Hampton University has created a partnership with Paul D. Camp and Thomas Nelson Community Colleges, and Chesapeake, Hampton and Norfolk School Divisions affecting more than 50,000 secondary and undergraduate students in Hampton Roads Virginia.

The Hampton Roads Partnership for Algebra (HR-PAL) was awarded $299,283 through the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) START program. The grant will be used to strengthen the existing partnership in Hampton Roads and determine the appropriate tools needed to enhance the problem solving skills of all students.

“My experience showed that a student’s weakness in algebra had a significant effect on their overall success, for example in engineering” stated Dr. Jale Akyurtlu, HU professor of chemical engineering and principal investigator of the HR-PAL grant. “The students who pass calculus and other higher level mathematics courses struggle with converting word problems into equations, which is a basic algebra skill.”

The main goal of the two-year grant is to develop relationships between the faculty members within the partner institutions, welcome new partners and generate discussion among the professionals that will focus on retooling thought processes for problem solving.

To achieve this goal, the partnership will use a nationally known professional learning community model called Teachers’ Circles, developed by the American Institute of Mathematics, and Summer Institutes.

The Teachers’ Circles are moderated discussions that include algebra, technology and art teachers from each partner school division and college to solve word problems. This year the partnership will host a total of three Teachers’ Circles and a two-week summer institute that focuses on technology projects, showing how algebra concepts are applied to the development of these projects.

“The focus is not to teach math wizardry,” stated Akyurtlu. “We really want students to understand the descriptions in word problems, define the variables and solve equations in various fields based on a solid foundation in algebra.”

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