Widening the Scope of Peer Mentoring in the Mathematics Curriculum at UWEC Alex Smith, Don Reynolds, Elizabeth Burgener

Dream Find effective ways to use the talents of upper division mathematics majors to improve the quality of education in lower division courses …. Peer Mentoring

What do we already do?  Math Lab does a really good job  We have funds to pay for "paper graders" and many of us make very good use of these students' time  First Year Experience Sections have mentors... …….. Who do not get paid!

QUESTION: If mentoring is so important, why do we not pay our mentors? QUESTION: Why do we not use our “paper graders” as mentors? ANSWER: Who would grade the papers?

OUR EXPERIMENT Use a Web-Based Homework Management System to do the grading –Possible products include MapleTA and WebWork Use our “Paper Grader” as a peer mentor both inside and outside of the classroom. –She was responsible for appeals in MapleTA homework grading, helped students with homework, and assisted in Maple lab activities.

Links What Student's knew about the project Our Grant (Planning to Widen the Scope of Peer Mentoring in the UWEC Mathematics Curriculum)Our Grant Class Homepage MapleTA Class Homepage

Typical Textbook Bank of Exercises

Results of our Survey