SIGMAA ACTIVITIES AT THE
JOINT MATHEMATICS MEETINGS IN SAN ANTONIO
SIGMAAs will be hosting a number of interesting activities, sessions,
and guest lecturers. There are currently nine such focus groups
offering members opportunities to interact not only at meetings but
throughout the year via newsletters and email-based communications.
SIGMAA
Officers Meeting
Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.,
chaired by Stephen C. Carlson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
SIGMAA on
Business, Industry, and Government
Reception, Friday, 5:45 p.m. to 6:45
p.m. (see the "Social Events" section).
Mathematics Experiences in Business,
Industry and Government, Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (see the
"Contributed Paper Session" section).
SIGMAA on
Environmental Mathematics
Environmental Modeling, Thursday, 2:15
p.m. to 4:15 p.m. (see the "Invited Paper Session" section).
Business Meeting and Special Invited
Presentation, Thursday, 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m., organized by Ben A.
Fusaro, Florida State University. Guest lecturer Bruce Herbert, TAMU
Geology Department, will speak on Complex earth and environmental
systems.
The Environmental Math SIGMAA has
organized a Saturday afternoon bus trip. It will be led by Texas
A&M geologist Bruce Herbert.
The focus of the trip is a slow-moving,
massive underground river, the Edwards Aquifer. San Antonio and many
Texas cities in the surrounding region are semi arid. They, like the
18th century Spanish missions, were able to thrive because of the large
and abundant springs fed by this aquifer. It currently supplies the
water for agricultural, industrial, recreational, and domestic needs of
two million users.
We will visit the San Marcos mission,
about 45 minutes from San Antonio. There are more than 200 springs near
San Marcos, most of which burst forth from three large fissures. Along
the way, Dr. Herbert will give us a minicourse on the hydrology of the
aquifer. We will stop occasionally to examine interesting geological
features. We will depart at 1:30 pm and return at 5:00 pm.
For just $15 you can join us in this
trip led by a knowledgeable and enthusiastic educator and geologist.
Send email to Michael Pearson, pearson@maa.org, or Hal Nesbitt,
HNesbitt@maa.org, to reserve a
seat. For more information contact Ben Fusaro,
fusaro@math.fsu.edu.
SIGMAA on the
History of Mathematics
Using History of Mathematics in Your
Mathematics Courses, Friday, 8:00 a.m. to noon. (see the "Contributed
Paper Session" section).
Annual Meeting and Guest Lecture,
Friday, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., organized by Amy Shell-Gellasch,
Grafenwoer, Germany. The annual business meeting will begin with light
snacks and a cash bar. The annual invited lecture will follow the
meeting. This year Kim L. Plofker, University of Utrecht, will speak on
History of mathematics and original sources in India: A fieldwork
report. For more information, please go to the HOM SIGMAA website,
accessible from the MAA website, or contact Amy Shell-Gellasch at
amy.shellgellasch@us.army.mil.
The Shapes of Sacred Space: The
Geometry of Ancient Maya Art and Architecture, organized by Amy
Shell-Gellasch, Grafenwoer, Germany, Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.
Edwin L Barnhart, Director of Maya Exploration Center, and Christopher
Powell, Senior Research Associate of Maya Exploration Center will
discuss an exciting new line of research on what is being called “Maya
Sacred Geometry”. Based on Powell’s own original research, it will
explain how, like the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, the Maya used
proportions derived from nature in their art and architecture. Decades
of research have failed to produce a Maya “unit of measure” and now
Powell’s research finally explains why. Buildings and stone carved
panels exhibiting the Golden Proportion, as well as the dynamic
proportions of square root rectangles, are now being "discovered" all
over the ancient Maya World. Evidence for a still surviving tradition
of Maya geometry will also be presented. This session is sponsored by
the MAA SIGMAA on the History of Mathematics.
SIGMAA on the
Philosophy of Mathematics
Annual Meeting, Reception, and Guest
Lecture, Saturday, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., organized by Bonnie Gold,
Monmouth University. The meeting will be chaired by Roger A. Simons,
Rhode Island College. The guest lecture will be given by Paul
Humphreys, University of Virginia.
SIGMAA on
Quantitative Literacy
Business Meeting and Reception,
Saturday, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., organized by Caren L. Diefenderfer,
Hollins University; Judith F. Moran, Trinity College; and Maura B.
Mast, University of Massachusetts Boston.
SIGMAA on
Research in Undergraduate Mathematics
Research on the Teaching and Learning
of Undergraduate Mathematics, Friday, 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm (see the
"Contributed Paper Session" section).
Business Meeting and Guest Lecturer,
Friday, 5:45 p.m .to 7:45 p.m., organized by Barbara E. Edwards, Oregon
State University.
A MAA Notes Sampler, Sunday, 9:00 a.m.
to 10:20 a.m., organized by Barbara E. Edwards, Oregon State
University, and William O. Martin, North Dakota State University. The
panel will discuss several chapters from an upcoming MAA Notes volume
on research in undergraduate mathematics education, with emphasis on
the implications of that research in the teaching of undergraduate
mathematics courses. The volume will include papers written by
mathematics education researchers and by mathematicians discussing
topics in the undergraduate curriculum as well as overarching issues in
undergraduate mathematics education. Panelists are Chris Rasmussen, San
Diego State University; and Marilyn P. Carlson and Michael Oehrtman,
Arizona State University.
SIGMAA on
Statistics Education
First Steps for Implementing the
Recommendations of the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in
Statistics Education (GAISE) College Report, Saturday afternoon, 1:00
p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (see the "Contributed Paper Session" section).
Implications of the New ASA (GAISE)
Guidelines for Teaching Statistics, Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:20 a.m.,
organized by Thomas L. Moore, Grinnell College, and Christopher J.
Lacke, Rowan University. Participants in the Guidelines for Assessment
and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) project have created
two reports of recommendations for introductory statistics courses
(college level) and statistics education in preKto12 years. These
committees were commissioned by the American Statistical Association,
which recently approved the recommendations of both GAISE committees.
This panel will explore implications of the college-level GAISE
recommendations to how we teach introductory statistics and
implications of the preKto12 GAISE recommendations to how we prepare
elementary, middle grade, and secondary teachers as well as
implications for college statistics teachers on serving students who
enter college having studied statistics. We will hear two panelists
from each GAISE committee, one of whom will discuss the history and
context of the committee's work and the other of whom will discuss the
current state of their recommendations within their respective domains
of college-level statistics and preKto12 level statistics. Panelists
will be Robin H. Lock, St. Lawrence University; Roxy Peck, California
Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Mike Perry, Appalachian
State University; and Jessica Utts, University of California Davis. The
session will be moderated by Carolyn K. Cuff, Westminster College.
Requiring Statistics of Every
Mathematics Major: Model Courses, Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.
(see "MAA Other Sessions" section).
Business Meeting, Friday, 5:45 p.m. to
7:45 p.m., organized by Thomas L. Moore, Grinnell College. There will
be refreshments, prizes, and a chance to network with statistics
educators from around the country.
SIGMAA on the
Teaching of Advanced High School Mathematics
AP Calculus: Friend or Foe?, Saturday,
9:00 a.m. to 10:20 a.m., organized by Daniel J. Teague, North Carolina
School of Science and Mathematics. It is estimated that as many as
500,000 students are taking calculus in high school this year, the
majority of them through an AP course. Does AP calculus serve the needs
of these students for a strong foundation in mathematics or has the
rush to calculus weakened the students' background in precalculus
mathematics? Is AP calculus the best preparation for future
mathematicians? How are we addressing the 200,000 students who have
taken calculus in high school but are repeating the course in college
because they either did poorly on the AP exam, or took calculus for
college admissions with no expectation of advanced placement? What can
the MAA community of mathematicians offer AP teachers to insure that AP
calculus continues to be a friend to quality mathematics education
rather than a foe? Panelists include David M. Bressoud, Macalaster
College; Susan Schwartz Wildstrom, Walt Whitman High School; and Daniel
Kennedy, The Baylor School.
WEB SIGMAA
Business Meeting and Guest Lectures,
Friday, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., organized by Murray Eisenberg,
University of Massachusetts. The guest speakers are Thomas F. Banchoff,
Brown University, and Douglas A. Quinney, University of Keele.
Serious Data and Serious Tools on the
Web for a Serious Problem, Saturday, 2:30 p.m. to 3:50 p.m., organized
by Franklin A. Wattenberg, U.S. Military Academy. In 1972 the authors
of Limits to Growth said, "If present growth trends in world
population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource
depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will
be reached sometime within the next 100 years. The most probable result
will be a rather sudden and uncontrolled decline in both population and
industrial capacity." Julian Symon responded, "The material conditions
of life will continue to get better for most people, in most countries,
most of the time, indefinitely." Thirty-three years later the debate
rages on. Besides being an important problem, this is an excellent
venue for mathematical modeling. At the U.S. Military Academy this
topic is a theme in the mathematics program from the first semester of
the two-year core mathematics sequence through the senior-level
capstone course. This session emphasizes model-building, and analyzing
and using data obtained largely from the Web, rather than completed
models.