Florida Section Newsletter
October 1996
Volume 18, Issue 1

MAA Florida Section Officers for 1996-97

President

Don Hill
Department of Mathematics
Florida A&M University
Tallahassee, FL 32307
(904) 599-3595
email:  dhill@math.fsu.edu
SunCom:  286-3595

Past President

Leonard Lipkin
Department of Math & Statistics
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL 32224
(904) 646-2467
email:  llipkin@unf1vm.bitnet
Fax: (904) 646-2563
SunCom:  861-2468

President-Elect

Shiv Aggarwal
Department of Physical Sciences
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach, FL  32114
(904) 226-6706
email:  aggarwal@db.erau.edu
Fax:  (904) 226-6621

Vice-President for Programs

Joe Mott
Department of Mathematics
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
(904) 644-4419
email:  mott@math.fsu.edu
Fax:  (904) 644-4053

Vice-President-Elect for Programs

Chuck Lindsey
Department of Mathematics
Florida Gulf Coast University
Ft. Meyers, FL  33919
(941) 432-5554
email:  clindsey@fgcu.edu
Fax:  (941) 432-5599

Vice-President for Site Selection

David Kerr
Department of Mathematics
Eckerd College
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
(813) 864-8432
email:  kerr@eckerd.edu
Fax:  (813) 864-8382

Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection

J.C. Campbell
St. Petersburg Junior College
P.O. Box 41223
St. Petersburg, FL  33743
(813) 341-4618
email:  campbellj@email.spjc.cc.fl.us
Fax:  (813) 341-4770

Co-Secretary-Treasurer

Ernest Ross
12229 69th Terrace, North
Seminole, FL 34642
(813) 391-7159
email:  errossjr@aol.com

June White
St. Petersburg Junior College
Clearwater, FL  34625
(813) 791-2542
email:  whitejune@email.spjc.cc.fl.us
Fax:  (813) 791-2601

Newsletter Editor

Mark Anderson
Rollins College
Winter Park, FL 32789
(407) 646-2323
email:  manderso@rollins.edu
Fax:  (407) 646-2479

Section Governor

Frederick Hoffman
Department of Mathematics
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561) 367-3345
email:  hoffman@acc.fau.edu
Fax:  (561) 367-2436
SunCom:  238-3345

President's Message

Let me extend a warm invitation to you to join us for our annual meeting, which will be held this year at Florida State University here in Tallahassee. Phil Novinger and his committee are making all the local arrangements necessary for our ease and comfort. Joe Mott, also from FSU, and the program committee, consisting of elected and appointed members from across our state, are busy assembling an outstanding program.

One of the major strengths of the Florida Section, perhaps more so than any other section, is that we represent a broad segment of the mathematical community. Our members come from research institutions, four year colleges, community colleges, high schools, and business, industry and government. We are senior faculty, beginning faculty, students, and retirees. We are private and public. Women and minorities are not only present, but play essential roles in leadership positions. On second thought, it might be more accurate to say that we represent a broad segment of the mathematical community, not as it is, but as it should be. In any case, please come and invite a colleague to come with you. Tallahassee will be absolutely beautiful at that time of year.

One word of advice - book your hotel reservations early. The legislature will be in session and rooms will be hard to find if you wait. Otherwise Kandy and I invite you to stay with us. Just bring your sleeping bag and join the twenty or thirty other mathematicians sleeping on our floors who did not make reservations in time.

Finally, and on a more serious note, Thanksgiving will soon be with us and I give thanks for being able to earn my livelihood as a mathematician here in Florida. Of course I know that conditions are far from perfect and there is great variance within our section's membership, but this year I have visited universities in Bulgaria, Zimbabwe, and Brazil and I can tell you that we are indeed fortunate.

Don Hill

The Ohio State University College Short Course Program

The Ohio State University College Short Course Program -- affiliated with the Teachers Teaching With Technology Program -- will be funding many 3 or 5-day short courses throughout the United States in 1996 - 97. We are now taking applications for host site colleges.

Courses include appropriate content material for the developmental college algebra-trigonometry, precalculus and calculus, calculus levels. Participants will learn how to use Texas Instrument's hand-held technology to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Pedagogical, testing, and implementation issues are addressed in all courses. Some AMATYC Standards recommendations will be implemented in appropriate courses.

Three-day courses may be held during the academic year, and 3 or 5-day courses may be offered during the summer of 1997. Mini-grant application forms are available at:

http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/Entities/Organizations/TCSC/index.html
or
http://www.ti.com/calc/docs/shrt.htm

Hard copies of the application form can be obtained from Bert Waits and Frank Demana through Ed Laughbaum at The Ohio State University, 231 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, or via e-mail at: elaughba@math.ohio-state.edu.

Make Your Nominations Now!

Recommendations For Awards

The Awards Committee is seeking recommendations for two awards to be given in 1997: the Service Award to be given for outstanding service to the Florida Section, and the Teaching Award to recognize distinguished college or university teaching. Please send names for either award to:

Bruce Edwards
201 Walker Hall
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32612
(904) 392-6165
FAX: (904) 392-8385
be@math.ufl.edu

Make Your Nominations Now!

Do you have any suggestions for officers for the Florida Section of the MAA?

This year we will be searching for a President Elect, Vice President Elect for Programs, Vice President Elect for Site, and Secretary/Treasurer. Please send your suggestions to the chair of the Nominating Committee:

Leonard Lipkin
University of North Florida
Jacksonville, FL 32224
(904) 646-2468
llipkin@unf1vm.unf.edu

Eckerd College

We recently completed the construction of a mathematics computing lab composed of 21 Macintosh PowerPC's. The computers are linked to our campus network and outfitted with the software packages Mathematica, Minitab, Netscape, and WordPerfect. We are currently teaching all of our calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, numerical analysis, probability and statistics in this laboratory setting.

Faculty News:
Jerry Junevicus served as a grader this summer for the AP Calculus exam.

David Kerr was selected to participate in a 5 year grant with San Diego State University on Constructing Physics Understanding. Stoically, he will now spend the next 2 summers in San Diego.

Bill Maddox is the Resident Director of our London Study Center for the fall semester.

Bill Maddox and Jerry Junevicus served as judges for the state science fair in Orlando in April. Jerry captained the Junior High Group of Judges.

Vaughn Morrison led a group of Eckerd students to Belize in January 1996 to complete a winter term course on the Natural History of Belize.

David Kerr and Walter Walker conducted hands-on workshops for Discovery Day - our annual science and technology festival. Walter conducted 3 training sessions on the TI-82 graphing calculator. David conducted 2 evolutions on Mathematica and computer-supported learning.

Walter Walker was named one of the MVP's in this years Faculty - Alumni basketball game. Unfortunately, the faculty team lost (once) again.

Student News:
Soupy Alexander, Nat Anderson, Brian Guire, Janice Hartnup, Cliff Mann, and John Villalpando attended the March meeting of the Florida Section. John made a student presentation on Arc Length & Uniform Convergence.

Mark Croxford attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Asheville, NC and presented a paper on m-accretive operators in Banach spaces.

Paul Coles and Eric Lehr were inducted into the Florida Gamma chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon.

Manatee Community College

Bradenton Campus

Retirements: After 29 years of college teaching, Professor Jane Early retired in May 1995. She is keeping active with new business ventures, but still finds time to teach as an adjunct.

Promotions: Effective August, 1996, Paige S. Barker and W. Grant Stallard were promoted to the rank of Professor. James A. Condor and Nancy R. Johnson were promoted to Associate Professor.

Professional Growth: In December, 1995, Michael J. Mears received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. Paige Barker, James Condor, Tom Hamersma, Nancy Johnson, Arumugan Muhundan, Dennis Runde, and Lori Smellegar are all currently enrolled in doctorate programs.

Upcoming Events: MCC will be hosting the 21st Annual Suncoast Regional Meeting of the Florida Section of MAA on December 6, 1996. Professor Allen R. Angel will be the Keynote speaker and Dr. Jack Crocker will be the Dinner speaker.

Sad Notes: Mr. Ray Woods, former math Dept. Chair, passed away in August 1996. Ray retired in 1992. Mr. W. Grant Stallard was diagnosed with brain cancer during the summer. He is currently on a leave of absence while undergoing treatment. He plans to return to work in January.

Tallahassee Community College

Tallahassee Community College will be the site of the Tallahassee Regional meeting of FL-MAA on November 14. Jim Gaunt is in charge of site arrangements. Moana Karsteter of mathematics and Carol Zimmerman of chemistry are team teaching an interdisciplinary college algebra/physical science course this semester. The mathematics faculty have formed a study group to review and discuss calculus reform projects. This group is led by Gaye Eatman and Doug Jones. Guesna Dohrman received a grant for a Precalculus Enrichment Program for underrepresented persons.

St. Johns River Community College

Mark Wilson is the newest member of the Mathematics Department. Mark received a Bachelor's degree from Rutger's University and a Master's degree from the University of Florida. He has taught at Indian River Community College and Santa Fe Community College prior to joining our Department. Mark will teach on our St. Augustine Campus.

Mark Turner has left the College to pursue a career interest in Tennessee. We thank him for five years of service and wish him the very best.

The Department has added a one-credit-hour course: MTB1304, Using the Graphing Calculator. The topics are arithmetic operations, graphs, programming, matrices, and statistics.

Suncoast XXI

The 21st Annual Suncoast Regional Meeting of the Florida Section of the MAA will be held at Manatee Community College in Bradenton on Friday, December 6, 1996, beginning at 2:45 p.m. and concluding with a dinner on campus. Presentations by mathematics teachers from secondary school to college and universities will be featured. For further information, contact:

Paige Barker or Nancy Johnson
Mathematics Department
Manatee Community College
P.O. Box 1849
Bradenton, FL 34206.
Phone: (941) 755-1511.

R. Kent Nagle Memorial Lecture Series

30th Annual
MAA Florida Section
Meeting

The 30th Annual Florida Section of MAA meeting will be held on Friday and Saturday, February 28 and March 1, 1997 on the campus of Florida State University at the Center for Professional Development on the campus of Florida State University. The Center for Professional Development is located on Pensacola Street one block west of the Tallahassee Civic Center between Railroad Avenue and Copeland Street.

Visit the Section Meeting Home Page

To date two people have accepted our invitation to be plenary speakers. Don Albers from MAA and DeWitt Sumners from FSU will speak on knot theory and DNA. We are planning special sessions on History of Mathematics and Student Assessment in Technology- Based Courses as well as contributed papers from faculty and students. If there is sufficient interest, we will schedule a visit to the Magnetic Laboratory.

If you have any ideas for a workshop on Friday morning, or would like to visit the Magnetic Lab, contact Joe L. Mott at Florida State University.

Call For Papers

When making reservations, mention the MAA meeting hosted by the Florida State University Mathematics Department. Rooms will be held at the indicated rates until February. Distances from motels/hotels to the Center for Professional Development are indicated in parentheses.

Capital Inn (1.2 miles)
1302 Apalachee Parkway
(904) 877-3141
$38 + tax includes continental breakfast

Collegiate Village Inn (2.5 miles)
2121 W. Tennessee Street
(904) 576-6121
$40 + tax includes continental breakfast and
evening cocktails. Free rides from airport.

Ramada Limited (1.5 miles)
Corner Tennessee and Brevard
(904) 224-7116
$45 + tax includes continental breakfast

Cabot Lodge (4.0 miles)
2735 North Monroe
(904) 386-8880
$57 + tax includes continental breakfast &
two-hour evening cocktail reception

Radisson Hotel (1.2 miles)
415 North Monroe
(904) 224-6000
$82 + tax

Save Time & Money!
Register Now!!