In this paper, several research topics are presented that provide productive avenues of exploration for students in an undergraduate cryptography course. The topics are intended for a variety of skill levels and interests. In some cases, a student might be inspired to try to solve the proposed problem or write computer code. Other topics might…

The number of undergraduates placing into developmental or "remedial" coursework continues to increase. This rise is concerning because developmental or "remedial" coursework creates barriers for many students. This mixed method study examines a holistic approach to placement. After one-on-one interviews with mathematics…

We investigated the effects of a major revision of the differential and integral calculus curriculum, the primary goal of which was to improve STEM retention. The revamped curriculum has greater emphasis on the power of computing to help visualize patterns and gain insights to better prepare students for STEM majors, and less emphasis on…

This article describes the outcomes of a faculty partnership between a math professor and a composition professor to improve the final paper in a research-focused senior capstone math course. Much attention has been paid in recent years to the importance of undergraduate research experiences and how to best create and support such endeavors.…

In introductory math courses such as precalculus, students often have difficulty with assignments that require explanations or synthesizing knowledge. When students receive low scores on such assignments, instructors often wish to help students understand the material they struggled with. A common strategy is to allow the students to revise and…

There is a need for public health undergraduates to acquire skills in data collection, statistical programming, and infectious diseases modeling. Public health officials and accreditation bodies underline the importance of a cumulative, "real-world" experience as part of a student's education. The Watermelon Meow Meow (WMM) outbreak is a…

Higher education's interest in remedial college coursework and its bumpy impact on student success drove this collaboration between the mathematics department and institutional research at a small, private 4-year university. For first-time freshmen needing math remediation, national research shows that these students struggle with earning required…

We studied ALEKS PPL placement scores, SAT scores, and entry-course grades for a population of 1659 students who placed into College Algebra or below over a span of 5 years. In addition to representing an understudied range of placement level, the study was conducted at an HBCU with majority Black/African American students, a demographic that is…

Retaining mathematics majors is a pressing concern in many departments. We examined the pass rates of students across our mathematics major and then analyzed student persistence between math courses along with the underlying data collection required to make these analyses. We found that mathematics majors leaving the major after successfully…

This paper presents a series of basic computational problems that are mathematically and/or graphically appealing, and provides an idea of places one might go in trying to understand what is happening, integrating mathematics, computation, and graphics. The real point of this paper is to make a case, through those examples, for computation as an…

We discuss student conceptions of improper integrals and infinity in the context of a second-semester calculus course (in a three-course sequence). Our observations stem from a sequence of activities used in an online course over a three-day period. Throughout the enactment of these activities, students are challenged to develop conceptions of…

Using clickers in the statistics classroom can help students identify and understand common errors and misconceptions through a combination of surprise and discussion. Students are presented with multiple-choice questions that they discuss with each other and then vote on; a class-wide discussion follows. Questions for which many students vote for…

In this paper, we assess the pedagogical approaches we employ in our US-based undergraduate mathematics courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to share anecdotal evidence on the use of math journals, oral exams, and learning portfolios in the synchronous online mathematics classroom. We reflect on our experience using artifacts of…

Universities have drawn on an assortment of strategies to address the learning challenges and high attrition rates of developmental mathematics students. One of those strategies has been utilizing computer adaptive instruction (CAI) mathematics software. Reports about the efficacy of CAI vary from glowing to unfavorable. This article presents an…

Texas A&M University-Commerce has implemented supplemental instruction (SI) for Calculus since the fall of 2013. A direct display of the ABC rates from fall 2005 to spring 2021 only presents fluctuation from semester to semester, and one can hardly deduce that the ABC rates are increasing. In this paper, the "moving average"…