From the NEMATYC President

            Welcome back!  Hope you had a great break.  By now you are probably busy with your new students and classes.  It is hard to beat the excitement of teaching.  Speaking of excitement, don’t forget our spring meeting in April.  Maureen Woolhouse and Carol Hay at Middlesex Community College in Lowell have put together a great conference.  Make your plans now by informing your Dean of your intentions on going to Lowell on April 20-21.  Details are inside. 

            At the AMATYC Conference in Chicago, I represented NEMATYC at the Affiliate President’s Luncheon and the Delegate Assembly.  There were no controversial agenda items so the assembly was relatively quick.  At the luncheon the affiliate presidents talked about how AMATYC could help us and we them.  My table focused its discussion on each affiliate’s membership, conference, constitution, and policy manual.  We hope to further this discussion next year in Toronto at a special session for affiliate presidents.  The NEMATYC poster was very popular.  I found people sitting in front of our poster working on the puzzle.  The banner and poster will be displayed at our spring conference so everyone will have a chance to see them.

            Below, you will notice the  open positions on the NEMATYC Executive board.  Please read the biographies of each candidate and come to the meeting and vote.  At the time of printing we have one person running for each position.  Thanks to these people who are willing to run and volunteer their time.  As per our constitution, nominations will be accepted from the

 floor at the annual meeting, even self-nominations.  So if you would like to add your name or a colleague’s to the slate it is still possible.  We are still looking for a host site for 2003.  Discuss this idea with your department.  NEMATYC is only as good as its members.  We need you to volunteer!

            The board has been busy listening to Maureen describe the conference and deciding many details.  We are also trying to publish a policy manual so future officers and boards will have a guide.  If you have suggestions for this document please contact any board member

            I found two web sites you may find helpful.  HTTP://mtl.math.uiuc.edu and is from the University of Illinois.  This site is designed to deliver professional development opportunities and classroom resources to teachers of mathematics.  Some are for high school teachers and some for people who teach the first two years of college mathematics.  The second is a new site devoted to the History of Mathematics.   HTTP://webpages.ull.es/users/jbarrios/hm is at La Laguna University in the Canary Islands.  It is a collaboration between the University’s mathematics department and the African Mathematical Union Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA).

 Roberta Kieronski                

NEMATYC President

University of  New Hampshire at Manchester

VICE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

            Greetings from the City of Lowell, Massachusetts, the site of NEMATYC 2001:  A Math Odyssey conference, April 20 and April 21, 2001 hosted by Middlesex Community College on its Lowell Campus  Through the generous efforts of talent and time of the keyonte speaker, Dr. Philip J. Davis, the conference presenters, the conference co-chair Carol Hay and I promise an outstanding educational, entertaining and  collegial experience.. In addition to an amazing array of presentations, the conference will host three round table discussions focused on: math labs, adjunct math faculty, and an Internet information exchange. Also for the first time, NEMATYC will offer a few commercial presentations in which faculty will engage in software demonstrations much the same as such presentations have done at the AMATYC conferences of the past few years. Now you can see why we feel that you will walk away from this conference stimulated and pedagogically enriched.

            On Friday evening, our plans are to offer some brief glimpses of the city of Lowell that may make conference attendees want to extend their stay in our fair city. Middlesex Community College's Lowell Campus is situated on the banks of the Concord River, one of the two rivers running through Lowell. Both of Lowell's Concord and Merrimack Rivers were harnessed by the year 1830 to power the textile mills along their tributary banks. Our Friday evening activity will begin with a trolley trip to the 1870's Boott Mill Museum which houses 88 operating power looms, interactive exhibits and displays. The trolley will return us to the Double Tree Hotel in time for our evening meal. We will then cap off the evening with desert and coffee at the Middlesex Community College Foundation's beautifully restored Nesmith House, the 1843 mansion of former textile mill owner, John Nesmith. During coffee, Middlesex Community College's adjunct faculty member, Audrey Ambrosino, of the Lowell National Historical Park will regale us with a light presentation on some interesting aspects of Lowell history. Over the course of the evening ample time has been built to the schedule for faculty to exchange ideas and have collegial dialogue.

            On Saturday afternoon, our luncheon will be held at the Double Tree Hotel which is across the canal from Middlesex Community College's Campus and is accessible by footbridge. Our featured luncheon speaker is Dr. Philip J. Davis, Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at Brown University. Before joining the faculty of Brown in 1963, Dr. Davis was Chief of  Numerical Analysis at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. Dr. Davis has co-authored and authored numerous serious and satirical books about mathematics. His most recent work is The Education of A Mathematician. We are pleased that a prestigious speaker like Dr. Davis has agreed to join us for the conference.

            Throughout the two-day conference, participants can choose from many diverse educational offerings, including three round table discussions, opportunities to view software similar to those presented at past AMAYC conferences, and a wide variety of presentations and workshops to satisfy all levels of professional needs and tastes.  The success of NEMATYC 2001 will be the result of the synergy generated by the exciting offerings and the enthusiastic responses of participants.  Although computers may be omnipresent, we promise HAL will be conspicuously missing.

 Maureen Woolhouse

NEMATYC Vice-President &

2001 Conference Co-Chair

Middlesex Comm Coll   Lowell, Massachusetts  01852 

EDITORIAL

                High stakes testing seems all the rage!  In Massachusetts K – 12 schools, we have the MCAS, a one-size-fits-all test that fits so few the Governor wants to test the math teachers.  Now, we have a new President whose leading volley into the education wars is another shot at more testing.  

                We, as education professionals, love high standards.  Oh please, give us nothing but eager freshman wanting Calculus as a first course.  Let us spend our time teaching linear instead of introductory algebra. 

                Those who look only to test the outcome of classroom instruction are a bit short sighted.  It is analagous to the president of a manufacturing company demanding perfect products coming off the assembly line without looking at the quality of raw materials purchased, the  product design or directions put into the manufacturing assembly process

                The situation begs a question.  Where are the Board of Education, Principal and political leadership tests? 

Responses welcome…………..John Jacobs, Editor

Special thanks to my colleague, MBCC Prof Helen Seery for all her help with the Newsletter………JCJ

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