Teaching Modeling: Tell Us How!

By the time students begin their post-secondary education, most have been preconditioned to expect a structured environment full of objectively-right and -wrong answers when they cross the threshold of a mathematics classroom. They have come to expect their mathematics instructors to present them with a set of algorithms that, when applied correctly, will guarantee that they arrive at the right answer. While some collegiate mathematics classes live up to this expectation, many do not. Perhaps the furthest from this expectation is the mathematical modeling classroom, where what we ask of students is perhaps best summarized by Miss Frizzle of Magic School Bus fame: Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!

The challenges and questions that we face in a mathematical modeling classroom, particularly one driven to remote learning by covid, span the spectrum from the philosophical to the practical: