Spring 2020 will forever be remembered as the semester interrupted by a pandemic. But for Mathematics Professor Patty Zabel it will also be the semester when she introduced a group-based, problem-solving class to students. Their focus was a recurring issue within Onondaga County’s Department of Social Services. “These students did really well. They all worked hard, worked well together, and did a great job,” said Zabel.
The new class is “MAT 295 PIC Math.” PIC Math stands for Preparation for Industrial Careers in Mathematical Science. It is structured to prepare students for careers in business, industry, and government by providing research experience working on real-world problems.
Professor Zabel began working on making the course available to OCC students more than a year ago. The process started with the Math Association of America. She went through a series of training sessions with the organization. She also applied to bring PIC MATH to the OCC campus. In the end 45 schools were chosen nationwide, and OCC was one of only four community colleges to be selected.
The four students in the first class were given a challenging problem to work on. JOBSPlus! and the Onondaga County Department of Social Services needed help figuring out why so many people they had helped would return to the program after their income had reached the threshold to receive temporary assistance. Social Services would provide additional assistance for 30 days after a case was closed due to excess income. But they had determined the 30-day window was not sufficient because applicants would frequently return. Citizens would assimilate into a ‘cycle of poverty’ which typically remained unbroken by subsequent generations. Social Services and JOBSPlus! asked OCC’s PIC MATH students to find a more appropriate time to provide additional assistance, which could reduce or even eliminate the amount of times applicants would reapply to the program.
As the students began digging into the data Eric Frank, a Mathematics & Science major from Weedsport High School, became their unofficial leader. “I tried to make sure everyone had some sort of analysis or paper to work on. I worked on the presentation and data analysis for it. Lewes worked on a paper and helped with data analysis. Greg did a big portion of the data filtering, the data analysis, and gave ideas for the paper and presentation. Ian was responsible for keeping track of our ideas and work on the presentation as well. Everyone did a little bit of each part. No one focused on just one thing,” Frank said. ”It was interesting to sit back and see how each one formed their own roles. They each contributed in their own way,” said Professor Zabel.
Frank was joined on the student team by Engineering Science major Lewes Kunda (CBA class of 2018), Physics major Greg Reeves (Weedsport class of 2018) , and Engineering Science major Ian Allen (Fayetteville-Manlius class of 2019).
The group made great progress in the first half of the semester before COVID-19 happened, sending everyone home and leaving the students to have virtual Zoom meetings. “It definitely presented a challenge. One student had very good internet, one had audio but bad video, and the other two had audio only,” said Professor Zabel.
On Thursday May 7 the group presented its findings to the Department of Social Services and JOBSPlus!. “One of our suggestions was to extend the amount of temporary assistance after people fall off the program for another 30 or 60 more days. They may see the number of returning cases fall off,” said Frank. “I was surprised to learn the media age group in our study was 37 years old. At year 30 you are supposed to be earning the most in your lifetime. I was surprised by how many people are on temporary assistance in their 30s,” added Allen. “I think this is a very important problem. I’m glad we worked on it. There’s definitely a much deeper issue here,” said Reeves.
“This was truly a fantastic collaborative project between OCC, JOBSPlus!, and Onondaga County’s Department of Social Services. Taking very raw data, analyzing it, and presenting it in a way to help us answer questions relating to poverty and recidivism is not only a great challenge for the students, but it does a great service to our community. We look forward to seeing the final product and many more years of collaboration between our organizations,” said Steve Vonderweidt, Director of JOBSPlus!
The students were also scheduled to present their findings at an international annual conference, but the event was cancelled due to COVID-19. Instead they put together a presentation to submit to event organizers.
The entire process was an amazing learning experience for the students. “What attracted me to the class was knowing we would work on something that someone else hadn’t done yet. I learned from my high school Physics teacher I should pursue the things that scare me the most. Everything has worked out when I have pursued that type of thinking,” said Frank.
“I hadn’t done a lot of group work which is one of the reasons I took the class because I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. Having other people to bounce your ideas off of and getting their feedback makes the outcome better,” added Kunda.
“You have to be able to work with others. In the real world you don’t get along with everybody but you still have to work with them and you still have too produce. I think it’s extremely important to be able to work together even if they don’t know each other or have commonalities,” said Professor Zabel.
