The annual meeting of the Michigan Section–MAA and MichMATYC
(the Michigan Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges) will be
held on Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, at Alma College, in
Alma, Michigan. This year’s program promises an interesting and
exciting mix of talks devoted to mathematics and the teaching of
mathematics. (See the online information.)
The meeting begins on Friday morning with a plenary address by Bruce Palka of the University of Texas at Austin. His title is “Why Things Go Quasi in Higher Dimension”. The talk will discuss Liouville’s 1850 theorem which shows the relative paucity of conformal mappings in Euclidean spaces of dimension three and higher in comparison to the situation in the plane, where Riemann’s mapping theorem ensures a wealth of these maps. Later in the day, this time wearing his hat as its Editor, Prof. Palka will hold an informal conversation about publishing in The Monthly. This gathering is sponsored by the NexT Fellows and—as with most of their events—all are welcome to attend.
The Friday luncheon talk will feature a panel discussion that will consider some of the implications that the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” Act holds for mathematics education. What are some of the changes that NCLB will necessitate? What are some of its possible positive outcomes, and what other changes will be necessary if they are to be achieved? These are some of the questions to be taken up by the panel, which includes Charles Allan from MSU, who is Chair of MCTM, Rebecca Walker from GVSU, and Leo Paveglio, a high school teacher from Lapeer.
The Friday afternoon speaker is Richard Tapia of Rice University. Among his many honors, some of the most recent include the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession (2004), the American Mathematical Society Distinguished Public Service Award (2003), and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Distinguished Scientist Award (2000). The title of Professor Tapia’s talk will be, “Math at Top Speed”. In this talk, he will explore—and break—some of the cherished myths in drag-racing folklore.
The Awards Banquet on Friday evening will feature Harry Coonce, University of North Dakota, who founded the Mathematics Genealogy Project. In his talk, “Tales from the Mathematics Genealogy Project”, Prof. Coonce will present a look at the history of the project, including how it was started and how it has developed over the last decade. He will also relate some of the amusing—and not so amusing—incidents along the way. Those who attend the meetings may order a T-shirt on which their complete mathematical genealogy is printed (mine includes Plucker, Gauss, and Pfaff.)
On Saturday morning, Susanna Epp of DePaul University will speak on the new CUPM guidelines, which have been published by the MAA under the title Undergraduate Programs and Courses in the Mathematical Sciences: A CUPM Curriculum Guide 2004. They were developed after four years of intensive work and interaction with the mathematical community. They are accompanied by an online publication, Illustrative Resources for CUPM Guide 2004, which was developed to serve as an existence proof that the recommendations of the Guide are indeed feasible. This talk will discuss the contents of both publications and invite comments and responses from the audience.
The meeting concludes with a Saturday luncheon talk by Marty Isaacs of the University of Wisconson. Prof. Isaacs is one of the MAA Polya Lecturers this year. He has recently published a new geometry text for college students. Emphasizing “really pretty” theorems and their proofs rather than the typical formalism, Isaacs focuses on the two classic themes of geometry, fact and proof. The title of his talk will be “Triangular Miracles.”
In addition to the plenary talks, we will have a variety of contributed talks on topics of interest from various areas of mathematics and on pedagogical issues related to particular courses. There will also be sessions devoted to talks by undergraduate and graduate students as well as book exhibits from the MAA and other publishers. Details about the schedule (including abstracts), registration, and accommodations are contained in the Program for the Annual Meeting, which is included with this Newsletter. The program is also available on the Section’s web site, http://www.michmaa.org. Please note that advance reservations for all meals must be made by April 15 and that hotel reservations must be made by April 8 in order to receive the conference rate. The deadline for submission of abstracts for student talks is April 15.
The program committee for this year consists of co-chairs John Fink (Kalamazoo C) and Mark Naber (Monroe CC), along with David Murphy (Kalamazoo C), Christine Browning (WMU), and Tim Sipka (Alma C). The local arrangements committee consists of Mel Nyman (chair), Frances Lichtman, Robert Molina, John Putz, Tim Sipka, and Aklilu Zeleke, all from Alma C.
I hope to see you in Alma this April.
John Fink, Four-Year College Vice Chair