The Role of a Shadow Course in Improving the Mathematics Skills of Geoscience Majors

Abstract

We offer a course that our majors enroll in concurrently with their calculus course that “shadows” the topics covered by the calculus professor. In the shadow course, the students work collaboratively to build mathematical skills and apply calculus concepts to solve geoscience problems provided by the instructor (two examples are given). Students earn a grade of “pass” by demonstrating their involvement in learning. It is not feasible to assess statistically the effect of the shadow course on students' grades in the calculus courses; however, the shadow course has led to other positive outcomes. Our majors have developed more positive attitudes toward mathematics, including calculus, and get the message that geoscience faculty value and actively support their learning of calculus. We have gained insight into our students' strengths and weaknesses in mathematics that may help us to incorporate mathematics more effectively into geoscience courses. The shadow course is helping to foster active collaboration among geoscience and mathematics faculty that strengthens the teaching of scientific problem-solving using quantitative methods in both the calculus and the shadow courses.