51视频

07/01/2025
By Katharine Webster

Kelly Duong and Melanie Khiem both excelled in their math classes at Lowell High School and 51视频.

But they can鈥檛 say the same for many of their friends and classmates, especially after the learning loss that occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Khiem, a math major who works as a tutor and a math class learning assistant, says many of the science and engineering students with whom she works studied calculus in high school, yet had to drop back to precalculus or fundamentals of algebra when they began college because they failed to retain some concepts.

Even Khiem, whose AP scores for Calculus I and II allowed her to place out of those classes at 51视频, realized that she did not know enough precalculus when she began more advanced courses here. She had to play catch-up.

鈥淚t hits a little close to home,鈥� she says.

This summer, Khiem and Duong are doing research on two projects to improve mathematics education with Visiting Lecturer Matthew Beyranevand 鈥�03, 鈥�10, the university鈥檚 precalculus coordinator.聽

Each is earning a $2,500 tuition scholarship through Roads to Research, part of the support offered by the River Hawk Scholars Academy, UML鈥檚 program for first-generation college students. It鈥檚 the first research experience for both of them.

Beyranevand, who earned his master鈥檚 and doctorate in math education at 51视频 and served as the K-12 mathematics coordinator for the Chelmsford Public Schools for 12 years, says that incoming UML students are often disheartened when they take the university鈥檚 math placement test and learn that they must retake precalculus or fundamentals of algebra 鈥� courses the university didn鈥檛 even offer before the pandemic.

鈥淪tudents say, 鈥榃hy do I have to do this?鈥� So one of the things we鈥檙e trying to work on this summer is how we can make precalculus more authentically engaging and help students build conceptual understanding at the same time,鈥� he says.

Beyranevand is exploring a nontraditional approach to teaching precalculus: through historical fiction-style stories about real mathematical figures and their discoveries in precalculus.

Duong, a nursing major who recently took a creative writing class in the Honors College, is working on that project. The resulting narratives will be incorporated into the online platform used for all precalculus classes, where they will be available for faculty to use in their teaching, if they wish, and for students to read.

鈥淚 selected Kelly because she is such a great writer,鈥� says Beyranevand, who also teaches the history of mathematics. 鈥淲e鈥檙e using real historical figures, but she makes their discoveries into a story, and then I add in the mathematical concepts that I want students to understand.鈥�

The first story Duong is bringing to life is the legend of the fallout between Pythagoras and his star pupil, Hippasus, over the latter鈥檚 discovery of irrational numbers.

Image by K. Webster

Beyranevand, who has published about mathematical learning, says that if the stories prove helpful in his and other faculty members鈥� classes, they could form the core of a new precalculus textbook.

鈥淎ll textbooks are nearly identical now with their approach,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut what if there was a textbook written as a collection of short stories that has mathematics built into it, where you explore the math problems as you鈥檙e reading it? This is kind of a dipstick to find out if that approach is helpful.鈥澛�

Beyranevand also hypothesizes that more students are struggling with calculus in college because of a fundamental problem with the K-12 math curriculum: a push over the last two to three decades for the majority of students to study algebra in eighth grade.聽

Some research suggests that鈥檚 fine for students who demonstrate strong math skills, but Beyranevand is skeptical that it helps the typical student.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e finding is that most students in eighth grade are not ready to think abstractly,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 exploring is whether it would be better for the majority of students to begin algebra in high school and focus on calculus in college.鈥�

Khiem is reviewing and summarizing existing research on whether students who take algebra in eighth grade, followed by geometry, algebra II, precalculus and calculus in high school, have stronger math skills when they get to college.聽

From the research she鈥檚 done so far, it appears that they don鈥檛.

鈥淭here is really no effect from accelerating students鈥� math courses, which means whether they take algebra in eighth grade or ninth grade, they end up in the same spot,鈥� she says.聽

Khiem enjoys working with Beyranevand because he values her experience as a tutor and learning assistant.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really nice to work with him as a partner more than a boss, because I can have some input into whatever we鈥檙e doing,鈥� she says. 鈥淎t the end of this, hopefully we can dig a little bit more and actually create our own research project.鈥�