WOODLAND HILLS : Pierce College Gets Grant for Math Lab

Pierce College’s proposed computerized mathematics laboratory will become a reality thanks to a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

College officials learned last week of the grant that the college will match.

The money will pay for 20 personal computers and monitors as well as printers in a laboratory classroom.

The college had been doing some mathematics computer work in its computer laboratory but the grant creates a classroom just for math work.

“The computer lab is getting awful crowded,” said Bill Norlund, vice president for academic affairs. “We have probably a dozen other departments using computer-based information and computer-based instructions.”

Norlund said the college has been working on computer-based math instruction since receiving another grant three years ago.

The math lab should be functional by fall, he said.

Bruce Yoshiwara, an instructor and chairman-elect of the math department, said that by the spring of 1995, instructors will have set up computerized math lessons for the pre-calculus class and then will begin preparing materials for other classes.

“We want a computer-based document in which the student can write in his or her comments and do their own explorations,” Yoshiwara said. “The underlying software has to have the capability to let the student make comments and do his or her scratch work.”

The computer programs are far less limiting to the students than a textbook, Yoshiwara said.

“We are giving the student more personal control over what he or she will learn. They’re not limited to what is in the question. They can ask ‘what if’ rather than wait for an instructor to give an explanation,” he said.

“The student can ask questions about any type of function or expression and he can explore that,” Yoshiwara said.

“There’s a better chance that the retention will be better and the interest higher.”