The Aetna Quantitative Center at Trinity College was established in 1987 with a grant from the Ætna Life and Casualty Foundation, in part to administer Trinity’s Quantitative Literacy (formerly Math Proficiency) Requirement. Although in its role as a tutoring center, the Center employs mostly math majors, and provides support to students in the calculus sequence and in general education math courses, the administration, goals, and functions of the Quantitative Center and Math Department are separate.
Primary Functions of the Quantitative Center
- Administering Trinity’s Quantitative Literacy Requirement, including assessment of the quantitative literacy of each incoming student and oversight of his/her progress in meeting the requirement.
- Providing a full-semester Math 101 course taught by Quantitative Center Faculty for those students required to take it.
- Holding tutoring hours most afternoons and evenings, when students may find help from peer tutors for calculus, statistics, quantitative problems, or standardized test preparation.
- Offering other Quantitative Literacy courses, such as Math 116 Fair Division and a first-year seminar, FYSM 250 Fallacies for Fun and Profit.
The literacy of incoming students is determined by an exam given each fall as part of the new-student orientation program. Emphasis is placed on a student's ability to reason mathematically, rather than on memorized information. The skills and concepts tested are grouped into four areas:
- Statistical Relationships
All the courses offered by the Quantitative Center stress the transferring of mathematical skills and attitudes in the service of problem-solving, and they anchor quantitative ways of analyzing and solving problems in contexts using Hartford data. Contemporary Applications, a foundation course described in the
MAA Report Quantitative Reasoning for College Graduates, has a laboratory, as well as three class meetings a week, and carries a full course credit. About 40-50% of Trinity’s incoming students pass three or all four of the sections of the Quantitative Literacy exam. Those who pass none of the sections are assigned to the full-semester course, Contemporary Applications (Math 101). Passing this course with a grade of C- or better fulfills the Quantitative Literacy Requirement. Other students may be assigned to one of Trinity College's math courses corresponding to the weakness exhibited by the student in his/her exam results.
We agree with the MAA report that the creation of a quantitative "habit of mind" is the primary goal of our program. We also agree with the report that "...quantitative literacy for college students is not something gained by taking one specific course in the curriculum, by learning some specific mathematical content, or by developing a particular level of computational facility.... Rather, a student becomes quantitatively literate through a broad program aimed at developing capabilities in thought, analysis, and perspective -[and will have] formed attitudes and habits of thought which provide 'long-term patterns of interaction and engagement.'"