DWC Professor Rock Recipient of “Presidents’ Good Steward Award”

Daniel Webster Professor Robert A. Rock, director of the college’s Mathematics/Science Support Center, has been named recipient of the “Presidents’ Good Steward Award,” presented April 17, 2007, by Campus Compact for New Hampshire in recognition of his work incorporating and assessing service learning in his mathematics class.

Professor Rock saw tutoring students in elementary and high school math classes as having great potential to help students in his own courses gain insight into their understanding and approach to solving math problems. Additionally, he felt his college students had a lot to offer younger students as role models.

“Allowing my students to interact with and communicate their mathematics knowledge to younger students helped them to reflect upon their own experiences and challenges dealing with math,” he explained.

As a good mathematician, Professor Rock observed, recorded, and quantified the results of this learning opportunity, and the results were extremely positive.

“What I observed most dramatically was that over a relatively short period of time, my service learning students’ attitudes towards their own math work showed enhanced maturity and curiosity,” he said.

Ever since that first endeavor, Professor Rock has offered service learning in many of his math classes, including Algebra and Calculus I and II. His students have conducted a variety of challenging and rewarding activities with the younger students, including designing lesson plans for gifted math students at one of Nashua’s public schools.

Through the work of Professor Rock, noted Campus Compact for New Hampshire, service learning at Daniel Webster College has expanded to the math division and several other math professors began offering similar opportunities to their students,

“Service Learning as a component of any math course,” he said, “provides a mutually-fulfilling and beneficial experience in the community setting of the local school system.”

Professor Rock holds graduate degrees from Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and has taught at Daniel Webster College for 15 years.

Daniel Webster College, founded in 1965, educates men and women for professional entry and advanced studies in the fields of aviation, computer science, management, social science and engineering.