Math professors at the University of Memphis are claiming some success in using math lab computer software to close achievement gaps among students.

The nearly four years of work with the MyMathLab software focused on elementary calculus courses at the university and show pass rates increased 23 percent during that time.

The MyMathLab software includes online courses designed to be used with textbooks. The software and textbooks are made by Pearson Education.

The combination is a popular one as higher education as well as K-12 school systems devote more attention to “STEM” curriculum emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Math labs are a common part of STEM teaching plans.

The Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools are each making plans for virtual STEM labs in the near future.

MCS superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash has already named a principal for the STEM Lab and Virtual High School at East High School. The facility, which is scheduled to open this August at the start of the new school year, will be used by students in the engineering program at East High as well as students taking similar classes at John P. Freeman and Havenview Middle Schools. The lab will be funded with $1 million in federal Race to the Top funding as well as state education funding.

Shelby County Schools leaders have a different STEM virtual lab planned that puts less emphasis on a central lab with its own location.

U of M mathematics professor Fernanda Botelho began using the Pearson MyMathLab software in the spring of 2008 for elementary calculus courses she taught as other math teachers were using it for elementary algebra.

“I started with elementary calculus because for students it is a terminal math course,” she said. “It has been a struggle to retain students. … I thought there was a way to experiment.”

The experiment retains the traditional component of lecturing, but makes the lectures shorter and a move to the lab quicker.

“This method and this component actually accommodates that better than if a student is attending a class, the teacher is lecturing and sporadically (the students) are asked to solve some problems,” Botelho said. “Homework without much supervision or much help – very often the students feel lost.”

And because math courses have traditionally involved lectures followed by problems to solve, the classes tend to be large, which means a lot of grading for teachers.

“The role of a teacher is there and I think it is important,” she said. “It’s not possible that we can grade huge numbers of homework problems and give the appropriate attention. It’s just not appropriate. This way you have help and the students tend to like it.”

Botelho next wants to see how the lab performs with students taking college algebra and trigonometry, a gateway course for STEM majors that draws students who are doing more than fulfilling basic math requirements.

“The students taking that course go to calculus one, two and three,” she said. “It serves all the STEM majors. Now we are trying to see the impact.”