The Mathematics, B.A. is offered the the Mathematics Department in the May School of Arts and Sciences .
Hsin-hao Su
Duffy Academic Center 231
508-565-1242
hsu@stonehill.edu
The mathematics majors prepare students to work in mathematics and related areas or pursue graduate studies. Students are able to gain valuable skills for careers in technology-based industries, business, education, and service professions. Graduates engage in life-long learning and growing.
Learning Goals
Majors in Mathematics will develop the following cognitive goals, as recommended by the Mathematical Association of America for undergraduate programs in mathematics found here.
1. Students will develop effective thinking, communication, and mathematical problem solving skills.
- state problems carefully, articulate assumptions, understand the importance of precise definition, and reason logically to conclusions;
- identify and model essential features of a complex situation, modify models as necessary for tractability, and draw useful conclusions;
- assess the correctness of solutions, create and explore examples, carry out mathematical experiments, and devise and test conjectures;
- communicate mathematical ideas clearly and coherently both verbally and in writing to audiences of varying mathematical sophistication.
2. Students will learn to link applications and theory.
- encounter a range of contemporary applications that motivate and illustrate the ideas they are studying;
- become aware of connections to other areas (both in and out of the mathematical sciences), and learn to apply mathematical ideas to problems in those areas.
3. Students will learn to use technological tools.
- use technology effectively, both as a tool for solving problems and as an aid to exploring mathematical ideas.
4. Students will develop mathematical independence and experience open-ended inquiry.
- prepare students to pursue open-ended questions and to speak and write about mathematics with increasing depth and sophistication.
The B.A. in Mathematics requires the completion of 17 courses and is intended for students planning a career in early childhood, elementary, secondary, or special education.
