Regency I: The 411 on AB1705

In 2017, AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) was signed into law with a goal of closing equity gaps, especially for students from Latinx and Black populations by ensuring equitable access to transfer-level English and mathematics courses for students entering California community colleges. AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022) was introduced to "clean up" the language of AB 705 and to ensure that most students are placed and enrolled in transfer-level English and mathematics courses. How might emerging legislation, regulations, and guidance impact various educational programs in areas such as STEM preparation and career and technical education? Join colleagues to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and ways to make sure the needs of the diverse student population in the California community colleges are met.

Presenter: Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, FACCC
Presenter: Virginia May, ASCCC
Presider: TBD

Regency II: Windows and Mirrors: Instructor-Led Planning to Close Opportunity Gaps Reflected in Disaggregated Instructor Level Data

Walk through one full day of professional development training focused on analyzing disaggregated-instructor level data and ways that faculty can examine their perceptions of their students and of themselves as instructors, in order to reflect on their practice and work on ways to better serve disproportionately impacted student Equity groups. While the session examples focus on supporting English faculty, all materials can be adapted to other disciplines.

Presenter: Mitra Sapienza, City College of San Francisco
Presenter: Micheline Pontious, City College of San Francisco
Presider: TBD
Presentation (type of file)

Regency III: Community Building and ‘Off-Topic’ Talk

This presentation will discuss the environment in a community college mathematics course that has had a very high success rate at bringing pre-calculus students through the calculus series. We will focus on the various community building practices of the instructor and the efficacy of class time spent talking about non-math topics such as general study habits, course registration, and expectations for follow-on classes.

Presenter: Megan Selbach-Allen, Stanford University
Presenter: Jeff O'Connell, Ohlone College
Presider: TBD

Regency IV: Undercover Mathematician: What Can We Learn About Math in Gen Chem?

What happens when a mathematics professor takes a general chemistry course for professional development? Come find out from the undercover mathematician and the chemistry professor who taught him. What can we learn from chemistry about teaching mathematics? What higher mathematics can we abstract from general chemistry?

Presenter: Michal Venn, Community College of Baltimore County
Presenter: Sunil Konath, Community College of Baltimore County
Presider: TBD

Regency V: Fun With OD-40D+

The classic, mathematical "romance", Flatland, was written by Edwin Abbott in 1884 but is still most relevant in today's world. Come see some short clips from a recent Pixar-type, animated "Flatland" film and let's have some fun discussing "what ifs"!

In this presentation, we will do what we often do not do and that is to put ourselves into "other" dimensional worlds! We will inject ourselves into 0D (Pointland), 1D (LineLand), 2D (Flatland), 3D (Sphereland), and dip our toes into 4D and Higher Dimensions. The outcome will be to experience a unique way to help our students first to consider what a dimension is and second to take up various spatial (and non-spatial) vantage points helping them better understand geometric figures and solids — as well as the views and opinions of others.

Presenter: Trey Cox, Chandler-Gilbert Community College
Presenter: Scott Adamson, Chandler-Gilbert Community College
Presider: TBD

Regency VI: Crowdmark, Hands Down - A Win for All

Have you ever been grading an exam and taken off points for a question and had to rifle back through the papers to see if a student made the same error and how much you deducted? Have you had several students make the same mathematical error and wish there was a way to respond using LaTeX rather than repeatedly handwriting a response? Have you ever had students read the feedback on an assessment, let alone tell you that "it was easy and clear to read"? In comes Crowdmark to save the day. The robust feedback, including LaTeX, images, and hyperlinks, faster turnaround times for grading, and anonymous grading, which reduces bias, make it a game-changing software. It has reduced my stress and increased my productivity. With Crowdmark, I could see the light at the end of a very stressful tunnel. The Canvas integration is another benefit.

Join this workshop to see how Prof. Smith uses this digital grading platform with three teaching modalities. Specifically, learn how Crowdmark kept Prof. Smith from a meltdown while teaching Calculus I face-to-face after a ten-year hiatus while teaching online trigonometry and a hyflex college algebra course.

Presenter: Donna Smith, Sierra College
Presider: TBD

Regency I: Student Poster Contest

Regency II: Learning-Focused Grading

Wondering how you can change your grading practices to entice students to have a more learning-focused outlook? Can changing the way you grade assignments actually make a difference? In this talk, we'll take a look at strategies used in 3 different courses in STEM, SLAM, and Math Success that you can easily begin using next term. Small changes in your practices and the manner in which you present grades to students can provide big returns when it comes to learning.

Presenter: Leslie Banta, Mendocino College
Presider: TBD
Presentation (Powerpoint)

Regency III: One Idea to Rule Them All: Teach Me Videos for Retention, Success, Equity, and Rigor

With the help of many of my amazing colleagues, I (Andre Bazos - Prof. Dre) have found an interesting way to engage students in a class both in person and online that I want to share with all of you. I assign weekly Teach Me Videos in my Calculus 1 and Statistics classes where my students work on one problem a week for me from a set of challenging problems and make me a Teach Me Video. These videos have transformed the way I teach from lecture style to a flipped model. This idea started because I was tired of online teaching, where I would show up to zoom class to see a sea of blank screens. I wasn't getting to know my students, and I was tired of the lack of interaction. Though these Teach Me Videos started out as a selfish act, I quickly became aware that they were doing more than bringing back interactions with my students, it made my class AMAZING! Come join me and explore the shocking benefits of these Teach Me Videos for our students. Through these videos, I have found that my Retention Rates increased, my Success Rates increased, my Equity Gaps seem to be shrinking, my Rigor has increased beyond what I ever thought possible, and my students and I are having a blast doing them.

Presenter: Andre Bazos, Sacramento City College
Presider: TBD
Presentation (Powerpoint)

Regency IV: Teach Students to Fish: Informational Interviews to Gain Cultural Capital to Enhance Career Awareness

All faculty share an important role in facilitating students' career awareness. This informational interview skill can be incorporated into any transfer-level course to better guide our students toward their career goals. We have a Canvas module and straight forward instructions that can be easily adapted to different courses and disciplines. (Award Number:1742635 and NSF support)

Presenter: Abigail Zoger, Santa Rosa Junior College
Presider: TBD

Regency V: Napier's Bones and Napier's Abacus

In Napier's book Rabdologiae, he created three methods (other than his logarithms) for quick calculation. Napier states in the introduction that performing calculations is a difficult and lengthy process that deters many from the study of mathematics and that he has always tried with his strength and talent to expedite calculation. We will be looking at two of those three methods in this talk: Napier's Bones and Napier's Abacus. This will be an active session in which you are provided manipulative materials for carrying out calculations (including finding square roots) with the bones and with the abacus. A brief bio of Napier will be given as well.

Presenter: Heidi Meyer, Modesto Junior College
Presider: TBD

Regency VI: Fundamentals of Data Science

This presentation will cover a UC Berkeley curriculum that is being taught at a set of community colleges. Data Science is currently the 3^rd biggest major at UC Berkeley and there has been extensive course and curriculum development. Attendees will learn elements of the Fundamentals of Data Science through the UC Berkeley Data 8 curriculum. Topics will cover Python, Jupyter Notebooks, the textbook and the computational infrastructure. This curriculum is currently being piloted at 7+ community colleges and articulates at 3 UCs.

Presenter: Eric Van Dusen, UC Berkeley
Presider: TBD
Presentation (Powerpoint)

Regency I: Advocacy: Amplifying Faculty Voice in the State Legislative Process

Over the past decade, California Community Colleges have undergone dramatic changes resulting from legislative reform and the budget process. While these policies are well intended, they are often made without sufficient understanding of the role of practitioners in our students' educational success. It is essential for faculty to be strong advocates at the state level with a fundamental understanding of policy development. The session will begin with the nuts and bolts of the state legislative process, provide assistance in following and tracking legislation, and then focus on sharing the voice of faculty to connect with local and statewide representatives effectively.

Presenter: Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, FACCC
Presenter: Evan Hawkins, FACCC
Presider: TBD

Regency II: Cultural Competency: Providing Equitable Math Instruction Through Cultural Relevance

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress suggest that if current educational practices in math classrooms remain the same, the achievement gap between Caucasians and African descent learners will be eliminated by around 217 years. To close the academic achievement gap for all students, teachers must be equipped with methods to conduct equitable instruction that is culturally relevant.

Presenter: Dr. India White, Big Ideas Learning, LCC
Presider: TBD

Regency III: Undergraduate Research During the First Two Years of College: Why and How to Make it Work

This presentation explains how undergraduate research (UR) can strengthen your students' academic and professional careers and your college's mission and vision. It also provides a formula to make it work in Mathematics: how to involve students, where to find open problems accessible to students and opportunities for dissemination or publication of results. It also shows samples of the results obtained at a particular community college where this work originated, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Presenter: Guillermo Alvarez Pardo, Cuesta College
Presider: TBD

Regency IV: Closing Equity Gaps in Calculus for Life Sciences Courses by Emphasizing Contexualization, Active Learning, and Supporting Student Motivation

A team of PIs from three California institutions of higher education, California State University Northridge, Los Angeles Mission College, and Lost Angeles Valley College, is collaborating on a project to re-design Calculus for Life Sciences Course. Traditionally, Calculus courses at our institutions are taught in the lecture format, with instructors focused on covering material available in textbooks with little time given in class for students to explore material on their own. Traditionally taught, Calculus courses at our institutions have low matriculation rates (about 61% on the average) and suffer from double digit racial and gender gaps in success rates. Supported by a grant from the California Educational Learning Lab, the team pursued several directions in the course re-design including adding strong emphasis on contextualization of the content by brining into focus applications of calculus concepts in life sciences and by connecting applications to needs of local communities when possible; introducing flipped classroom and elements of active learning through multiple life sciences inspired applied projects; and implementing interventions supporting student motivation in the course designed by a social psychologist on the team. The course re-design was complimented by 8 hour professional training in culturally responsive pedagogy that is offered all faculty and recommended to the instructors teaching the course. The community colleges designed and implemented summer programs and site visits to CSUN. With the project is in its second year and approaches are still being under construction, our early results suggest positive effects of the implemented changes.

Presenter: Alexander Alekseenko, CSU Northridge
Presenter: Scarlet Sarkissian, Los Angeles Valley College
Presenter: Humberto Raya Mendoza, Los Angeles Valley College
Presenter: Bamdad Samii, Los Angeles Valley College
Presider: Leslie Banta, Mendocino College
Presentation (PDF)

Regency V: Family of Curves, Envelope, and Applications in Wildfire Modeling

The study of families of curves is a classic topic in differential geometry. Once a family of curves (such as lines) is obtained by varying a single parameter, one can define the envelope to be the curve that is tangent to all the curves within the family. In this talk, we will explore some of the definitions of envelope and examine their connections to concepts in Calculus 3, such as tangent planes and implicit surfaces. We will then explore one particular application of envelopes in the modeling of wildfires, by defining the fire perimeter as the envelope of individual fire fronts. Simulations based on actual landscape and vegetation data will be used to illustrate the efficacy and limitations of such an approach.

Presenter: Ying Lin, Santa Rosa Junior College
Presider: TBD

Regency VI: How to Get Started With MyOpenMath

Are you looking for a free and openly licensed homework system adapted for your math courses? MyOpenMath is easy to integrate in your Learning Management System, and has already been populated with complete course templates and more. Join us for an overview of MyOpenMath designed for beginners to learn how to adopt the system and even create your own problems.

Presenter: Dr. Emilie Hein, Skyline College
Presider: TBD

Regency I: Roundtable Discussion on the Impact of AB705 & AB1705: Where do we go from here?

Hear fellow California Community College Mathematics faculty discuss AB 705's impact on their district’s students and programs. Attendees are invited to join the discussion and share their department's current approaches, supports, and outcomes, as well as any future plans in response to AB 1705.

Moderator: James Sullivan, Sierra College
Presider: TBD

Regency III: Inferential Statistics: What's the Upshot?

Introductory statistics textbooks often conclude confidence interval computations with a conclusion statement such as, we are 95% confident that the interval contains μ. Hypothesis tests are often concluded with a statement such as, we have sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis.

These conclusion statements might strike you as obviously correct, or as clearly following from the work which precedes them. These statements, however, actually hint at different interpretations or concepts of probability – namely (i) probability as a measure of strength of belief and (ii) probability as a measure of evidence or of a confirmation relation between statements. These conceptions of probability are distinct from the frequency view of probability which plays such a central role in the theory we teach.

The talk will explore some of these "other" interpretations of probability. At the end we will revisit the conclusion statements mentioned above. The new perspective gained from our study of probability will help us understand what these statements actually say and why it is far from obvious that they are appropriate assessments of statistical methods which are built around a frequency interpretation of probability.

Presenter: Kevin Brewer, Solano Community College
Presider: TBD