Clune Rachel, Das Avishek, Jasrasaria Dipti, Rossomme Elliot, Cohen Orion, Baranger Anne M
Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
J Chem Educ. 2023 Aug 24;100(9):3291-3301. doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00915. eCollection 2023 Sep 12.
A student-led mathematics bootcamp has been designed and implemented to help foster community building, improve confidence in mathematical skills, and provide mathematical resources for incoming physical chemistry doctoral students. The bootcamp is held immediately before the start of the first semester of graduate school and uses an active learning approach to review and practice undergraduate-level mathematics problems over 5 days in small student groups. This work includes the development and presentation of a new, publicly available mathematics curriculum for the bootcamp on select mathematics topics, including calculus, linear algebra, functions, differential equations, statistics, and coding in Python, aiming at improving students' confidence and learning experiences in graduate quantum mechanics and statistical physics courses. Surveys before and after the bootcamp showed an increase in students' confidence in problem-solving in key mathematical areas and social aspects of peer-led group learning. Qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrate that the bootcamp reduced prior inequities in students' confidence metrics based on gender and mathematical background.
一个由学生主导的数学集训营已被设计并实施，以帮助促进社区建设、增强对数学技能的信心，并为即将入学的物理化学博士生提供数学资源。该集训营在研究生第一学期开始前立即举办，采用主动学习方法，让学生分成小组，在5天内复习和练习本科水平的数学问题。这项工作包括为集训营开发并展示一个新的、可公开获取的数学课程，内容涵盖选定的数学主题，包括微积分、线性代数、函数、微分方程、统计学以及Python编码，旨在提高学生在研究生量子力学和统计物理课程中的信心和学习体验。集训营前后的调查显示，学生在关键数学领域解决问题的信心以及同伴主导的小组学习的社交方面都有所增强。定性和定量分析表明，该集训营减少了基于性别和数学背景的学生信心指标方面先前存在的不平等现象。
