NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION ATE GRANT
ATE Leader Summer Externship Summary Report
ATE Leader: Jean Marc Cenet, Assistant Math Professor, Tunxis
Community College, Farmington, CT
Externship: Aetna, Inc., Hartford, CT
ATE teacher leaders participating in summer externships as part of the
National Science Foundation ATE grant created work-based projects as a
result of their experience. The following information summarizes what
they gained from the externship and what their students gained from the
subsequent curriculum projects.
What was the most useful learning component of your externship?
The most useful part of the externship experience is the opportunity to witness how actuaries in the insurance industries make use of mathematical models in assessing risks and setting prices for services rendered.
What was the most challenging component of your externship?
Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the externship has to do with remembering the various acronyms that actuaries used in their daily work.
Did the implementation of your curriculum plan meet your expectations?
Please elaborate.
Yes. Activities that involve building mathematical models to solve real life problems are often quite challenging. Nonetheless, they tend to increase students’ motivation toward learning mathematics and provide students with ample opportunity to make connections amongst various concepts of mathematics. To this end, the curriculum plan meets my expectations.
Did the externship host assist you with the implementation of
your curriculum plan? Please elaborate.
No. The curriculum plan was designed so that no outside help was necessary to implement it.
What impact did your work-based curriculum have on your students’
learning and motivation?
The work-based curriculum fosters problem analysis and problem solving in the students.
What have you done to share your externship experience wand subsequent
curriculum work with your peers?
I often talk to some of my colleagues about my experience at both Pratt & Whitney and Aetna , as well as about the two curriculum projects that I designed over the last two summers.
What are your specific plans for sustaining this kind of externship
activity in your school?
I will continue to share the wonderful experiences that I had at Pratt & Whitney (Summer of 2004) and at Aetna (Summer of 2005) with my colleagues, and encourage them to seek similar externship opportunities. It is my belief that such activities can contribute significantly to one’s professional development.
[back
to Curriculum Projects page]
|
