My name is Tiwana Walton and I am a junior Mathematics Education major with a Concentration in Education at Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. As an undergraduate research student under the direction of Dr. Linda Hayden, I have attended a number of conferences, learned how to apply and become more applicable for internships, and acheived many hands on research experiences relating to the mathematics education field. I aspire to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and complete the necessary requirements needed to further my education in graduate school. Mathematics is both challenging and exciting to learn and apply to everyday life. I love math and the different places it could take you in research, professional schools, educating, and statistical and analytical applications in the many careers of choice. The career field in which I am looking forward to working in, possesses the duties of educating young learners on the importance of math and its dier need in their future high school, college, and professional careers.

During my time here at Elizabeth City State University I have I have been involved in both academic year and summer research projects. The second semester of my freshman academic year, spring of 2007, I was a team member of the Undergraduate Research Experience Multimedia Team (URE MMT) under the advisement of Jeff Wood. The objectives of the team were to develop a standard method of digitizing and archiving images, movies, and documents and documenting the attributes of the digitized files from within the Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) Program and other associated programs. During the summer of 2007, I interned at the University of Kansas, where I aided in planning and researching the preliminary efforts undertaken to coordinate and fly the Meridian UAV in Greenland, this past Summer 2008. My mentors were Dr. Shah Keshrimi and Rylan Jager who assisted in the development of my research project.

The second semester of my sophomore academic year, spring of 2008, I was a team member of the ECSU Undergraduate Math Sprint Team. The team was composed of Mathematics Education majors conducting research based on the effect of Math Sprint Competitions and Student Acheivement on Standards of Learning (SOL) Mathematics Tests at Camelot Elementary School. The purpose of our research was to analyze the Student Achievement on SOL Mathematics Tests before and after the mathe sprints were introduced at Camelot Elementary School. During the summer of 2008, I did an internship at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center developing a new NASA Digital Learning Network module that was mathematically based and tied to NASA concepts/missions. The objective of the module was to apply the National Mathematics Standards of ratio/proportions, scaling, area, and volume to NASA’s space vehicle transport systems that will return to the moon. In order to understand the communication medium required to create a module and educate students, I trained with LaRC’s DLN Coordinator and Assistant Manager to effectively present the module, Magnificent Sun, to several schools across the country using distance learning equipment housed at NASA LaRC and the school where the module was presented.

Upon successful completion of my Bachelor's of Science Degree at Elizabeth City State University, it is my predilection to attend a professional graduate school and further my studies in Mathematics Education and Instructional Design. I then would to advance my studies in pursuit of a doctorate degree with the intent of reorganizing and implementing the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pathway into both local and national curricula. Education is a continual process that would be endorsed personally and continued through the completion of a doctorate degree.