1. Research Problem Students with poor quantitative reasoning skills are less successful in STEM fields

2. Research Question Can I identify levels of quantitative reasoning and develop directed quantitative writing activities to provide enduring improvement? Three aspects to Quantitative Writing statements Comparative (Compare two things) Explicit (which two things are you comparing) Quantitative (calculated difference and direction)

3. Research Methods My primary research methods include: 1.Collect pre assessment QW score 2.Design intervention (writing activities) 3.Collect post assessment QW score How will I collect these data? Qualitative analysis of quantitative statements. Strategy was developed to code student statements as quantitative, explicit, and comparative to get a numerical score. My strategy to analyze these data will be: 1.Determine QW slope between pre and post assessment 2.Correlate QW slope with calculations, conceptual knowledge, and final grade. 3.Compare students with directed writing activities to students without directed writing activities to determine enduring nature of QW in upper division.

4. Alignment of Research Question and Methods Question: Can I identify levels of quantitative reasoning and develop directed writing activities to provide enduring improvement in quantitative writing? Determine baseline of QW with directed content analysis Use data to determine scaffolding strategy for QW Provide scaffolding through directed writing activities Provide practice through writing assignments Determine progress using a post assessment. Develop a progress trajectory (slope) of QW Correlate slope to other measures of success in course