REU program as a student-centered, project-based environment for teaching math in California State University

Abstract

Starting from 2004, within the last years California State University at Chico (CSUC) hosted the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates and Teachers (REUT) program in Mathematics. The program targets secondary teachers with a strong interest in mathematics or math education (RET) and students who have completed their junior year with coursework appropriate to the research project (REU). The program is designed to engage participants in research problems with a high potential for publication and to create a research experience that broadens participants’ perspective both of mathematics as a discipline and of research (whether mathematical or not) as an exciting exploratory process. During this period the large group of undergraduate students from different US universities and high school math teachers were involved in numerous research projects in pure and applied math, in math education and statistics. Working on the research projects the participants acquire the fundamental mathematical concepts and also studied how to apply modern IT technologies and computational systems for solving various math problems. We provide a research experience that enhances the skills necessary for careers in any of the sciences, while adding both depth and breadth to the participant’s mathematical knowledge, skill, and understanding. The depth comes primarily from participation in a research team working on a potentially publishable research problem, while breadth is added by activities that integrate all research teams, by in-service teacher/undergraduate interactions, and by synergistic activities such as weekly research talks. Mathematical activities are supplemented with social activities conducive to creating a productive and comfortable research environment.