Anthony Ponder knows mathematics can be a subject that students tend to struggle with.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Struggles) vary from student to student. A big part of it is the challenges students face with jobs and families,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, trying to balance busy lives and increased expectations here in college and just how well they remember the prerequisite information from the course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ponder, 44, was originally hired at Sinclair Community College as an instructor in 1991 and has been the chair of the Mathematics department since 2007. Ponder said the Ohio Board of Regents requires all students to take some form of math in college and the students\u2019 major will decide how much math is required for a degree.<\/p>\n
Academic advisor Rukhi Jan said math helps students develop life skills such as problem solving.<\/p>\n
\u201cMath is more important than you realize because you use it in every part of your life,\u201d Jan said. \u201cWithout calculations, you wouldn\u2019t know how to use a car, maintain a diet or manage a checkbook. As a student, you need to know your numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ponder said he and the department are aware that students are experiencing a lot of problems with math but said \u201cthe department has a lot of different resources to help students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ponder said the Math Lab is a great way for struggling students to gain the necessary knowledge. The Math Lab, located in Building 1 Room 315 and open six days a week, offers various online learning tools and tutors.<\/p>\n
\u201cMath is not something you can generally sit down the night before an exam and cram a little bit and do fine,\u201d Ponder said. \u201cUsually what\u2019s best is if you try and take it in smaller chunks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair student Ashley Ishmael is taking MAT 108 \u2014 Math in the Modern World \u2014 this quarter. Ishmael, a 22-year-old Communication major, said she has always been decent in the subject, but understands putting in the extra work is helpful. Ishmael said finding a partner in class helped her ease the learning curve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would plan on getting to school early before class and work on things together,\u201d Ishmael said.<\/p>\n
Ponder said one of the biggest changes to the math department in recent years happened in the summer of 2009 when scientific calculators were allowed in the elementary algebra courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a significant change that hopefully students are enjoying,\u201d Ponder said.<\/p>\n
Ishmael believes it\u2019s important for all students to take some math while in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to use math in any career you have,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most important subjects you\u2019re going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel Huist also contributed to this story<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anthony Ponder knows mathematics can be a subject that students tend to struggle with. \u201c(Struggles) vary from student to student. A big part of it is the challenges students face with jobs and families,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, trying to balance busy lives and increased expectations here in college and just how well they remember the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1101,1103,952,1272,1102,1100,1104,1105,14],"class_list":["post-4666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-algebra","tag-anthony","tag-board","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-lab","tag-math","tag-ponder","tag-regents","tag-sinclair"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1dg","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4707,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4666\/revisions\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}