Bethel University - Spire Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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You say to yourself, can any good come out of the math department? After all, what value is it to a person to be able to solve a third degree linear differential equation, or for that matter even a double integral? And why in the world do we have to take a math test (in the SAT) when we are trying to get into college? The overwhelming evidence is that math is considered by many people to be an integral part of our education. But what can it offer that other disciplines, such as English, social scinccs, speech, etc. can't? Look at it this way: the departments of verbal communication (English, speech, drama) enable us to speak about qualitative ideas. We learn how to construct sentences and organize our thoughts about history, sociology, psychology, etc., but if we don't have a language in which to speak about quantitative ideas, we are lost when we get to problems like balancing our checkbooks, computing the nations GNP, statistically analyzing test results, or deciding how much thrust to put on a missle to get it where we want it to go. So then is mathematics just a servant to the other disciplines? No, math has its own unique and important area of study. The mathematician can be viewed as an artist who assembles various elements from his environment into new ideas, theroems, and postulates. As we go higher in the level of mathematical understanding, we progress to higher and higher levels of abstraction. When we first learned to add it was two apples plus three apples equals five apples, but as we became more sophisticated in our understanding we forgot the apples and just said two plus three equals five. We were thus using math as a language to describe our quantitative ideas, not merely to explain our physical environment. What kind of person, then, is a math major? It is quite clear that an important qualification is to be able to think abstractly. Mathematics as a very pure science requires its students many times to forget about the real world and just think in terms of numbers and relations governing these numbers. The math department at Bethel is geared mainly toward education in the Jr. High and High School spheres. However, with a Bethel math degree one can also go on to graduate school or seminary, or with a little extra training secure a position in such areas as industrial mathematics, actuarial science, or computer programming. Maricllen Jacobson . . ’ r i think rr HEY U rtAT 3 A NAME F Mi Logarithm? oud lumber camp folk tune. fOH ! I Ttoo««r M tvae it lms a 6RC 0TH CYCLE IN TREFS-.. Mathematics

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I had first heard of Interim as something that some other colleges were doing. The idea of spending full time in one course had a certain attraction. Furthermore, I had wanted to include a computer programming course in Bethel's curriculum, but there seemed to be no way of working it into our semester schedules. When the discusson of Interim finally led to the proposal of the Dean that we try out the idea, the opportunity to teach computer programming seemed realizable. Many excellent course ideas were presented to that first Interim committee. One of the most stimulating ideas resulted in the first Symposium course. The idea of a large class of students and professors working together as fellow learners in small groups was very exciting. Having helped plan Symposium, I also wanted to participate in it. Various other factors finally resulted in selecting Computer Programming as the course I'd teach. The problem of choices which 1 had faced was common to many faculty members who caught the excitement of this new concept. As the days went by during the first Interim, the class members became close friends, sharing work with the computer, lunch times, a concluding party in my home, and even a first annual reunion three months after the course closed. Other reports spoke of the excitment of new prayer groups formed and of the beautiful way in which friendships were strengthened. It seemed clear that the benefits went far beyond acedemic outcomes. An evaluation of Interim '70 seemed to be a good way to check these observations and to test for weaknesses. An evaluation study confirmed the above observations, but it was with some surprise that I learned that some students had been bored. A review of the attendance at the various sponsored events suggested lack of response to these events. While planning for Interim '71, many of the observations about strengths and weaknesses of Incr-im '70 helped in molding what we hoped would be a better Interim. More courses were available, a more complete social calendar was planned through the use of Twin City resources, the student exchange program was under way. These efforts seemed to be rewarded as over 800 students joined the faculty for this experience. (Students had helped to plan the '71 version of Symposium) The black cloud of cancelled tours seemed to have evaporated as the spirit of expectation ran high. An evaluation of the results of Interim '71 again confirmed the richness of small group-activities within and outside of classes, but the success of Interim was again marred by some claims of boredom. Is it because we haven't planned the right things or is it because some students haven't made that first move necessary for involvement? We'll try something different again next year. I'm anxious for the next one to come, but sorry you seniors won't be here to share it. Interim

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 Mathematics