Winter 2002 Newsletter

From the Chair Hey Students
The Annual KYMAA Meeting Dates and Forms
The Invited Talks Future Meetings
Call for Papers The Governor's Corner

From the Chair

Our next section meeting will be held April 5 - 6, 2002 at Georgetown College. Soon there will be a webpage for the meeting with information on proposal deadlines, registration, hotels, and directions to the Georgetown College. Bill Fenton, our chair-elect, from Bellarmine University, has more about the meeting below at: The Annual KYMAA Meeting. Please think about presenting a paper at the meeting - March 2nd is the deadline for submitting an abstract.

I look forward to seeing you in April at Georgetown College.

David Shannon
Chair for KYMAA


The Annual KYMAA Meeting

The 2002 Annual Meeting for KYMAA will be be held April 5-6, 2002 at Georgetown College in Georgetown, just north of Lexington. This should be an outstanding meeting and we strongly encourage you to join the fun. Perhaps you can give a talk, or just come and listen to what your fellow mathematicians are up to these days.

More information is provided below, including a description of the invited talks, a call for papers, information for students, and the various meeting forms.

We are presently assembling information to facilitate your attendence of the meeting, including directions, and lodging and meal information. This information will be available on the 2002 Annual Meeting webpage, and will also appear in the next newsletter in early March.


The Invited Talks

The short course on Friday afternoon will be conducted by Professor Bonnie Gold of Monmouth University and the SAUM Project. "Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics" is a three-year project of the MAA and funded by the NSF. The objective of the project is to support faculty members and departments in their efforts to assess student learning, by producing a workshop series, a volume of case studies and syntheses of case studies on assessment, and a web site for information about assessment.

Rather than a typical workshop, this session will be a forum aimed at stimulating thought and discussion on assessment. Of particular interest are experiences with assessment of:

  1. coherent blocks of courses of undergraduate mathematical sciences, including entire degree programs; The targeted blocks of courses are:
    • the major in mathematics,
    • courses for future teachers,
    • school mathematics as a preparation for college mathematics, usually called college placement programs, and
    • general education courses, including those aimed at quantitative literacy,
  2. individual courses, especially reform courses, using various assessment tools across varieties of institutions.
All are encouraged to share their experiences and questions concerning assessment. If anyone from our Kentucky Section wishes to join Professor Gold in leading these discussions, please contact Bill Fenton at wfenton@bellarmine.edu.

On Friday evening, the invited talk will be given by Professor Roger Nelsen of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Prof. Nelsen is well known as the author of the best-selling Proofs Without Words volumes from the MAA. His talk will feature a selection of these proofs and should appeal to students and faculty alike.

The Saturday morning speaker has not yet been confirmed. Updated information will appear soon on these webpages...


Call for Papers

One of the main activities of our annual meetings is the presentation of papers by faculty and students. Please consider giving a talk at this year's meeting. Use this opportunity to share mathematical ideas and insights, an interesting mathematical application, or an effective teaching innovation with your colleagues from across the state. For students, consider reporting on an honor's project or a summer research project. A panel presentation on current mathematical issues is always interesting.

For both faculty and students, if you wish to make a presentation, fill out the Presentation Abstract Form and submit by March 1, 2002. A copy of the form can be obtained below under Forms for the Meeting. In general, talks are scheduled for 20-minute intervals. (Special presentations can be allocated if a longer time is necessary.) It is important to note any special needs and a time preference on this form. Submit the Presentation Abstract Form by either regular mail, e-mail, or fax to:

Bill Fenton
Department of Mathematics
Bellarmine University
Louisville, KY 40205
e-mail: wfenton@bellarmine.edu
fax: 502-452-8074

Hey Students

We have some fun things planned for the meeting for students and we'd love to have you join as at the meeting! Pizza will probably be involved and we'd love to have any of you present a paper or talk at the meeting. Students also have reduced rates - check out the registration forms via the links below...


Dates and Forms for the Meeting

Please note the following dates for the KYMAA Annual Meeting:
  • March 1 : deadline for submitting abstracts for talks at the meeting
  • March 5 : is the last day Best Western will hold a room in the block of 40 set aside for the meeting (see below)
  • March 15 : publication date of meeting program on this webpage
  • March 22 : is the last day Hampton Inn will hold a room in the block of 20 set aside for the meeting (see below)
  • MARCH 29 : is the Registration Deadline. You Must register by this date if you would like to join us for meals at the meeting...the caterer needs a headcount by this date.
  • April 5-6 : a grand celebration of Kentucky mathematics at Georgetown College!

html Presentation Abstract Faculty Registration Student Registration
latex Presentation Abstract Faculty Registration Student Registration
pdf Presentation Abstract Faculty Registration Student Registration
postscript Presentation Abstract Faculty Registration Student Registration
word Presentation Abstract Faculty Registration Student Registration


Future KYMAA Meetings

Our schedule of hosts for future section meetings is:
2002 Georgetown College
2003 Bellarmine University
2004 Murray State University
2005 tentative for Centre College

Please contact any officer of KYMAA if you would interested in hosting a future meeting; we're always on the look out for a good meeting site!


The Governor's Corner

The Joint Mathematics Meeting was held in San Diego January 6-9, 2002. The Board of Governor's met on Saturday, January 5th, and as usual had a long agenda of routine business, committee reports, and action items that required Board approval.

The MAA continues to grow in size, in services, and in its influence with national mathematical concerns. As of December 31, 2001, MAA's total membership was 32,558 which is an increase of 10.70% over last year's total membership. Moreover, there were 57 new Institutional memberships.

The MAA has added its fourth SIGMAA (Special Interest Group). The SIGMAA on the History of Mathematics is now open for membership. The previous three special interest groups are the SIGMAA on Business, Industry and Government (BIG), SIGMAA on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (RUME), and the SIGMAA on Statistics Education. Each SIGMAA sets its own dues and the members are billed as part of the general dues notice. There are several other groups that have applied to become SIGMAAs and are awaiting the approval of the Committee on SIGMAAs.

The MAA continues to publish great books at a very reasonable cost to its members. There were 12 new books published during the past year and I encourage you to add them to your personal and departmental libraries. Note that MAA books will be available at our Section meeting at a discounted price.

The Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) is composed of members from various mathematical societies including members from the MAA's Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET). The Board has published a new CBMS volume The Mathematical Education of Teachers. The document is recommended reading and is available on the web at www.maa.org.cbms or may be purchased from the MAA.

Speaking of reading, if you have not already done so you may want to check out Read This! the highly acclaimed MAA Online book review column. Go to MAA Online and click on "New Reviews," or go directly to http://www.maa.org/reviews/reviews.html. These reviews are written by Fernando Gouvea (editor of both MAA Online and the Focus) and others.

The MAA is involved with many initiatives. While too numerous to mention in totality, two that will potentially have strong impacts are:

  • Mathematical education of teachers (see above)--- is a high priority for this decade.
  • Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics---the MAA has been awarded $499,928 for a three year project "Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics (SAUM). Bernie Madison is the Project Director. SAUM will be compiling a (second) volume of case studies and syntheses, building a website on assessment, and conducting a series of workshops on how to establish effective assessment programs. (Editor's note: the Friday short course at this year's KYMAA annual meeting will be a discussion panel associated with this project.)
Note the following dates for meetings:
  • MathFest 2002 in Burlington Vermont from August 1-3, 2002
  • 2003 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Baltimore Maryland from January 15-18, 2003
  • MathFest 2003 in Boulder Colorado from July 31 - August 2, 2003
  • 2004 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Phoenix Arizona from January 7-10, 2004
  • 2005 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Atlanta Georgia from January 5-8, 2005
  • 2006 Joint Mathematics Meeting in San Antonio Texas from January 12-15, 2006

On a more immediate and local note --- why not renew old friendships, make new friends, and enjoy interesting presentations at our KYMAA section meeting hosted by our colleagues at Georgetown College on April 5th & 6th.

Since my term on the Board of Governors ends this spring, this is my last newsletter report to you as Governor of the Kentucky Section of the MAA. I want to thank the members of the section for allowing me to serve these past three years as your Governor. It has been an enjoyable and educational experience.

Don Bennett
Governor for KYMAA