Fall 2021 Virtual Section Meeting

Amy Ackerberg-Hastings (Editor of MAA Convergence)
Convergence, 18th-Century Scottish Mathematicians, and You

Convergence is the MAA's free online journal that supports the use of history to teach mathematics. It focuses mainly on subjects studied at the secondary and undergraduate levels: algebra, combinatorics, synthetic and analytic geometry, trigonometry, probability and statistics, elementary functions, calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra. In this talk, two figures from my own research into the history of mathematics education -- Robert Simson (1687-1768) of the University of Glasgow and John Playfair (1748-1819) of the University of Edinburgh -- will help provide a tour of the journal's variety of resources, which have been regularly updated on the MAA's website since 2004. From quick trips into the past, such as "On This Day" and quotations by historical mathematicians, through the images and descriptions in Convergence's collection of "Mathematical Treasures," to full-length expository articles and lessons ready for classroom implementation, students and instructors can find topics that speak to their interests, deepen their understandings of history, and enhance their mathematical teaching and learning. Indeed, I hope the audience will be inspired to explore the materials available from Convergence and to consider contributing to Convergence or one of the MAA's other outstanding periodicals themselves.

Marissa Loving (Georgia Tech, AWM)
Surfaces: BIG and small

As a geometric group theorist, my favorite type of manifold is a surface and my favorite way to study surfaces is by considering the mapping class group, which is the collection of symmetries of a surface. In this talk, we will think bigger than your average low-dimensional topologist and consider surfaces of infinite type and their associated "big" mapping class groups.