Sharing Math Ideas

Research & Teaching in Developmental Education, Spring 2007 by Testone, Sharon

Approximately nine years ago, I wrote my first introduction to a math column. That column was actually written by two former developmental math students who had completed my Statistics II course and written their first research article. When I contacted Pat Malinowski regarding publishing their article, she had a plan. I would become the Math Columnist for this journal for three years and their article would appear in my first column. Well, the years have passed quite quickly. I have written many columns and I have had several guest columnists during the past several years. I certainly enjoyed writing for the journal because I was allowed to cover many topics that were of interest to me and I hope to other developmental math educators.

In my final column, two of my colleagues have provided some tips for teaching the topics of addition/subtraction of integers, solving linear inequalities, multiplication of polynomials and factoring. The students at Onondaga Community College really enjoy these techniques because the language is a little "silly" which makes the math more fun and easier to remember.

By Shown Testone, Onondaga Community College

Sharon Testone is a Professor of Mathematics and Coordinator of Mathematics at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York.