Roberta
Kieronski
This is my last letter to you as your president. I want to thank you for the honor of representing this organization for the last three years. I have found it very rewarding and I appreciate all the help I have received from the members of the Executive Committee. NEMATYC is fortunate to have dedicated members who are willing to volunteer to help the organization thrive. As you will read in this newsletter the spring conference is well underway. Judy Carter, conference chairperson, has been working hard to ensure an excellent time for everyone who attends. Remember to reserve the dates April 5th and 6th on your calendar.
The Executive Committee has met three times since the annual meeting and has accomplished many goals. NEMATYC is now a non-profit organization as far as the IRS is concerned. We are attempting to finish the paper work to also make NEMATYC a tax-exempt organization. This process takes a bit more work. If we get approval from the IRS, individuals and businesses will be able to make donations to NEMATYC and have them tax deductible. Our policy manual is more than half completed and we will continue working on it next year. The Executive Committee has created a Distinguished Service Award which will be an award granted by the committee at its discretion and presented at the annual meeting.
There are two important items that will be discussed at the annual business meeting. First, there is a proposed amendment to the NEMATYC Constitution. You will see the proposal further in the newsletter. The amendment states a specific time for the term of office to begin for each Executive Committee member. This was not in the constitution and needs to be there. The second item is the election of officers. The Nominations Committee has been asking people to run for office. Please read the biographies of each candidate, which are located in this newsletter. Remember nominations will be accepted from the floor at the annual business meeting. If you would like to run for: President ( 2 year term as president and then 2 years as past president), Vice President (1year term), Secretary (2 year term), or At-large (2 year term), please contact me and I will add your name to the ballot or you may wait and be nominated at the meeting. My email address is robertak@cisunix.unh.edu.
If you are a member of AMATYC, you will notice that your dues have
increased as of January 1, 2002. The rate now is $60 per year. Please read your
AMATYC News to learn about leadership opportunities for AMATYC members. There
are four AMATYC summer institutes available: Outer Banks, Duck, NC from June
9-14; Teacher Preparation, Green River CC from June 16-21; Teacher Preparation,
Grand Rapids CC from July 7-12; and Mathematics in Hawaii from July 29-August 2.
Check the AMATYC web site, www.amatyc.org, for more information.
I hope you have an exciting and successful semester and that you will be
able to attend our conference in Danvers, MA. If you can not attend the meeting,
remember to renew your membership so you will continue to receive the
newsletter.
Roberta Kieronski UNH
Judy Carter
Did you realize that we are members of the Palindrome Generation? We are the only generation in 1000 years to live through two palindromic calendar years in our lifetimes – 1991 and 2002. On April 5 and 6, North Shore Community College in Danvers, Massachusetts, will host NEMATYC 2002: Moving Forward, Looking Backward. Our conference title refers to 2002’s being a numerical palindrome as well as to the truth that as educators we are always working to improve our teaching as well as reflecting back on what we have done in the past. At the conference, you will have the opportunity to be intrigued by more mathematical facts and ideas, as well as ideas for communicating with our students.
Each April, as another academic year winds down, I find myself looking for inspiration and for solutions to some of those problems I’ve encountered during the year. Fortunately, help is always at hand in the form of the annual NEMATYC conference. I have been attending NEMATYC conferences for over a decade. I have always come away with good ideas and thought-provoking conversations which impact my approach to the profession. I’m confident that this year’s conference will uphold this tradition. A wide variety of presentations and workshops will be offered and several publishers will conduct commercial presentations of their software and online resources.
Our conference keynote speaker will be James Tattersall from Providence College . His talk will center on mathematicians who have occupied the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University. The chair has been held by such widely known mathematicians as Isaac Newton and Charles Babbage and is currently held by Stephen Hawking. Jim will discuss the achievements of some not so well known Lucasians.
Attending NEMATYC conferences gets us out of our own everyday world we see what other colleges look like, how things are done there. We have a chance to talk to colleagues, share ideas, triumphs, defeats, complaints. Please join us on April 5th and 6th for collegiality, information, inspiration, and fun!Judy Carter NSCC
Why didn’t sin(2r) =
2sin(r) get a loan?
Needed a cos(r) !
Consider
the graph if y = 1/x from x = 1 to infinity.
The length of the curve is infinite (no
news, here). The area under the
curve is infinite (Duh!).
Now, revolve the curve about the x-axis , forming a long tapering funnel.
The surface area is infinite (BOR-ing). But the volume is
finite (pi).
O.K. so you can fill the funnel with paint, but you cannot paint the
outside (or inside) surface.
Tip of the hat to retired B.K.
PRESIDENT of
AMATYC
Phil
Mahler, Professor of Mathematics at Middlesex Community College, first ran for
AMATYC Regional VP in 1995 and lost. In
1996 he was asked to serve an un-expired term and then won the seat outright in
1997. Because of his hard work, he
was encouraged to run for President Elect in 1999.
As of last November’s annual meeting in Toronto, Phil is now president
of AMATYC.
His goals for the AMATYC are to improve the organization structurally.
It is currently well run but the workload of the Regional Vice Presidents
is intense. There are three
meetings annually and each officer is laison with at least one committee.
The spring executive meeting alone lasts four very full days requiring
the reading and studying of over 200 pages of reports, motions and strategic
planning documents. He wishes to build upon the fine work done by a lot of very
good people to make the association more efficient internally.
He wants to make the tasks and responsibilities of VPs and officers more
sustainable.
Half of all undergraduates in the country are in community colleges and
most of those get all their mathematics education there.
Phil sees his position as the leader of the foremost organization of two
year college teachers as one with very great challenges.
Northeast Regional Vice President of AMATYC
The AMATYC
Input Award deadline date is May 15, 2002.
Please consider nominating yourself or a colleague who has developed an
exemplary mathematics program that uses technology and uses the Crossroads in
Mathematics: Standards for
Introductory College Mathematics before Calculus.
For information and nomination materials for this award visit http://www.amatyc.org/input/index.html.
The Crossroads Document will
soon be updated. The AMATYC board
has voted money from our reserves to support this most important undertaking.
We are actively looking for funding sources for this project and would be
most grateful if members would consider a donation when renewing their
membership.
I am the AMATYC Chairperson of the Membership Committee for the next two years. President Phil Mahler has set as one of his goals an increase of 200 members this year. Let’s show Phil we can get him this modest increase in his Northeast Region alone. Please invite a colleague to join AMATYC and please consider asking your institution to become an institutional member if it is not already one. The benefits of an institutional membership far outweigh the cost. Among those institutional membership perks are the Student Mathematics League Membership and one complementary registration for the Annual Conference.
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Bless those adjuncts! As budgets shrink and full time faculty retire,
adjuncts are becoming the teachers of the majority of our course sections in
both the day and evening divisions. Some
are retired and do a section or two to supplement income and for enjoyment.
A few have full time employment elsewhere.
More and more are attempting to put together full time employment with
part time teaching. The
California term “freeway flyers” has moved East.
You can easily spot that part time teacher by the size of their brief
case stuffed with folders marked with the names of the different colleges at
which they teach. Their only
office space is apt to be the
standing room next to the copy machine. Their
filing cabinet is the trunk of their ten year old car.
If it is Tuesday, it must be Boston…..!
Most are very good at their trade, some are excellent (a MassBay
adjunct got a standing ovation from a section of Calculus I students last
year). Unfortunately, many do not
get enough help and guidance. Lucky ones are hired a week before classes, get
a college catalogue, are
given a sample syllabus
and book on loan from the bookstore. Others get shifted to a section of algebra a week into the
semester after being prepared for calculus only to be met by a dean demanding
a current syllabus!
This is an appeal for us to do what we can to make adjuncts experiences
with us more positive. We can all
do more structurally within our colleges to better inform the adjuncts of our
department’s requirements and expectations.
We can also take a few more personal minutes than we do to make them
feel welcome and as much a part of the college as possible.
Share your AMATYC Journal, the NEMATYC newsletter and welcome them to
the April conference. Be quick. though. By
the end of the day the adjunct is 50miles down the road at another college
teaching Basic Math ( or was it Algebra at the CC and Calculus at the Tech
College - - - - or the Dean in
the Faculty lounge with the candlestick….).
Bless those adjuncts, they are carrying the load.
John Jacobs
James Tattersall:
2002 Conference Keynote Speaker
Our
conference keynote speaker this year is James Tattersall from Providence
College. Jim received an
undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Virginia, A
Master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in
mathematics from the University of Oklahoma.
He has been a visiting scholar several times at the Department of Pure
Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University.
In 1991, he spent six months as a visiting mathematician at the
American Mathematical Society. He
has been given the Award for Distinguished Service (1992) and the Award for
Distinguished College Teaching (1997) from the Northeastern Section of the MAA.
He is past-President of the Canadian Society for the History and
Philosophy of Mathematics, Archivist/Historian of NES/MAA, and currently Associate Secretary of the
MAA. His book on number theory
was recently published by Cambridge University Press.
Jim’s talk is titled Lucasian Mathematics. The
Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University was endowed by Henry
Lucas in 1663. Isaac Barrow was
the first to occupy the chair which is currently held by Stephen Hawking.
Many illustrious mathematicians have held the chair in its almost 340
years of existence. They include Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage, George Stokes,
and Paul Dirac. Jim will discuss
the achievements of some not so well known Lucasians.
Two Professors covered in
chalk stand in front of a large
lecture hall filled with students. The
proof of the limit of
fills wall to wall chalk boards
behind them with diagrams of sectors, triangles, limits and inequalities.
The two professors are wildly waving their arms at the audience.
“What are all these theatrics?” one student in the audience asks
another. “Didn’t you hears
about Professors Mahler and Keating?” “No,
why?” “They are world famous.
This is their renowned Calculus-1 proof by handwaving
For expanded abstracts, go to the NEMATYC website: www.bristol.mass.edu/NEMATYC/
Bringing
It Together With a Two-Sample t Test
Lora Connelly, North Shore Community College
A
brief experiment ties together most topics covered in an introductory statistics
course. Results are striking.
Adventures
in Teaching Limits: An Experiment
Gone Awry James R. Bozeman, Lyndon State College
In
my fall 2001 Calculus 1 classes, due to time constraints, I presented the topic
of limits using only intuition and technology with no formality.
I will explain what occurred and why I am unlikely to teach limits this
way again.
Probability
Logic: Alternative Approach of
Bayes’ Rule
Dr. Eiki Satake, Dr. Philip Amato, Emerson College
Calculate
the conditional probabilities of compound events by using truth tables.
We can be right or wrong about truth or probability.
How you weigh probabilities determines how and whether we get what we
want.
Solving
Equations With the TI-83 or TI-83+
Marie Dubois, Central Connecticut State University
Solve
polynomial, radical, exponential, logarithmic and rational equations using the
TI-83 features Math Solver and Graphing Utility. What can be done and how; what can’t be done and why not.
Freeware
and Inexpensive Software from the Web Chris
Chepiga, John Jacobs, Mass Bay Community College
Good
graphers of functions, graphers of non-functions, neat applets, great sites to
visit, and a dynamic $10 3-D grapher.
Automatic
Homework and Testing System
Emily Omlor, Quant Systems, Inc.
Automated
homework system’s tutorial and assessment modes extend instructional influence
beyond the classroom. Intelligent
problem-solving tutorials can be assigned on a daily basis.
Results report to your electronic gradebook.
Geometry
and Discovery Learning
Marvin Stick, UMass Lowell
Use
computer technology to develop elements of Euclidean geometry.
Sketchpad-generated scenarios are discussed.
Experiences with in-service teachers and high school students will be
discussed; comparisons to Cabri and Maple.
A
Model for Determining the Number of Hours of Daylight Michael
Sullivan, Chicago State University and
Michael Sullivan III, Joliet Junior College
A
trigonometric model that can be used to determine the number of hours of
daylight for any location on Earth at any time of the year.
Applications of angular velocity, trig functions, inverse trig functions,
identities, model building.
Using
Flash in Mathematics Courses
Jean-Marie Magnier, Springfield Community Technical College
A
brief explanation of Macromedia Flash 5.0 and of several Flash programs I
created. Materials for distance
education, quiz programs, database management, and animations. A
CD will be given out with lessons on it.
Self-Regulated
Learning in the Developmental Math Classroom
Adele Miller, Rivier College
Help
your developmental math students become better learners.
Self-regulated learning provides tools which can help students succeed.
The tools help students study more effectively, apply concepts, and
better prepare for tests.
eduSpace: Online Learning Tool
for Developmental Mathematics
Michael Busnach, Maureen Duffy,
Chris Hyde, Ben Rivera, Houghton Mifflin
Online
learning tool eduSpace allows instructors to customize text-specific content and
create three types of assignments: tutorials,
quizzes, and homework which can be accessed online; results are logged in a
gradebook.
Keeping
Students Actively Involved During Math Class
Andrew B Perry, Springfield College
A
discussion of methods for keeping students actively involved in mathematics
classes, especially those at about the level of college algebra or precalculus.
Includes a demonstration of the math game “Wheel of Functions”
Interactive
Software + Learning Strategies = Math Success
Joanne Manville, Shirley MacKenzie,
Bunker Hill Community College
Materials
to facilitate student learning in developmental math courses.
Activities introduce effective learning practices and use actual math
content materials. Interactive computer illustrations aid in conceptual
understanding.
A
Mathcad-Based Precalculus Course
Leon Granowitz, Mass Bay Community College
Mathcad-created course
materials and lab exercises which completely replace the graphing calculator
applications suggested by the textbook and provide an order of magnitude of
additional power and applications.
Pascal’s
Palindrome aka Pascal’s Triangle
Suellen Robinson, North Shore Community College
Pascal’s triangle is often
seen as a convenient “trick” for finding the coefficients for any binomial
expansion. Come explore its hidden
secrets and its connection to different branches of math - number theory,
sequences, algebra, etc.
Effective
Web Based Tutorial, Testing and Course Management Kevin O’Brien, Addison
Wesley
Two web-based resources,
MathXL and My Math Lab, will be presented.
These resources provide easily accessed practice problems and tutorials
to enhance traditional or online courses and correlate directly with A-Wesley
texts.
CBL
– Calculator Based Labs
John Jacobs, Mass Bay Community College
The Computer Based
Laboratory (CBLã)
transponder and the Vernier Corporation sensors, connected with TI-83’s, allow
students to collect “real world data” for mathematical analysis.
Several experiments will be demonstrated.
Service
Learning, Fisheries Biology, and Technology in the Teaching of Statistics
Barry Woods, Unity College
Three technology tools are
generally used to teach statistics: calculators,
spreadsheets, and statistics software. I
use these and also involve my
students in statistical analyses of a real, ongoing environmental
study.
Building
a Multi-task Model for Problem Solving in Elementary Algebra
John
Tobey, North Shore CC
Most elementary algebra
courses focus on a few simple types of word problems. I will focus on examples of diverse applications using a
multi-task model which allows for a greater development of mathematical
reasoning skill.
Using
the Internet to Enhance the Teaching and Learning of Intermediate Algebra
Emmett Dennis, SCSU
Use the internet via
Blackboard.com and/or CourseCompass to provide web-based learning components to
enhance a traditional math classroom. Create
tests that give instant feedback; see how math essays can be assessed online.
Math
Pro: Technological Support for
Developmental Math
Prentice Hall Math Group
A demonstration of Prentice
Hall’s MathPro4 (CD) and Math Pro5 (web-based) programs.
MathPro is a tutorial and diagnostic software program that supports
developmental math.
The
Berlin Airlift: How Math Saved the
Day!
Roberta Kieronski, UNH Manchester
How did mathematics help the
Allies break the Berlin blockade? Use
history to motivate your algebra students.
Come learn how to solve linear programming problems graphically.
Your algebra students can to do this, too.
Saturday Afternoon: 2:30
Put
Some FUN in FUNdamentals or FUNctions
Elizabeth Lucas, North Shore CC
Ever see glazed eyes and
nodding heads? Sometimes good
teaching just isn’t enough. Dare
to be Different! Sing, quote, wave
your arms. The pros and cons of
using humor; examples of methods of sparking student interest.
An
Innovative Quantitative Reasoning Course
Mark Pawlak, UMass Boston
In UMASS Boston’s
quantitative reasoning course, students create and analyze mathematical models
of real-life problems and represent the results symbolically, graphically,
verbally and in writing.
Round
Table Discussion on Calculator Usage
Bernice Bowdoin and Susan Hoy, Bristol CC
Use of calculators in the
classroom ranges from no use allowed to anything goes.
What is your policy? Benefits,
disadvantages, calculator dependency, CAS calculators and other topics of
interest to the group will be discussed.
Excel(lent)
Scrolling
David Cox, Southern NH University
Create Interactive Excel
worksheets to illustrate topics in Statistics and Finite Math.
Embedded scrolling bars link to a graph in an Excel worksheet.
