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Iowa Section of the Mathematical Association of America |
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| Call for papers | Elections | Campus Information | Lodging | Schedule | Abstracts | Preregistering |
The centennial meeting of the Iowa Section of the Mathematics Association of America will soon be here. Friday night, we will celebrate the centennial with pizza and birthday cake. (Please contact Sergio Loch if you have special dietary needs, and we will do our best to provide an alternative meal.) Following the celebration, we are fortunate to have Arthur Benjamin performing his "Mathemagics!" show Friday night at 7:30 p.m. There will be two invited talks on Saturday: Stephen Kennedy from the MAA on Saturday morning (time 8:30-9:30 a.m.) and Steve Butler, last year's Iowa Section teaching award winner, on Saturday afternoon.
Arthur Benjamin
Harvey Mudd College
Mathemagics!
Arthur Benjamin will demonstrate and explain how to mentally add and multiply numbers faster than a calculator, how to figure out the day of the week of any date in history, and other amazing feats of mind. He has presented his mixture of math and magic to audiences all over the world.
Stephen Kennedy
Carleton College
Senior Acquisition Editor of Mathematical Association of America
Halving Your Cake
It is a problem as old as humanity: given a resource to be shared (water, land, cake) how can it be shared fairly between several people? The answer, in the case of two claimants, is simple and ancient and known to every five-year-old with a sibling: I cut,You choose. Things get much more interesting, and challenging, if one has more than one sibling. We are forced to ask ourselves exactly what “fairly” means in the question; “fair” from whose point of view and by what criteria?
Steve Butler
Iowa State University
2015 Iowa Section Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics Award Winner
An Introduction to the Mathematics of Juggling
Juggling and mathematics have been done for thousands of years, but the mathematics of juggling is a relatively new field that dates back a few decades and looks at using the tools of mathematics to analyze, connect, and count various juggling patterns. We will introduce some of the very basic results related to the mathematics of juggling with a particular emphasis at looking at the various methods used to describe juggling patterns.
As usual, we hope for a wide variety of talks from our own members. If you have something interesting to say about mathematics or teaching, contribute a talk and share with the rest of the section. Students (both undergraduates and graduates) are encouraged to participate.
Proposals for talks are due in September 30. Please use the electronic submission form, if at all possible. (Logging in first will make it easier, so you are encouraged to do so.) If you are unable to use the submission site, please send the following information to Jason Smith:
Contact information for Jason Smith: Jason Smith Mathematics Department Graceland University 1 University Place Lamoni, IA 50140 voice: 507-828-5403 email: jajsmith@graceland.edu
We will be holding elections for a new Vice-Chair Elect at the meeting. The candidates for Vice-Chair Elect are Steve Butler (Iowa State) and Angie Kohlhaas (Loras).
Here is a link to a map of the Grand View University campus: http://www.grandview.edu/userdocs/doc_maps/gv_campus_map.pdf.
The meetings will be in the student center, #29 on the map. Guests can park in the parking lot just South of the Student Center as well as in the parking lots behind buildings 19 and 26.
Hotel options: (Remember to tell them that you are with the Iowa Section of the MAA.)
Blocks of rooms are reserved at the following two hotels (through Sept. 25):
Hampton Inn & Suites Des Moines Downtown
120 SW Water Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
$139
(515) 244-1650
Residence Inn Des Moines Downtown
100 SW Water Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
$139
(515) 288-4500
Additional options:
Travelodge Des Moines
4685 A Northeast 14th St, I-35, Exit 136, Des Moines, IA 50313
$65 - 75
844-491-8722
Baymont Inn & Suites Des Moines
4685 NE 14th St, Des Moines, IA 50313
$75 - $95
(800)-916-1392
Here is a link to the schedule: Schedule
If you have questions, please contact the
Chair, Amanda Matson amanda.matson@clarke.edu (for general issues);
Vice-Chair, Jason Smith jajsmith@graceland.edu (for program issues);
Vice-Chair Elect, Sergio Loch sloch@grandview.edu (for local, on-site issues);
or Secretary, Susan Crook at susan.crook@loras.edu (for registration or other issues).
Thank you for considering preregistering for the upcoming meeting. This will save you time at the meeting, make it easier for our secretary at the meeting, and increase the efficiency in gathering the data that the MAA headquarters asks of us for each meeting (including gender, whether you are a presenter, and student/faculty/other status). When you come to the registration table at the meeting, indicate that you have already preregistered. Your name will be looked up from the list gathered from this registration tool and you will only need to pay the registration fee ($10) to complete the process. Preregistration takes place here. Note that you can use this page whether you are currently in our database or not (see below), but the process will be much easier if you already are.
We are trying to maintain an up-to-date database of all section members to provide better communication, save expenses on mailings, and help with the registration and proposal process. If you have not already updated your information, you may do so by using the log in page here. The credentials that you need here are your email and your password. If you forgot your password, you can always have it sent to by using the "I forgot my password" link on the log in page (log in). This assumes that you are in the system. If you are not sure if you are or not, check here. If you are not in the system, use the Contact menu there to send a message to request to be added.