"Needed Math" Project: Discover Math Skills that Technicians Really Need

The “Needed Math” project at Hofstra University aims to discover what math skills working technicians’ really need as they start their career. The project is focused on Advanced Manufacturing including Bio-manufacturing. A three-year full-scale research and development project through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, the Needed Math Project brings together researchers, employers, and technical and mathematics educators with exceptional credentials, including Dr. Marilyn Barger from FLATE as a site visit and interview coordinator. After identifying the math skills that technicians in selected manufacturing sectors are expected to be able to apply, the team will work to develop and evaluate a method for industry to communicate with community college faculty about the mathematics needed.

The team has gathered data from a number of sources including technician mathematics books, touring a number of manufacturing facilities and interviewing working technicians and supervisors. The preliminary data gathering provided input for two national surveys that the project hopes to distribute to working technicians and technician educators.

Ways you can participate in the "Needed Math" project:

• Subscribe to their newsletter - contact Lois Micell@hofstra.edu (newsletter also posted on their website, www.neededmath.org under the “dissemination” link).
• Volunteer to pilot one of the 2 surveys (educator or technician) - contact Dr. Michael Hacker  at Michael.hacker@hoftstra.edu.
  Join or start a collaborative working group - Contact Michael.hacker@hoftstra.edu.
  Check out their website: www.neededmath.org
  

The pilot survey is open now and will remain open until November 22, 2022. Feel free to share these links with colleagues you may think are also interested in assisting. This is where your help is needed.

The project will shortly conduct a large-scale survey of 5000 members of three groups: manufacturing technicians, manufacturing technical educators, and applied/technical math instructors in order to compare the three groups' perceptions of the importance of math competencies to the success of manufacturing technicians (not engineers or scientists) on the job.  Before the survey is launched, this pilot test will ensure the validity of the survey itself. 

Please assist by taking the pilot survey. It should take between 20-30 minutes.

If you are a mathematics instructor, click here:
https://tinyurl.com/matheducators

If you are an industrialist or a technician working in manufacturing, click here:
https://tinyurl.com/manutechnicians

If you are a technical subject instructor, click here:
https://tinyurl.com/technicaleducators