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CUSAC Spring 2009 Newsletter

Spring 2009

Chapter News
The Newsletter for Advisors of Student Chapters of the MAA

MathFest 2009



Students and faculty will meet in Portland, OR August 6 - 8, 2009, for MathFest 2009. For information about upcoming activities, see the articles below.

Call for Undergraduate Student Papers
by Robert W. Vallin
Undergraduate Student Activity:
Secrets of Mental Math
Art Benjamin
Math Jeopardy

Guide to Writing an Abstract Undergraduate Student Activity:
Chop-chop! A Look at Dissection Puzzles
Travis Kowalski
MAA Lecture for Students:
Mathemagic with a Deck of Cards
on the Interval Between 5.700439718 and 806581751709438785716606368564037
66975289505440883277824000000000000

Colm Mulcahy
MAA - PME Student Reception MAA Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)
Winners Recognized
Student Problem Solving Competition
Student Hospitality Center MAA Ice Cream Social


For more information about student events, see /mathfest/students.cfm.

For up-to-the-minute information about MathFest, check out the MathFest wiki.



2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings


In January 2009, faculty and students met in Washington, DC for the Joint Mathematics Meetings. This national meeting of the MAA and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) brought together many opportunities for students to present their research, network with faculty and meet other students. Faculty also had opportunities to gather information about organizing activities for math clubs and MAA Student Chapters. See the articles below for more information.

Undergraduate Poster Session
By Diana Thomas
Montclair State University
MAA Lecture for Students:
Nathaniel Dean
By Samantha Corvino, Undergraduate
Slippery Rock University
MAA Diversity Initiative
By Jean Bee Chan
Sonoma State University
Math Club in a Box
By Kay Somers
Moravian College
Student Hospitality Center
By Richard Neal
Meet the Speaker
By Richard Neal



Other Information

April is Math Awareness Month. This year's theme is "Mathematics and Climate." Calculus, differential equations, numerical analysis, probability, and statistics are just some of the areas of mathematics used to understand the oceans, atmosphere, and polar ice caps, and the complex interactions among these vast systems.

NSF Special Report - Math: What is the problem? Highlighting the importance of mathematics, this report features MAA President David Bressoud in the ’Learning the Language of Mathâ? video segment, and also has links to a variety of on-line resources.

AMS List of REU Opportunties for Summer 2009



Look to the MAA for Career Information and Job Searching

No matter what stage of their education your students are in, the MAA has the career resources they need. The MAA website has several places dealing with vocational possibilities. The MAA Career Page contains descriptions of many of the myriad of professions for people with mathematics degrees along with links to follow for more information. An electronic version of Andrew Sterrett’s 101 Careers in Math is available. Here one can get first-hand accounts of what mathematicians with all types of degrees are doing in their profession. To help students find jobs, there is the immensely successful MathClassifieds, hosted by the MAA. Here employers post advertisements and job-seekers can upload resumes and cover letters. After signing up for a free account, people can search for jobs by keyword, location, or job type and can create a Job Alert, which will notify the seeker when an advertisement matching chosen criteria is posted. This service is for employment-seekers at all levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD). Examine these sites and you will find that the MAA is the place for you and your students to go for the scoop on careers.



How to Reach the MAA

For Membership Information, Subscriptions and Publication Orders, contact:

The MAA Service Center
P.O. Box 9112
Washington, DC 20090-1622
800-331-1522 or 301-617-9415
Fax: 301-206-9789

For the MAA Headquarters:

1529 Eighteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1385
800-741-9412 or 202-387-5200
Fax: 202-265-2384

Suggestions, concerns and/or contributions for the CUSAC newsletter may be sent to the newsletter Chapter Newsletter Editor:

Jacqueline Jensen
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Sam Houston State University
Box 2206
Huntsville, TX 77341-2206
936-294-3517
jensen@shsu.edu