College of Education News

Click here to see News Channel 15 coverage of the event.

Who knew that teaching math and science could mean playing dice games or making a deal with the devil? For two College of Education professors, that’s precisely how they engaged 230 high school and middle school students at a minority recruitment fair on Tuesday, April 14, at the University of Illinois. Professors Art Baroody and George Reese presented the fun side of math and science at the fair, which brings underrepresented students from across the state to the Urbana-Champaign campus. This marks the event’s third year, and it continues to expand, as this time the agenda included science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as diversity.

“A significant shortage exists among teachers who are credentialed to teach mathematics and the sciences at the secondary level,” said Violet Harris, Associate Dean at the College of Education.“The shortage is most acute in schools serving urban students, principally African American and Latinos/as and rural students.”

With the allure of better resources and working conditions, suburban schools generally secure the best teachers, said Mildred Trent, Assistant Dean at the College of Education. “Consequently, urban and rural schools find it more difficult to attract and recruit the best teachers,” Trent said.

To combat this imbalance, Trent and Harris teamed up with other colleges on campus, as well as Chicago-based non-profit, “HighSight”, to recruit academically promising students interested in science and mathematics. “HighSight” (www.highsight.org) alone brought 50 participants from the Chicago-area, as its mission is to provide academic and social support to Chicago high school students.

Attendees arrived on campus at 8:30 a.m. for a day including campus orientation, as well as interactive presentations from faculty members representing 10 university units and colleges.

Upholding the day’s theme, “We have participation from faculty members representing various disciplines, genders, races, ethnicities, and ages,” Harris said.

During his presentation, College of Education Professor Art Baroody dealt out score boards and rolled dice as students learned the fun of mental addition and learning patterns.

“I think the best way to make a point is to model it,” Baroody said. “We’ll be playing a couple of math games and discussing what they involve.”

Fellow College of Education Professor George Reese harnessed the gaming technology of Nintendo’s Wii into his discussion. With special software and a Wii remote, Reese said he can project onto any surface – a wall or foam board, even -- and turn it into a touch screen “SMART Board.”

In addition to the SMART Board display, Reese armed students with calculators and offer them an activity in graphing and prediction camouflaged as a risky proposition: “You make a deal with the devil—he gives you a $1000 at the beginning of the day, and you have to give him a $100 back at the end of the day. He doubles what you have left, then you have to pay him double what you did the day before.” Reese said. “Would you do this for a month?”

Ultimately the recruitment fair’s goal was multi-layered.

“The desired outcome is to increase the number of underrepresented students attending the university of Illinois in all majors,” Trent said, emphasizing the need for more math and science teachers, as well as those STEM fields. More specifically, Harris added, “The College of Education seeks to enroll more African American and Latino/a students in its secondary teacher education programs.”

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