Innovative Math For Liberal Arts Majors

Abstract

An innovative Math for Liberal Arts course was designed to provide liberal arts students with the life skills necessary to survive in the 21st century. The course emphasizes application driven mathematics. This course has been successful in changing students perceptions of the usefulness of the course and improving student success rate as well as actively engaging them in the study of mathematics. Topics such as critical thinking, unit analysis, statistical reasoning, and managing money are included. Students spend time analyzing a budget as well as learning about the stock market and the mathematics associated with each. Students who took this course were far more likely than those who took the more traditional survey type of course to rate the course as being important. The course changes are delineated and the students responses to those changes are described.