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During the fall of 2019, Mississippi State University's Department of Mathematics and Statistics reached out to Professor Walters about the opportunity to create a new course for students needing to complete their general education without limiting themselves to only college algebra.  

When teaching math to students from various majors, knowing which teaching practices work best for a wide range of learning styles and career goals was essential in creating such a course.

Professor Walters' first attempt at building her Math in Your World course led her to use a textbook exclusively on Microsoft Excel. Professor Walters understood that Excel played a pivotal role in future classes that students must take during their college career. However, students emphasized feeling restricted and overwhelmed when learning new math concepts.

After reviewing students' end-of-semester feedback on her course, Professor Walter returned to the drawing board to develop a course that spoke to her passion for mathematics and student needs. 

While Professor Walter's first attempt to bring spreadsheets into her math course wasn't successful, she still wanted to be able to teach the basics. This led her to build a gradebook assignment that students could use for future classes. This assignment covered basic usage of Excel, such as finding grade averages and creating tables.  

Knowing that her students don't have to be restricted to outdated textbooks and she's not restricted to manually grading her spreadsheet assignments, Professor Walters plans to continue to nurture her students' skills.