The Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America is pleased to announce that Professor Ted Sundstrom has been selected as the 2004 - 2005 recipient of the Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.
Ted grew up in Grand Rapids and attended Western Michigan University as an undergraduate, where he came under the shaping influence of Eric Shreiner and John Petro. He went on to study ring theory at the University of Massachusetts with Jerry Martindale, a student of I. N. Herstein. Ted received his Ph. D. from the University of Massachusetts in 1973 and that same year joined the Mathematics Department of what was then the Grand Valley State Colleges. Since 1988, Ted has been Professor of Mathematics at Grand Valley State University.
One of Ted's acclaimed strengths is his ability to teach students how to communicate their results, especially in writing. While there are several texts on the market that cultivate these skills, none have the philosophy of actively engaging students in the material to the extent that Ted does. To fill that gap, Ted developed a collection of activities and notes for his students to allow them to experiment, investigate and learn for themselves, with appropriate guidance. Ultimately, this resulted in Ted's latest work, Mathematical Reasoning, Writing, and Proof, published by Prentice-Hall in 2003. This book is now being used at over 25 colleges and universities around the country. One professor who uses this text writes: "Ted's book is the epitome of what a textbook for math undergraduates should be. It is reader-friendly and more importantly student-friendly … it is a very effective tool in enabling students to learn how to write mathematical proofs."
Early in his career Ted began writing material and texts that were at the leading edge of pedagogy for the time. In the late 1970's Ted coauthored Precalculus and Graphs, one of the first books to incorporate the use of a scientific calculator as an integral part of the material of the text. The book was under contract with a leading publisher at the time but reviewers objected to the explicit calculator requirement, so the text was never published.
Twenty years later Ted coauthored another text that incorporated technology, Exploring Calculus with a Graphing Calculator. This was written with Charlene Beckmann and published by Addison-Wesley in 1992. Ted introduced the idea of using calculators in the lower level mathematics courses at Grand Valley and was instrumental in having calculators required in precalculus and calculus courses. He was a driving force behind the implementation of Maple in the Grand Valley calculus and linear algebra courses.
Ted has taught almost every course in the curriculum at Grand Valley, and at every level he teaches with the same dedication to provide the best learning environment for his students and to ensure that they have the opportunity to obtain the maximum amount of learning from his courses.
Students express appreciation for Ted's enthusiasm for mathematics and for the interest he takes in his students. One writes: "Many students will stay on campus to study at tables outside Dr. Sundstrom's office because it is an enjoyable environment."
The Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America is proud to be represented by dedicated teachers such as Professor Ted Sundstrom.
Back to the Fall 2005 Newsletter
This page is maintained by Scott Barnett.