Barry Brunson
The Task Force on Summer Meetings recommended that the Association continue to organize summer meetings without the AMS and with the assistance of a professional meeting planning organization, the Windsor Company, for the next three years, and then carefully evaluate the results. The obvious concern is the cost. Atlanta was selected to host the 1997 Summer Mathfest on August 2-4. Dr. Barbara Osofsky of Rutgers University will chair the Program Committee. I hope that many of you will plan to attend this meeting. They say it won't be quite so hard to get rooms in Atlanta as it was this summer.
The Board approved the development of a Joint AMS/MAA/NCTM Office of Minority Participation. We also approved the establishment of a Committee on Local and Regional Competitions. The Board voted to support the plan to host the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2001.
Several NExT fellows made an informative presentation to the Board. This project, sponsored by the Exxon Foundation, helps new Ph.Ds make the transition from graduate school to the classroom. They are encouraged to develop networks among themselves to discuss teaching concerns as well as other academic problems. One NExT fellow, Kristin Pfabe, is in her second year here at NKU. The speakers encouraged us to involve such fellows in Section activities including organizing similar Sectional projects. We are lucky to have six Project NExT fellows teaching here in Kentucky and I hope they will become active members of our Section. Several spoke at the Murray meeting this past spring.
I also attended the Section Officers' meeting on Saturday, August 10, from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. I received a summary of reports from all the Sections from the respective Section secretaries. Many Sections reported that colleges were participating in activities for Math Awareness Week (in April). Some schools in Kentucky participate and I would encourage them to report to the Section about activities that have been successful, so that other schools might try such ideas, too.
If you have concerns which you would like addressed by the Board of Governors, or would like more details about any of the above, please contact me about them. We meet again in January at the winter Joint Meetings in San Diego.
Peter Moore
John Oppelt Return to Table of Contents
John Wilson
Anyone is entitled to make a nomination, but nominations from chairs or MAA representatives in departments of mathematical sciences are especially solicited. For this reason, this call for nominations is sent to both department chairs and MAA representatives so that the responsibility for nominations can be shared between them.
We urge you to submit a nomination if you have someone eligible and qualified in your department. Even if not selected this year, it is an honor for someone to have been nominated. Your department will receive recognition for its commitment to excellence in teaching, and the work done in preparing a nomination folder for your candidate is not wasted, since your candidate can be nominated again in a future year. Self-nomination is not permitted.
In addition to discussing this memo with your colleagues, preferably at a department meeting, please post it in a prominent place in your department.
* "teaching" is to be interpreted in its broadest sense, not necessarily limited to classroom teaching (it may include activities such as preparing students for mathematical competitions at the college level--for example, the Putnam Prize Competition or the Mathematical Contest in Modeling--or attracting students to become majors in a mathematical science or to become Ph.D. candidates).
** "influence beyond their own institutions" can take many forms, including: demonstrated lasting impact on alumni; influence on the profession through curricular revisions in college mathematics teaching with national impact; influential, innovative books on the teaching of college mathematics; etc.
Nominations must be submitted on the Nomination Form attached. Please follow the instructions on that form precisely to assure uniformity in the selection process both at the Section and National level. If the Nomination Form is received by the Section Secretary by November 8, 1996, the Secretary will ask the nominee's Department Chair (whose name must also be submitted) to work with the nominator in supplying the additional required materials. Ultimately, a complete nomination must also include Evidence of Success in Teaching as described on the back of the nomination form. Final deadline for receipt of all materials is December 6, 1996. If the file on the Section's awardee significantly exceeds the limits prescribed, it will not be considered for a national award and will be returned to the Section. Please send one copy of all materials to the Section Secretary:
Professor Karin Chess Department of Mathematics Owensboro Community College 4800 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42303
The Section Selection Committee will select the Section awardee during December and January and communicate its selection to the National Selection Committee no later than February 1, so that the National Committee can then make its selections.
We look forward to your participation in this exciting MAA venture of taking substantive action to honor extraordinarily successful teaching. We want to see such teaching recognized at all post-secondary school levels. We depend on you to help us identify those who merit such recognition.
Nomination Form (Please type.) Name of Nominee (last name first): _____________________________________ Name of College or University: _____________________________________ College or University Address: _____________________________________ College Telephone:(_____) ___________ Home Telephone:(_____) ___________ Number of years of teaching experience in a mathematical science: ____________ Has the nominee taught at least half time in a mathematical science for the past three years (not counting a sabbatical period)? ____________ Activities related to teaching: _______________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Publications related to teaching, if any (list no more than five): _______________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Membership and significant activities in relevant professional organizations: __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Previous awards for teaching, if any: ______________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Additional relevant information:_____________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Name of Nominator (last name first): ______________________________ Address of Nominator: ____________________________________________ ______________________________ Signature
(This is an editorial. All members are invited to submit articles for this forum.)
The phrase "three on a match", by some accounts, comes from one of the World Wars. Soldiers were supposed to avoid lighting three smokes with one match; the prolonged light would enable an enemy sniper to aim and fire. Here are three small items with a common theme (the "match"), offered with the hope that they shed at least a little light.
1. The following assertion reportedly was made by an honest, well-meaning, professor of mathematics: "All this technology stuff is a fad. After a while it will pass, and we can go back to the way things used to be in the good old days."
2. Those of us on the technology bandwagon relished a collection of (bogus) quotes in the College Mathematics Journal a few years ago, chronicling opposition over the years. Specific targets included slates (What will the students do if their slates break? They won't know how to prepare bark for writing!), and store-bought ink (What will they do if they run out of ink? They won't know how to prepare their own!). I am indebted to a geographer friend for sharing the following, surely the grandparent of all such anecdotes:
Long, long, ago, learned people vehemently opposed spreading the ability to read and write amongst the general population. The argument against? If people are able to write things down and just look them up again whenever they want, then people will lose the ability to remember anything!
3. The newest entry in the hand-held technology arena is the TI-92. This device includes a version of the computer algebra system Derive. So, in addition to having the ability to plot graphs and do numerical calculations, the machine performs symbolic calculations, including factoring, expanding, solving equations, differentiating and integrating.
2+3+1. As with most humor, a kernel of truth lurks inside. The more we are able to store things for later recall, whether chalk on slate, ink on paper, or magnetic patterns on disks, we indeed are required to remember less. Eventually we will forget many things we formerly thought essential to remember. The key is that it is OK to forget those things. What will save us is the ability to sort out what is important from what is not, to distinguish the essential from the frivolous. That becomes the most valuable skill we can impart to our students as well.
The TI-92 is not the end of technological evolution, but merely a recent step. Will some of us prohibit the use of them in the classroom or on tests? Or will we find a way to probe the student's understanding in a way that utilizes the technology, but is more than mindless button-pushing?
I fear that anyone hopeful for a passing fad will be sorely disappointed. The students will buy the tools, and justly expect to use them, along with the vastly more capable tools that will follow. The genie cannot be stuffed back inside the bottle. The best consolation I can offer is that, truth be known, most students learned neither more nor better in the past than they do now. The "good old days" were far more old than good.
Karin Chess Department of Mathematics Owensboro Community College 4800 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42303
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Bellarmine College -- The student MAA chapter has plans to visit Providian for an afternoon on actuarial science. Also, a speaker on Operations Research will come to campus. [Reported by John A. Oppelt--johnaopp@iglou.com]
Centre College -- Christine Shannon will be on sabbatical leave during the spring term.
The student MAA group has met twice so far this year. At the first meeting new officers were elected and activities were planned for the year. The new officers are: President: Amos Hall; Vice-President: Mike Bradshaw; Secretary: Leslie Inman (fall) and Holli Harrison (spring); Treasurer: Emily Upton (fall) and Susan Carricoe (spring); Public Relations: Michael Lanham.
Several activities have been planned. On September 27, ten people gathered for pizza and problems. Some highlights for the rest of the semester include a croquet match between the math and chemistry students. In the spring, we look forward to a visit by Roger Howe from Yale University. We also plan to conduct a practice session for local high school students taking the AHSME. We will wind up the year with our annual picnic for new majors. [Reported by John Wilson--wilson@centre.edu]
Eastern Kentucky University -- Jackson Benton Lackey, former faculty member with the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at EKU, died on March 20, 1996.
The EKU Math Club had a picnic with the faculty at Lake Reba Park in September. The club is also making preparations to attend the national convention of Kappa Mu Epsilon in Springfield, Missouri in April, 1997. Faculty, laboratory assistants and students in EKU's MathExcel Program joined Amy King, founder of the program, in a panel discussion at the Kentucky Council of Teachers of Mathematics on October 12 at Western Kentucky University. [Reported by Ray Tennant--tennant@acs.eku.edu]
Georgetown College -- Joining the faculty is Homer White--Assistant Professor--Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Martha Watson has retired after 7 years at Georgetown. [Reported by Ann Heard--aheard@gtc.georgetown.ky.us]
Hopkinsville Community College -- Joining the faculty is Chris Mizell--Instructor--M.S., University of Memphis. [Reported by Jim Hunter--jhunt1@pop.uky.edu]
Jefferson Community College -- Ruth Gonzalez and Donna Riedel have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Shari Bennett and Annalisa Ebanks have been promoted to Professor.
Many of the faculty are involved in various projects supported by NSF, Title III and PRISM. Courses in developmental mathematics through calculus are enhanced through these grants. The projects deal with curriculum reform, use of technology and collaborative learning. [Reported by Brita Dockstader--bgdock00@ukcc.uky.edu]
Kentucky State University -- Dr. Jesse Collins, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Physics, passed away suddenly in August. He had been at Kentucky State for 14 years. [Reported by John Moseley]
Morehead State University -- Dan Seth has been promoted to Associate Professor. Three students attended the Mathematics and Statistics conference at Miami University in Oxford, OH, on September 27-28. The newly renovated Lappin Hall is now open.
MSU sponsored MPATE Day on October 2. MPATE, the Math, Physics and Technology Exploration Day, is an event attended by 450 high school students. The day-long event included puzzles, games, contests, talks, demonstrations and prizes.
Faculty members of the MSU Math Department celebrated Math Awareness Week during April 8-12 with a variety of activities. The week started with a technology workshop on CBL and Converge. Invited presenters were Darrell Abney, Dana Calland and Terry Pasley from the UK Community College system. On three of the five days, a mini-fair was held at the student center, where students exhibited posters summarizing class projects. In the evenings, movies were shown, including "Stand and Deliver," "Donald in Mathmagic Land," "There is Life After Math" and "Not Knot." To close the week, over 200 students attended the highlight of the week, a talk by Carl Lee, Chair of the Math Department at UK, entitled, "Dissecting Animals and Other Mathematical Objects." A public reception in honor of Dr. Lee has held immediately after the talk. [Reported by Gordon Nolen-- g.nolen@morehead-st.edu]
Murray State University -- Joining the faculty is Renee Fister--Assistant Professor--Ph.D., University of Tennessee. Her area of research is differential equations. Also new this year are Kenny Fister--Lecturer--M.S., University of Tennessee, and Angie Thome--Lecturer-- M.S., Kansas State University. Kay Moneyhun has been awarded tenure. Nick Britt has retired after 32 years of service to Murray State. Darla Kremer has been selected as a Project NExT fellow. [Reported by Bob Pervine--bpervine@math.mursuky.edu]
Northern Kentucky University -- Joining the faculty is Lisa Elderbrock--Assistant Professor--Ph.D., Bowling Green State University. Her areas of interest include number theory and statistics. David Agard and Robert England have both been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure.
The student MAA chapter has several activities planned for the fall. Several students attended the Miami University Fall Statistics conference on September 27-28. Students will travel to Xavier University in Cincinnati on October 16 to hear a talk given by Kristin Pfabe. Professor Pfabe and Professor Falbo-Kenkel of the Physics Department will take 15 students to the 7th annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering and Mathematics at the Argonne Labs on November 1-2. Our chapter encourages active participation by awarding small scholarships to active members each semester. Chapter sponsors are Melinda Miller and Kristin Pfabe.
Our department received an NSF grant to purchase more than 100 TI-92 symbolic and graphing calculators to lend to students in our calculus classes. The goal is explore the usefulness of this new technology in teaching calculus. Dan Curtin (curtin@nku.edu) is the principal investigator. We have also established an advanced technology laboratory for students and faculty consisting of eight Dimension XPS Pro200n computers. Robert England and Kevin Kirby, two of our Computer Science faculty, this summer installed a Beta 2 prerelease version of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 operating system and a Beta 2 version of Windows NT Server 4.0 to network the eight machines.
Professor Jordan Stoyanov is visiting our department this year from Bulgaria. His main interests are theoretical probability and problem solving, especially mathematical competitions. He has offered lectures to our faculty and students about some of the problems he is working on and will offer a problem solving course this spring. He has also worked with the International Math Olympiad competitions. His e-mail address is stoyanovj@nku.edu. [Reported by Peter Moore--moorep@nku.edu]
Owensboro Community College -- Dan Schultz has transferred from a Mathematics/Engineering position to Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. [Reported by Kathy Mowers--mowersk@aol.com]
Somerset Community College -- Joining the faculty in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics Division is Debra House. [Reported by Roger Angevine-- rlange00@ukcc.uky.edu]
University of Louisville -- Joining the faculty this year is Gregory Rempala--Assistant Professor--Ph.D., Bowling Green State University. Visiting Assistant Professors this year are Michal Morayne (areas of interest: analysis and topology) and Guantao Chen (areas of interest: combinatorics and graph theory). Ronald Graham will speak on "The Mathematics of Juggling" in the Bullit Lecture on April 1, 1997. [Reported by Wiley Williams--wwwill01@homer.louisville.edu]
Western Kentucky University -- Karen Gramling and Bruce Kessler have resumed full- time teaching as Instructors. Allan Adler is a visiting mathematician. Tom Richmond has been promoted from Associate Professor to Professor. Mark Robinson has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. Wanda Weidemann has been granted tenure.
George Downing has started full-time retirement after 40 years of service. Beginning Optional Retirement this year are Bob Bueker (after 30 years of service) and Hope Richards (after 18 years of service).
Carroll Wells received a grant from the Kentucky Council on Higher Education Eisenhower funds to conduct three professional development institutes in mathematics for K-12 teachers during the summer of 1996. Doug Mooney and Randy Swift received a "Modelling Course Development" extension grant from Kentucky PRISM. David Neal also received an extension grant from Kentucky PRISM, for "Statistical Inference on the TI- 82/83."
Barry Brunson spent a week in May at the offices of Wolfram Research in Champaign, IL, as their guest under the Wolfram Research Visiting Scholar Grant Program. He and Claus Ernst were selected as Visiting Scholars to continue working on the interactive courseware "Algebra, Trigonometry and Mathematica," which they are authoring.
"New Horizons--Expanding Successful Practices in Mathematics for Elementary Teachers," funded by an extension of an Exxon Education Foundation grant and directed by Mary Barr Humphrey and Wanda Weidemann, had its fall workshop on September 20-21 at WKU. Developers of the Math Forum at Swarthmore College helped participants learn to use the Internet to teach mathematics courses. In addition, Dr. Carol Malloy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led a session on cultural mathematics. The goal of this session was to help participants deal with diversity within the classroom.
The Annual WKU Mathematics Symposium will be held on Novermber 1-2, 1996. The title of this year's symposium is "Elements of Intrigue from the History of Mathematics." The featured speakers will be V. Frederick Rickey of Bowling Green State University, Richard Davitt of the University of Louisville, and Western math faculty James Barksdale, Barry Brunson, Pauline Lowman and Tom Richmond. [Reported by Mark Robinson-- robinson@wku.edu]
Please consider yourself invited to make any such submissions. Please send to: William Harris, Georgetown College Box 234, 400 E. College St., Georgetown, KY 40324. E-mail submissions are welcome! Send to: wharris@gtc.georgetown.ky.us
Governor Peter Moore Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci. Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY 41099 (606) 572-5331 moorep@nku.edu Chair Barry Brunson Department of Mathematics Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 42101-3576 (502) 745-6221 bbrunson@wku.edu Chair Elect John A. Oppelt Department of Mathematics Bellarmine College Newburg Road Louisville, KY 40205-0671 (502) 452-8237 johnaopp@iglou.com Vice-Chair David K. Neal Department of Mathematics Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 42101 (502) 745-6213 nealdk@wkuvx1.wku.edu Secretary/Treasurer Karin Chess Department of Mathematics Owensboro Community College 4800 New Hartford Road Owensboro, KY 42303 (502) 686-4473 kchess@occ.uky.edu Newsletter Editor William Harris Dept. of Math, Physics & Comp. Sci. Georgetown College Box 234 400 E. College St. Georgetown, KY 40324 (502) 863-7921 wharris@gtc.georgetown.ky.us AHSME Coordinator David Shannon Department of Mathematics Transylvania University Lexington, KY 40508-1797 (606) 233-8185 dshannon@music.transy.edu Student Chapters Coordinator John Wilson 600 West Walnut St. Centre College Danville, KY 40422 (606) 238-5409 wilson@centre.edu 1997 Meeting Coordinator Carroll Wells Department of Mathematics Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 42101-3576 (502) 745-6218 carroll.wells@wku.edu
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