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IMP Graduates in Math and Science Speak About Program’s College Benefits

by Edward F. Wolff, Ph.D.

Author’s note: I chair the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics at Arcadia University, located just outside Philadelphia. From September 1993 through June 1997, I took a partial leave from Arcadia in order to pilot IMP at Central High, Philadelphia’s oldest and most prestigious public special-admission secondary school. While teaching all four years of the program, I thoroughly enjoyed both the curriculum and the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of students. I knew that at the time they graduated from Central, a good many of my “IMPsters” planned to pursue math and science-related programs at well-known colleges and universities. Realizing that by now they had either just graduated or were completing combined undergraduate/graduate programs, I contacted five of these students and asked them to reflect on how their IMP background had influenced their collegiate academic experiences. What they told me follows.

Dorothy Holt and Monica Labb, former Central IMP students, decided to pursue careers in pharmacology and both are now excelling in their six-year Doctorate in Pharmacy programs at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Both also are very appreciative of how well IMP prepared them for their studies.

Writes Dorothy, “Did IMP help me in my classes? Definitely! First, all the probability and statistics from IMP helped me enormously in my statistics classes. Beyond that, several of my classes, including my pharmaceutical calculations class, require that we give detailed explanations about how you get an answer—the POWs definitely prepared me for that!”

Monica agrees. “Compounding medications and performing pharmaceutical calculations require one to think about different ways to reach a solution. IMP gave me the confidence and experience to do that. Also, in my advanced classes, instructors emphasize working in groups to solve problems and evaluate patient cases. IMP taught me how to work effectively within a team and, if necessary, lead a team.”

Summing up the impact of her IMP education, Monica states, “I’ve come to realize that the most important aspect of IMP is not the mathematics. IMP taught me to think outside the box when attempting to solve a problem, to use multiple methods and tools, and to effectively gather and evaluate the ideas of other people.”

Gina Marie Calderaio matriculated at Bryn Mawr College, where she enjoyed great success as a math major. After graduating in May 2001, Gina wanted to continue her math studies and was invited to enroll in Bryn Mawr’s Master of Arts in Mathematics program. She now particularly enjoys working on her research project investigating properties of geodesics on a torus. She cites several ways that she feels her IMP background helped her in her mathematical studies.

“I recall that in my first calculus course, the instructor expected us to read from the text on our own. Many of the traditionally taught students in the class didn’t know how to go about doing this. They were used to waiting for the professor to explain everything to them so they could simply mimic the professor when they did the homework. IMP students, though, are used to reading texts for meaning and attempting new problems on their own.”

Gina also found her IMP background to be helpful in her upper level math courses. “In higher math, we write proofs all the time. This emphasis on writing was a shock to some of my classmates, but IMP students write all the time. The Problems of the Week (POWs) were especially relevant since they gave us lots of practice explaining our thought processes.”

Gina has also become a very effective IMP ambassador. “At a math department function, I chatted with the math department chair about my IMP math background. He had not been familiar with IMP but was so intrigued that soon afterwards he invited a regional IMP director to campus to lead a workshop for students and faculty. Since then, he has worked to support local school districts implementing IMP and other reform math curricula.”

Jennifer Visone, a former IMP student at Central, decided while in high school that she wanted to become an engineer. She enrolled at Drexel University and this May 2002 will complete a five-year combined bachelor and master’s program in civil engineering. Throughout her studies she has maintained a 3.92 G.P.A. Like Gina, she reports that her IMP background has given her a definite leg-up in her studies.

She states, “IMP provided me with a way to create a starting point for beginning a problem and then to look at the problem in several ways. I also have definitely put to good use the experience IMP gave me in working with groups. For example, Drexel freshmen engineering students are put into teams to work on a design project. My IMP background enabled me to guide everyone else on my team.”

Kittiboon Narangajavana went from Central to Harvard University where he was an honors major in biochemistry. He found that he was aided both by specific content that the IMP curriculum included as well as IMP’s general emphasis on understanding.

“In my statistics course,” he recalls, “we revisited many of the same topics I had studied in IMP. I felt that I understood the concepts with greater depth not only because I had seen them before, but also because IMP helped me learn to derive and explain concepts, understand why those concepts worked, and how to apply them to real-world situations.”

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