Got all the way to pre-calculus."

After graduation in 2004 he entered the workforce, he said, but decided to go back to school to pursue an electrical engineering degree. "I tell my little girls, hey - you need a little school.'"

He said the Emporium curriculum has helped him a lot."I'm definitely happy with it." Working in class with the help from a tutor has made it easier when he has questions. "You learn at your own pace," he said. And if he gets stuck, "you always have that video there to help you."

"It definitely helps," said Cliff Kultgen, of Moses Lake, who's also working toward an electrical engineering degree. Students must master one section before moving on to the next. When they get stuck, "there are always tutors walking around that are - much smarter than me," Kultgen said.

As students work through the problems "the correct answer is supposed to lay out," Kultgen said. "If you don't understand something, you have a teacher or tutor to explain it to you."

Tom Noble, of Odessa, is one of those tutors, and a student too, working on a second career. (He started his last career as an electrical engineer and ended as a test engineer, he said.) Because students are at all different levels of understanding, the tutors have to be ready to answer any kind of question, from the basics to algebra. "It's a challenge," he said.

"It (the course) really forces them to master those study skills," Wallace said. Once students have mastered the tactics, "now a whole bunch of new opportunities are available," he said.