Does Your Course Effectively Promote Creativity? Introducing the Mathematical Problem Solving Creativity Rubric

As believers in the power of blending the creative with the quantitative, we design our courses with an eye towards developing creative problem solvers. However, when it comes time to evaluate our course's success in developing creative problem solvers we come away with a plethora of qualitative evidence and yet we are left hungry for the quantitative evidence we desire as mathematicians. In this article we describe the development of the Mathematical Problem Solving Creativity Rubric and its pilot use in a freshman-level Mathematical Modeling and Introduction to Calculus course at the United States Military Academy. We not only come away with the necessary quantitative evidence to satiate our hunger for now, but with a rubric that will allow us to do so in future semesters and courses.