Martha Goshaw
Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics
As a math professor, it has always been important to me that my students not just master manipulative skills but that they understand the concepts behind what they have done. Students must be able to interpret the result of an operation they have performed, explaining what they have done (and why) and what that result actually means in context.
- ABD, Mathematics Education/Higher Education, University of Virginia
- Ed. S., Mathematics Education, University of Virginia
- MS, Mathematics, West Virginia University
- BS, Mathematics, West Virginia Wesleyan College
Biography
Martha is a native of West Virginia and knew very early that she wanted to be a teacher. A pair of excellent high school teachers convinced her that mathematics was her area. After graduating from West Virginia Wesleyan College, she began her teaching career in several public high schools in West Virginia and Virginia. With her master's degree from West Virginia University, she began teaching at Piedmont Virginia Community College. It was in this position that she realized higher education was her dream and she began work on an Ed. D. in mathematics education at the University of Virginia. At Piedmont, Martha taught every course from College Algebra through Differential Equations, and she also served four years as department chair. She was the first math faculty to incorporate the use of graphing calculators, to use interactive instructional materials, and to create online websites for her individual courses.
Martha came to Florida in 2000 and held a full-time tenured faculty position at Seminole State College. At Seminole she was the first mathematics faculty member to develop and teach an online course. For the last ten years of her career at Seminole she taught business calculus and introductory statistics, both online and in a hybrid format. She retired from Seminole in December 2014 but missed the classroom and the interaction with students and faculty. When an opportunity to teach as an adjunct at Stetson arose in August 2016, she quickly accepted. In 2018 she was appointed as Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics.
Her passion is teaching those math courses for which there are direct applications, thus making it more enjoyable and interesting for her students. She likes to use technology where possible to enhance her courses. She also incorporates the history of mathematics whenever possible in her classes.
Outside the classroom, Martha enjoys singing, reading, traveling and the beach.
More About Martha Goshaw
Areas of Expertise
- Economics
- Introductory Statistics
- Business Calculus
- Technology usage in Mathematics
- Teaching in alternative formats such as online or hybrid/blended
Course Sampling
- Business Calculus
- Introductory Statistics
- Calculus with Analytic Geometry
- Technology use in mathematics instruction
- Applications of mathematics
- History of mathematics
- 2008 Concepts of Calculus with Applications (Pearson) textbook for applied calculus.
- 1996 TI-85 Graphing Calculator Manual (Delmar Publishers) to accompany Peterson's
Technical Mathematics textbook. - 1993 Linear Algebra (in-house) supplement for Piedmont VA CC multi-variable calculus
course, which is still being used by the current instructor of the course. - 2014 - 2016 I authored the TE Corner in the AMATYC News (The column featured teaching tips and ideas from the organization's Teaching Excellence Award winners. The magazine was published four times a year and the column began with the January 2014 issue.)
- "The Technology Revolution in Mathematics" appeared in the spring 1999 issue of Inquiry, the journal of the Virginia Community Colleges Association.
- "The Technology Revolution, Revisited" appeared in the September 2013 issue of the MATHAMATYCEducator, current journal of AMATYC.