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Workshops

What’s the Story? A Graduate Student Workshop on Formulating a Research Presentation for a General Audience

Wednesday, August 5, 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C

Presenting our research to undergraduate students can be both fun and rewarding. It can also be difficult, however, since the gory details of our results often require a great deal of specific jargon and background. Nonetheless, the big ideas can almost always be presented at a variety of levels, and this workshop is designed to interactively help participants develop the skills needed to formulate a presentation on their research that is appropriate for an audience of undergraduate students. Since many colleges and universities require giving such a talk as part of a job interview, almost any graduate student will have the opportunity to do so, and the ability to communicate complex mathematical ideas to students is a valued trait in a candidate. This workshop will consist of hands-on activities and audience interaction aimed toward developing and improving the necessary skills for creating an engaging and accessible presentation for undergraduates. Participants should be prepared to discuss in groups a potential presentation on their research or other related topic.

Rachel Schwell, Central Connecticut State University
May Mei, Denison University

Committee on Graduate Students and Young Mathematicians Network

USE Math: Undergraduate Sustainability Experiences in the Mathematics Classroom

Thursday, August 6, 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C

Undergraduate Sustainability Experiences in Mathematics (USE Math) projects are sustainability-focused, technology-enabled, single class-period projects, each offering students authentic experiences within the context of sustainability in applying various topics encountered in mathematics courses. For the past two years, with NSF and MAA PREP support, numerous USE Math projects have been developed and are now being used in classrooms at institutions across the country. This hands-on workshop will give participants the opportunity to work through a complete USE Math activity that has been successfully integrated into a general education mathematics course. Upon completion of the activity, workshop participants will discuss strategies for incorporating additional USE Math projects into their classroom. Prior to MathFest, classroom-ready materials will be made available on the SIGMAA-EM Web site, and the Mathematics/QR Disciplinary page on the Sustainability Improves Student Learning (SISL) website (http://serc.carleton.edu/sisl/sustain_in_math.html).

Ben Galluzzo, Shippensburg University
Corrine Taylor, Wellesley College

SIGMAA EM

Beauty of Three Dimensional Polyhedra Workshop (in Celebration of the MAA’s Centennial)

Friday, August 7, 1:00 PM - 2:20 PM, Marriott Wardman Park, Maryland C

I have long been fascinated by the Platonic and Archimedean solids and their mathematical beauty. In this workshop I will demonstrate, and we will work with, a variety of materials I’ve come across over the years for building polyhedra. For example, we’ll build with coffee stirrers (really cheap, less than 10¢ for the icosahedron), origami (about 25¢ for the Buckyball), and retail manipulatives (a few dollars for the truncated tetrahedron). We will also look at some online tools for exploring (and enjoying) the Platonic and Archimedean solids and their mathematical relationships and properties. These dynamic tools are useful is seeing how, for example, the snub icosidodecahedron is formed. (Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop or device to the workshop.) Included will be how the icosahedron (this is the MAA!) can be built using three golden rectangles.

James R. Olsen, Western Illinois University

Year: 
2015