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Heather Wood, a mathematics instructor at Holmes Community College, recently earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction from Mississippi State University. Dr. Wood’s dissertation was titled, “Choosing a foundational mathematics course in higher education: How is the decision made?”
“After realizing that the majority of my students do not go on to take Calculus and thus never seeing the applicability of College Algebra, I began the study to find the ideal mathematics course for students in non-mathematics intensive pathways,” Dr. Wood said. “I interviewed program coordinators at Mississippi State University to determine the mathematics course most applicable to their program and how the current mathematics course was chosen. My research was online with The Mathematics Pathway project by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas. My findings showed that mathematics courses need to be tailored to the specific program. For those programs that do not require specific mathematical skills, courses such as Quantitative Reasoning and Statistics are overall more applicable to the student than College Algebra to fulfill the general mathematics education requirement.”
A Holmes alumnus, Dr. Wood also holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education with a mathematics education concentration and a Master of Science in secondary education with 18 hours of graduate level mathematics from Mississippi State.
Dr. Wood began working at Holmes full-time in August 2014. She taught part-time from 2010 to 2011. She currently teaches Beginning Algebra, Intermediate Algebra and College Algebra. Prior to that, she taught the math for elementary teachers’ courses – Real Numbers and Geometry, Measurement and Probability – and Business Calculus. Prior to Holmes, Dr. Woods taught at Grenada Middle School, East Oktibbeha County High School and East Mississippi Community College
An active member of the community, she is a Junior Auxiliary Life Member, Grenada Garden Club Member and attends both St. Peter’s Catholic Church and Grace Baptist.
Dr. Wood and her husband of 11 years, James, have one daughter, Laura Felicity (6). They also have two dogs, Zoey and Rook. Dr. Wood loves to travel, see plays at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis and teach tumbling. Laura Felicity is on the competition dance team with Prestige Dance Company which is an affiliate of Grenada School of Performing Arts. Dr. Wood enjoys attending competitions with her daughter.
“Mathematics is a lot of fun and it opens the door to many different areas,” Dr. Wood said. “My hope is to be able to teach students the beauty and applicability of mathematics in their educational journey and ultimately provide them the tools necessary to be a productive member of society.”
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