Featured Scholar: Catie Corchado
“My name is Catie Corchado and I am entering my fourth year as a math major in the integrated credential option. I completed my undergraduate math courses this semester and will begin my student teaching through Fresno State’s single-subject credential program in the fall term. My continued inspiration to become a high school math teacher comes from my family of educators, learning under exceptional teachers at Madera High School, and the Fresno State Math Department. Throughout college courses and experiences, I have rediscovered the joys of understanding and teaching math.
“Since August of 2021, I have worked with Fresno State’s Math Circle, which offers bi-weekly math enrichment opportunities to students in grades 3-12. Although I will not end up working with 3-5th graders in my future career, it has been a privilege to see my students develop interpersonally and in their math skills. I have connected with the broader math community through Fresno State’s various events that celebrate math. These include Math Field Day, where middle and high school students come to campus to compete and participate in math activities, and Sonia Kovalevsky Day, where students celebrate the first female mathematician to earn a PhD and engage in hands-on math activities. Working with students of all ages through these programs highlights the excitement math can bring when presented in an accessible way.
“At the college level, I am an active member of Fresno State’s Math Club and chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Last year, I served as SIAM’s treasurer and will continue building the club as the chapter president in the 2024-2025 school year. This club promotes the versatility of math in the workforce and acts as a social hub for math and non-math majors alike to take a break from the stress of courses. During the spring semester, a Fresno State alumni and Google employee gave us a tour of the Mountain View campus.
“During my first two years of university, I was part of Fresno State’s Math Teaching Scholar’s Program, then transitioned to the Robert Noyce Scholarship program. These scholarship programs provide professional development and conference opportunities. After attending conferences such as the California Mathematics Council and Noyce regional conferences, I am driven to improve my teaching and become a passionate educator tackling issues in math education at the classroom and system level. I have presented my experience in Noyce at the 2024 Western Regional Noyce Network conference in Portland, Oregon, and will again at the National Noyce Summit in Washington, D.C. this summer.
“I have worked at the college classroom level since the summer of 2022 as an Instructional Student Assistant in Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2. These weekly recitation sessions act as a problem-solving environment where students can better their understanding of lecture material through collaborative work, classroom discussions, and presentations. This has been my most fulfilling role thus far, as I see the evolution of my students from the beginning of the semester to the end. Working as the Instructional Student Assistant student coordinator also allowed me to lead and learn from discussions surrounding math education and engage with coworkers and peers. Since I believe these activity sessions create impact and only became mandatory within the last 7 years, I decided to conduct a research project studying their effectiveness.
“My research under the guidance of Dr. Rajee Amarasinghe included quantitatively studying the relationship between students taking recitations and their course grades and qualitatively studying attitudes towards sessions through a survey and interviews. During the 2023-2024 school year, I conducted my research and concluded the statistically significant probability of students earning a certain grade or lower with and without recitations, reported levels of peer engagement leading to course success, and perceived increases in math reasoning skills. This mixed-method approach allowed me to become familiar with statistical analysis, online programming through RStudio, and insight into which pieces of recitations were effective and what could be improved. This knowledge directly carries over into my career as a math educator and has reinforced my philosophy of the effectiveness of student-centered learning. I am also grateful to have worked with and received mentorship from many math faculty and peers on this project, strengthening my work.
“Through the College of Science and Mathematics Faculty Sponsored Student Research Award program, I have been able to present my work at various stages of completion this year at the Central California Research Symposium at Fresno State, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference in Seattle, Washington, California Valley Regional SIAM Student Chapter Conference at UC Merced, and the Central Valley Region Interdisciplinary Symposium on Education Research at CSU Stanislas. I was awarded the EECU Outstanding Math Presentation award at the research symposium. Each conference challenged me to make my research palatable to distinct audiences and engage in meaningful follow-up discussions about the implications of my work. My next steps include working on writing and publishing a research paper and presenting at NCTM’s national research conference in Chicago, Illinois. Working on math education research and engaging in its community has shown me its often overlooked value and endless ways to improve my teaching abilities and classroom management.
“During the summer of 2023, I studied abroad for six weeks in Budapest, Hungary, to study math education with the support of the Risa Rodemeyer Global Culture Scholarship. This life-changing experience opened my eyes to discovery-based learning and the Hungarian education system. Through a week-long math camp and course focusing on gamification and playfulness in mathematics, learning geometry through problem-solving, and the Posa method, I broadened my view of how math classrooms can run successfully and how students deeply understand content. The opportunity to live abroad also expanded my worldview and led me to become an independent person confident in my ability to form meaningful social connections. I presented on this experience at the annual Department of Mathematics Day and will continue sharing ideas in the ever-changing math education field as a workshop presenter at the California Mathematics Council meeting in Palm Springs later in the year.
“I am confidently entering the classroom as a student teacher this semester with the experiences and lessons learned through Fresno State’s Math Department and adjacent opportunities. I reflect on the past three years with immense gratitude for the faculty, friends, and community leading me here. In combination with courses and programs through the Smittcamp Family Honors College, I have had the opportunity to grow alongside incredibly talented and driven peers who challenge me to continue pursuing my highest potential.”
