UAPB gets $500,000 for math program

PINE BLUFF -- The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has received a three-year, $500,000 grant that school officials say will reshape the mathematics program.

Tisha Arnold, a UAPB spokesman, said the grant is through the U.S. Department of Education under the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.

Arnold said the program -- dubbed the Mathematics Undergraduate Apprentice Program -- will use "novel mathematic training approaches around both informal and formal settings for all students at UAPB."

The program boils down to teaching students by using tools they interact with on a daily basis, such as social media, university math officials said. The new approach will "be a true departure from traditional mathematics instruction for UAPB," Arnold explained.

"The project team will leverage cultural and mathematical frameworks for students, such as communal learning using experiential mathematic analysis, communal learning via social media tools such as microblogging, and problem modeling using discipline specific simulations."

Jessie Walker, chairman of the mathematics and computer science department at UAPB, called math literacy "a critical need for the Arkansas Delta."

Walker, who will oversee the new program, said: "This funding will aid the MCS department in its role of helping eager young individuals achieve their goals and aiding them in aspiring to greatness via mathematics and computer science."

State Desk on 10/02/2015

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