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Iowa Section of the Mathematical Association of America |
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This is the web edition of the Iowa Section Newsletter. To receive a printed copy of the newsletter or to make suggestions/comments, please contact the editor, Joy Becker, joy.becker@wartburg.edu.
2017 Distinguished College or University Teacher of Mathematics for the Iowa Section:
Do you have a colleague that is an excellent teacher? You should nominate that individual for the 2017 Distinguished College or University Teacher of Mathematics Award for the Iowa Section of the MAA. The call for nominations will be out shortly. The winner gets to compete for the national MAA Distinguished College or University Teacher of Mathematics Award.
Submitted by Section Chair Jason Smith
Graceland University
jajsmith@graceland.edu
The Sections Officers' Meeting at the Joint Mathematics Meetings was held on Wednesday, January 4, 2017, from 4 - 5 pm, and was chaired by Betty Mayfield. Here are some highlights from that meeting:
Submitted by Section Vice Chair Sergio Loch
Grand View University
sloch@grandview.edu
Al Hibbard of Central College was awarded the 2016 MAA Iowa Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Congratulations, Al!
Nominations for the 2017 MAA Iowa Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics will be solicited soon.
Ruth Berger of Luther College was presented with the 2016 MAA Iowa Section Meitorious Service Award by MAA President Francis Su at MathFest in Columbus, OH. Each section of the MAA may nominate one member for the award every five years. Ruth was selected for her many contributions to the section, especially as competition coordinator. Congratulations and thanks for your service, Ruth!
The 23rd annual Iowa Collegiate Math Competition was held on Saturday, March 4, 2017, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Ten different Iowa Colleges and Universities were represented by the 20 teams of 3 students each. Problems and solutions on can be found on the competition website: contest page . There were 21 teams from 11 different Iowa colleges and universities. Here are the top 2017 teams:
1st place: "Jump" from Grinnel College. TCongratulations to team members Molly Skouson, Jonathan Sadun, and Peng Linqing. (91 points)
2nd place: A three-way tie with teams from the Univeristy of Iowa, Drake University, and Grinnel College (80 points)
3rd place: Cornell College (68 points)
4th place: Luther College (64 points)
5th place: A tie between Iowa State University/Coe College and Cornell College (63 points)
Congratulations to all participants! We hope to see you at the 2018 competition, which will be hosted by Grinnell College. Details will be announced at the Fall Iowa MAA Meeting.
See the contest page for further information. For questions or comments, contact:
Ruth Berger
Luther College
bergerr@luther.edu
The Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conference, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is a one-day (July 13) conference showcasing the latest concepts, research and innovations in the fast-growing field of sports analytics. Featuring speakers and presenters from professional and college sports organizations, the business sector and the academic community, the conference will cover innovations and evolutions in strategy, technology, training and more.
The conference will feature an opportunity for students and faculty to present posters or oral presentations on sports analytics topics in fields as diverse as mathematics, athletic training, business, biology, computer science, GIS, journalism.
For more information visit http://www.uwsp.edu/analyticsconference.
Submitted by Scott Tappa
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
scott.tappa@uwsp.edu
July 13, 2017 - Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conference at University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
July 26-29 , 2017 - MathFest in Chicago, IL
October 20-21, 2017 - Fall Meeting of the Iowa Section at Loras college, Dubuque
January 10-13, 2018 - JMM in San Diego, CA
The following items have been submitted by the liaisons for the corresponding departments. If your department has news that is not included, please contact your liaison so that it can be included and have them e-mail the editor, Joy Becker, joy.becker@wartburg.edu.
Luther College
Ruth Berger
bergerr@luther.edu
The Luther Math department is very proud to announce that graduating senior Erin Ellefsen has been awarded the esteemed McElroy Trust fellowship. Erin is planning to pursue a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Joyce Becker continues her position as Iowa Private College Representative to the Governing Board of IAMTE Iowa Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. She also took eight pre-service students to the Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics Pre-Conference Session in Des Moines, Iowa last October.
Ruth Berger attended MathFest 2016 in Columbus OH, where she received the MAA’s Iowa Section Meritorious Service Award. She also presented a talk “Explorations using Cinderella”, discussing worksheets she developed for her Geometry class using this dynamic software.
Richard Bernatz authored an article entitled "The Math Inquiry Workshop as a Preparation for the HiMCM" that was published in "Consortium: The Newsletter of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications," Number 112 Spring/Summer Edition 2017, pages 15-18. The article describes key aspects of the HHMI math modeling workshop for high school students and instructors that Richard developed, organized, and ran for two summers.
Kyle Fey received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, effective this fall. Kyle also assisted with the summer HHMI math inquiry workshop last summer.
Tommy Occhipinti recently published the article “Explicit points on y2 + xy - tdy = x3 and related character sums” with Christopher Davis in the Journal of Number Theory. Over the summer he worked with two students on modeling the United States macroeconomy with directed graphs using ideas from Geoffrey Wyatt. The students presented their research at NCUR this spring.
University of Dubuque
Dick Smith
dsmith@dbq.edu
We have two new mathematics faculty members at the University of Dubuque. They are husband and wife: Dr. Alina Klein (aklein @dbq.edu) and Dr. Rudy Klein (rklein@dbq.edu). Their sub-specialities are both economics and statistics. They are teaching courses that support mathematics, economics and business departments. Dr. Roseanne Wolf and Dr. Corissa Goertzen are also still in the department.
Dick Smith and his graduate student, Kris Nelson, have been working on a project with Dr. Dan Flath from Macalester College. We presented a talk at the Minnesota Regional MAA conference this fall. Please see the abstract below. Our discoveries are really "cute" and might be presented at the Iowa MAA conference in the future. We hope to publish our fun in the MAA journal soon.
Title: Curious Area and Volume Ratios
Presenters: Dick Smith, Associate Professor of Mathematics, University of Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa;
Dan Flath, Professor of Mathematics, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota;Kris Nelson, Graduate Student, University of Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa
Abstract: This presentation features a square with two line segments drawn from each vertex to points ONE unit from the opposite vertex of the square. These eight segments produce an octagon. The ratio of the octagon to the square produces triangular numbers. It will also show that as the square gets very large that the octagon approximates a square with an area of ½.
The three dimensional extension draws three segments from each vertex of a cube to points ONE unit from the opposite vertex of the cube. These twenty four segments
produce a solid. The ratio of the cube to the solid is always a whole number. As the cube gets very large the solid has a volume of 1/4.
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