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Hallmark Guides - Quantitative Literacy

Anna Van Wie

Director, Learning Outcomes Assessment

School of Undergraduate Studies

Published: July-August 2011

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-strategies

Definition

Graduates will be able to effectively interpret, apply, analyze, synthesize, and communicate quantitative information and ideas.

Graduates will be able to:

1. Demonstrate understanding of basic quantitative and mathematical principles.
2. Interpret quantitative information and ideas.
3. Communicate quantitative information effectively.

Sample Assignments

Quantitative Reasoning found in a Business Course:

Markup vs. Margin

Imagine that you buy a book through your campus bookstore and pay $95.00. The same day you see the same book in Books in Print for $89.00. In an attempt to explain the difference, you find out that the price given in Books in Print is a 25% markup from the wholesale price; that is, the retail price is 25% more than the wholesale price. You then visit the campus bookstore and are told that the bookstore determines the retail price by "taking the usual 25%."

1. Based on the 25% markup, what is the wholesale price of your book?
2. Explain why the bookstore price is higher than the Books in Print price?

Quantitative Reasoning found in an Economics Course:

The Euro Currency

On January 1, 2002, twelve European countries (280 million people) begin to switch their individual currencies to the common euro currency. Citizens have several months depending on the country) to exchange their old currency to the euro before it becomes worthless. At this moment, here are the exchange rates for the currencies of the twelve countries, plus the United States.

1. Which is worth more, 1 euro or 1 Irish pound?
2. If a Greek girl exchanged 1200 drachmas, how many Euros would she receive?
3. Suppose you want to exchange $1000 for Euros. How many Euros will you receive?
4. Suppose you want to exchange $1000 for Euros, but do it by first exchanging dollars for francs and then francs for Euros. How many Euros will you receive given the exchange rate $1 = 7.2516 francs? Compare the results of questions 3 and 4.

Resources/Links

• Agenda for Action from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
  http://www.nctm.org/standards/
• Benchmarks for Quantitative Literacy from the Mathematical Association of America
  http://www.maa.org/ql/
• American Mathematical Society
  http://www.ams.org/
• American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges
  http://www.amatyc.org/

Have Questions?

For more information on the Scientific Literacy Hallmark, contact John Beyers, SUS, at jbeyers@umuc.edu.