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Quantitative literacy (QL) is the habit of mind in which one engages numbers in everyday context. It is an attitude, a disposition. It is the opposite of the condition manifested by math anxiety, math phobia, and math avoidance.
QL involves elementary mathematics. It is mathematics for all students. It is mathematics all citizens can use.
Using mathematics is proactive, not passive. Using mathematics means solving problems - not just exercises at the end of a chapter on a set of mathematical relationships, but problems that come outside the mathematics building and beyond reach of the mathematics book. Exercises become problems when "How to Solve It" is a part of the problem. Engaging numbers in context involves solving problems.
For students taking geology and astronomy courses, geology and astronomy are part of their everyday context. These sciences, like all sciences, involve numbers and quantitative relationships. Indeed, one cannot understand these subjects in more than a cursory, "take-the-professor's-word-for-it" way without engaging the numbers and quantitative relationships that inform these sciences.
To promote solving problems in the context of elementary geology (including planetary geology), I am developing PowerPoint-Excel modules for geological-mathematical problem solving. These modules aim to help bring mathematics into earth and planetary science courses. They aim also to bring earth and planetary science context into mathematics courses, including history of mathematics courses. They are posted on the Washington Center Website as a contribution to the National Numeracy Network.
Development of these modules has been supported by National Science Foundation Grant DUE 0126500. The work continues. Please email me if you have suggestions, questions or feedback
Fellow earth science and mathematics instructors -- you are welcome to use the modules in your courses. If you do, please complete the feedback form.
For more information on using or adapting these modules, click here.
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