Program History

The Mathematics Across the Curriculum Project (MAC) hosted by Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington, began in 1999. The project was initially created to support the Quantitative Skills College Wide Ability, identified by the faculty of the college in the early 1990s as one of four key learning outcomes for students graduating with a two-year transfer degree. In the summer of 1999, Rebecca Hartzler, a physics instructor and one of the two current project coordinators, was asked by the college to perform a literature survey on quantitative reasoning/literacy projects and practices across the country. The survey revealed two projects, one at Alverno College and the other at Dartmouth College, that integrated mathematics or quantitative reasoning across the disciplines and whose goals fit well with the learning environment at Edmonds. The principal investigators of these National Science Foundation-funded projects, Dr. Susan Pustejovsky (Alverno College) and Dr. Dorothy Wallace (Dartmouth College), were contacted and graciously agreed to assist Edmonds Community College in adapting their programs. In the fall of 1999, Deann Leoni from the Mathematics Department at Edmonds Community College joined the project.

The original scope of the project was to focus on effecting curricular reform at Edmonds Community College. To stimulate student and faculty discussions on the importance of quantitative literacy in their lives and in students' education, a speaker series was created bringing nationally recognized personalities such as John Paulos, Sheila Tobias and Albert Bartlett to speak to the college community.