Columbia Math Teacher Nancy Van Oort participating in the Questar III BOCES Summer Research Institute this past summer.
Columbia Math Teacher Nancy Van Oort participated in her second year of the Questar III BOCES STEM Research Institute over the summer to develop a new lesson for her Probability and Statistics class. The 7-week research program pairs teachers with private businesses and colleges to conduct research and develop new teaching methods or lessons.
This year Mrs. Van Oort conducted her research at the University at Albany with Professor Sukanta Basu in the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. The research focused on wind patterns and using data collected from the New York State Mesonet.
“I’m always looking for a way to make class more interesting. I love math and I want other people to love math, so it was a way to get some more real world experience. I wanted something that might mean more to the students then something out of a textbook,” said Mrs. Van Oort.
This year’s lesson includes having students work in groups to understand how analyzing wind patterns contribute to advancements in weather prediction and renewable energy. The students, who are mostly seniors, will use Python, a computer programming language, School AI, and Google Collab to create bar charts and histograms. Students will then use that research to advise a town on safety features or sustainable energies they may need.
Mrs. Van Oort hopes that the project will enhance student skills in teamwork, communication, critical thinning, and time management. “Maybe they don’t need statistics after high school but they do need to learn how to communicate with each other, so it opens that door,” she said.
Last summer she conducted her research project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with Dr. Santiago Paternain, an assistant professor in the engineering department, to learn more about machine learning and computer programming.