The Mathematical Association of America Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia Section

The Fall 2024 Meeting of the MD-DC-VA section of the MAA will be held at Old Dominion University on November 1-2, 2024.

On Friday, Aaron Trocki of Elon University will run a workshop on Strategies for Making Mathematics Engaging and Relevant, and Richard Hammack of Virginia Commonwealth University will give the banquet address, The Hypercube Pop-Up Book.

The Saturday morning address, What's Your Story? will be given by Kira Hamman of Urban Rural Action and the MAA. Bonita Saunders of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is giving the Saturday afternoon address. Details on that talk and on the workshop are coming soon.

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Aaron Trocki

Friday workshop: Strategies for Making Mathematics Engaging and Relevant

Abstract: Throughout my twenty plus years of teaching mathematics, I have been struck by the need to engage students in this rich discipline and help them see its relevance to their lives. This realization has led to numerous pedagogical experiments and collaborations to promote the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this workshop, I will share three recent efforts in undergraduate mathematics with goals that included increasing the relevance of math to students' lives; promoting reflection and engagement with student multimodal writing; and utilizing generative artificial intelligence to connect mathematics to other disciplines. Workshop participants will learn about these efforts and engage with others to develop actionable strategies for transforming mathematics teaching and learning for the students we serve.

Biographical Sketch: Aaron Trocki is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Coordinator of the Secondary Teacher Licensure Program at Elon University in North Carolina. He received his B.A. in Mathematics from Judson College, M.A. in Secondary Mathematics Teaching from Western Illinois University, and Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from North Carolina State University. He joined the Elon faculty in 2014 and teaches undergraduate courses in mathematics and courses for prospective math teachers. His research interests include evidence-based instructional practices and technology for teaching mathematics. Dr. Trocki collaborates with colleagues to make mathematics engaging and relevant to the lives and interests of students.

Richard Hammack

Banquet Address:The Hypercube Pop-Up Book

Abstract: I explain and demonstrate (with video clips) my latest project, a pop-up book about how to visualize the tesseract and other n-dimensional cubes. I also discuss the mathematics that underlies some of the book's pop-up mechanisms.

Biographical Sketch: Richard Hammack is a mathematics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests include graph theory and combinatorial topology, as well as mathematical visualization and art. He is the author of a popular open proofs textbook and coauthor of a research monograph on graph products. Hammack holds a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of design, a MS in computer science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a PhD in mathematics from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Kira Hamman

Saturday Morning Address:What's Your Story

Abstract: People have stories, and mathematicians are people. You do the modus ponens! From sweeping narratives – how did you get here and what have you learned? – to clever anecdotes – what happened in your class this week? – our stories connect us. They remind us that our experiences matter, to ourselves and to each other. When we tell our stories, we're saying, “here is what I think, how I feel, what I did. May it be of use.” Stories are offerings, and yours are valuable. The trick, of course, is in the telling, which can be difficult and time consuming and, sometimes, deeply personal. In this hands-on session, we will talk about choosing which stories to tell, navigating the telling of them, and ultimately getting them out into the world. Specifically, participants will begin a draft of a story that could be submitted to an MAA publication or another outlet that publishes math-adjacent stories. Bring your ideas, your experiences, and whatever materials or devices you use to write!

Biographical Sketch: Kira Hamman is the chair of the MAA Council on Communities and the editor of the Math Values blog. She spent 25 years as a faculty member in mathematics, during which time she worked at the intersection of math with social justice and civic engagement and on helping other mathematicians engage in public scholarship. Earlier this year, Kira left higher education to work full-time on reducing division, hate, and violence in the United States through the nonprofit organization Urban Rural Action, where she is currently the Senior Director of Programs.