evaluando habilidades matematicas

7/28/2019 evaluando habilidades matematicas

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26 JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATIONVol. 3, 2004 2004 Institute of Food Technologists

Math Skills AssessmentR.W. Hart eland M. Adem

ABSTRACT: A math review exam , writtenand adm inistered in conjunction with the

Quantitative Assessment Program a t theUniv. of Wisconsin-M adison, is used at

the beginning of the 1st food engineer-ing course to evaluate m ath skills needed

for successful completion of the course.Students who do not score w ell on themath exa m are targeted for individual re-

medial work to help bring their mathskills up to a level that allow s successful

completion of the food engineeringcourse.

Introduction

In the Food Science curriculum at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, a single 5-semester credit course in calculus (Math 221) is required beyond the satisfactorycompletion of college-level algebra. This single calculus course covers all aspectsof both differential and integral calculus, and fulfills the level of math required forsuccessful completion of the food engineering sequence of classes, typically taken

in the students senior year. We expect the students starting the 1st food engineer-ing class (FS 440Principles of Food Engineering), a 3-credit lecture course with 1period of discussion, to have sufficient math skills to be able to complete engineer-ing calculations at some minimum level. However, experience has shown that notall students starting FS 440 have math skills sufficient for the course. The lack ofquantitative calculations in the curriculum between Math 221 and FS 440 meansthe students often do not recall the necessary math skills.

Thus, we initiated a math review exam in FS 440 through the Quantitative As-sessment Program (QAP) on campus (seewww.math.wisc.edu/~assess/for moredetail). The intent of this math review exam was to assess the level of skills for eachstudent in class to identify which students are at risk in the food engineering classbecause of poor math skills. These students are targeted for remedial help to devel-op those math skills.

Based on an initial assessment of math skills needed in the food engineering

course, an 8-problem exam was developed in collaboration with QAP personnel.This exam (see Appendix 2) covers algebra as well as simple calculus skills (differ-entiation and integration). Although this particular exam was not written in terms offood-related problems, it would be a simple matter of converting the questions to afood emphasis. However, it is the principal skills targeted by each question that areimportant.

The 1st question is a simple example of plugging variables into an equation tocalculate the solution for specific parameters. The 2nd problem requires the stu-dents to calculate the cross-sectional area of pipes of 2 diameters. Differentiationskills are covered in Problem 3, which requires students to verify that an expres-sion is indeed a solution to the given differential equation. Problem 4 requires thatstudents solve an exponential equation for a specific value of the dependent pa-rameter. Integration skills are tested in Problem 5, where students must separatevariables for a simple differential equation and integrate to obtain an analytical so-lution. In Problem 6, the students must demonstrate their skills at interpreting data

provided in graphical form. Problem 7 requires students to interpolate within a setof data. Finally, Problem 8 is a simple mass balance problem where students mustcalculate how much of a certain cleaning solution is needed, and the final concen-tration after mixing. The skills needed for successful completion of this math examare those needed for the completion of typical engineering problems required offood science students.

The math exam is traditionally administered on the 2nd day of classes. On the

MS 20040127 Submitted 2/28/04 Revised 3/3/04 Accepted 3/9/04. The authors are facultymembers of the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison. Author Hartel is a member of the Dept. of FoodScience, 1605 Linden Dr., and author Adem is a member of the Quantitative Assessment Programof the Mathematics Dept.,Univ. of Wisconsin, 480 Lincoln Dr., Madison WI 53706. Directinquiries to author Hartel (E-mail: [email protected]).

Teaching Tips........
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~assess/http://www.math.wisc.edu/~assess/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.math.wisc.edu/~assess/


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Vol. 3, 2004JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION 27Available on-line at: www.ift.org

Math skills assessment . . .

1st day, the purpose of the exam is discussed and a hand-out withdetails of the exam and advice on how to prepare is given to thestudents (see Appendix 1). The handout goes so far as to providespecific chapters in algebra and calculus texts for students to re-view to better prepare for the exam. Whether students actuallyprepare for the exam has not been assessed in this course. Notethat the math exam does not count in any way toward a studentsgrade in FS 440, a point that may lead to some students not per-forming as well as they may have had they reviewed the material.

The exam is administered and scored by QAP personnel. Examscores are returned to the students, along with a solution key,

within 2 wk of the exam. Two scores are providedthe total score(or the number of problems completed essentially correctly) and ascoresum, which allows for partial credit for partial completionof problems (as detailed in Table 1). The total score has valuesfrom 0 to 8, whereas the scoresum has values from 0 to 32.

References

Hartel RW, Howell TA, Hyslop DB. 1997. Math concepts for food engineer-ing. Lancaster, Pa.: Technomic Publishing, Inc. 177 p.

Table 1Partial credit scoring for math proficiency exam (4 points per problem)

Scor e Re ma r k s

4 Completely correct3 Essentially correct student shows full understanding of solution and only makes a minor mistake (for example, wrong sign when

calculating a derivative or arithmetic error)2 Flawed response, but quite close to a correct solution (appears they could do this problem with a little review or help)1 Took some appropriate action, but far short of a solution0 Blank or nothing relevant to the problem

Students scoring below a certain level (typically a scoresum less than about 20) are identified as potentially needing extra help to develop the math skills needed forfood engineering. These students are encouraged, through a personal invitation, to meet with the course instructors once a week to work through the book MathConcepts for Food Engineering (Hartel and others 1997), which was written specifically with this purpose in mind. These extra-help sessions develop confidence inthe students math skills by first working through relatively simple problems so that they are then capable of solving the more complex problems needed forsuccessful completion of the food engineering course.

Appendix 1


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28 JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATIONVol. 3, 2004

JFSE:Journal of Food Science Educa tion

Available on-line at: www.ift.org

Appendix 2Test


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Appendix 2Test (continued)


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