Preassessment of graphical math skills in a physical science course

Twelve of eighteen students completed four preassessment graphical math skills questions. All twelve students have completed MS 100 College Algebra. A subset of the students have completed MS 101 Algebra and Trigonometry.


The first question explored the early skill in xy scattergraph graphing, the correct plotting of an (x ,y) coordinate. Only 8 of 12 students answered this correctly, with two students selecting a point that was not simply a reversal of which number is x and which number is y.


When asked to determine the slope from a line on a graph, as seen above, only seven of the students were able to answer the question correctly. 


Identifying the y-intercept also saw a 58% success rate. For students who have completed college algebra and a relationship that is a direct relationship, this should be a surprisingly weak result. 


All twelve of the students were able to answer the last question correctly. The students were able to infer which line on a graph derives from a table of data. 


These results are not meant to suggest that the response should be to teach more mathematics. On the contrary, these results are typical of the results obtained over the past ten years in this course and are meant to suggest that mathematics does not teach retained mathematical skills. 


These results are also why physical science does not have a mathematics prerequisite: students who took math courses arrive without even the most basic pre-algebra skills still in their repertoire. The course is designed from the get go around this understanding that the students arrive without mathematics skills and then delivers mathematics in context. Not "problems one to thirty even numbers only", but rather the exploration of a system driven by a single equation. One equation per week.  

I am not saying that I have a solution to engendering mathematical literacy, quantitative reasoning skills. I personally feel that an educated citizenry needs to be mathematically literate, capable of quantitative reasoning. I do not, however, conflate mathematical literacy and reasoning with algebraic skills. Students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematical fields are undoubtedly still required to complete coursework through calculus at many institutions and thus the need for algebra. For other programs, however, the traditional path through algebra is less appropriate. 

Technical details

The graphs in this preassessment were prepared using Desmos. 


The preassessment was delivered using the Practice Quiz option in Instructure Canvas. Practice quizzes are only available in the Classic Quiz format on that platform. Canvas provided the analysis.

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