Health Sciences Math Workshop

By: Annette M Marrero

The spring semester has already begun with good news for the health sciences students. Through a grant funded by Holy Cross Hospital, Montgomery College is offering the Health Science Math Workshop on the Takoma Park and Germantown campuses. The sessions are being held Tuesdays and Thursdays at the HT building, room 314 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm until May 3. The workshop focuses on hands-on active problem solving and is not a typical lecture workshop.

Dr. Beatrice Lauman is the manager of the MAPEL center (Math, Accounting, Physics, and Engineering Learning center) and one of the leading forces in this initiative. The MAPEL center offers tutoring services for students in any science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) disciplines  and provides information on STEM scholarships, internships and transfer opportunities just to mention a few of their services.  Lauman explained, “We really would like STEM students to succeed, and so we offer other services as well including supplemental instruction like the Holy Cross project.”

Asked about the goals of this particular workshop, she said, “We were delighted to find that Holy Cross was offering funding to support educational opportunities for health sciences students and since our strength is in mathematics, physics and engineering, we thought it would be a good idea to offer math workshop geared for health science students.”

Lauman stressed the importance of importance of math in the health field. “All health sciences practitioners use math as part of their work, like measuring the amount of drug to give to a patient based on their weight,” she said.

Even though the workshop is more focused on health science, Lauman says this should not deter students from other fields in the life sciences from taking advantage of this opportunity because it will help work on their math skills. She also clarified that the math workshop content will depend on students’ need. Also the extent of this program will depend on the students’ attendance and the availability of additional funding.

Lauman, who describes herself as a very passionate teacher who likes to help STEM students succeed and reach their goals, gave the Montgomery College students this important message, “I will tell students that building your math skills is so important, having really strong, solid math skills is critical so, Why not come to a free workshop to do just that? In addition we are given through the fund enough money to provide book stipends to students that are eligible.”

For more information on the Health Science workshop and book stipend eligibility please contact Dr. Beatrice Lauman by e-mail: Beatrice.Lauman@montgomerycollege.edu.