Walk by Nancy Baxter Hastings’ Workshop-Calculus classroom, and
you’ll never believe that she’s teaching math. |Nancy Hastings’
accessible approach to math is meeting with great success among
all majors at Dickinson. Above, Hastings (left) discusses a
concept in the calculus lab. That’s because Hastings, holder of
the Theodore & Catherine Mathias Chair in Mathematics and
Computer Science, cleverly crosses boundaries, replacing
traditional lectures with an innovative learning environment
where students “read, write and discuss math”—and even enjoy it.
What does reading, writing and discussing math entail? “Students
learn by doing,” Hastings explains. “Instead of my going up to
the board and telling them how to do a particular problem,
students work together on activities that are designed to help
them understand new ideas. As a result, they develop a sense of
ownership of the material.” This approach to teaching was
inspired in the early ’90s by Dickinson’s Workshop-Physics
program, which already fostered acti