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MAA Math Alert - May 2011

News and Views

Last Chance to Vote in MAA National Elections
Voting closes on May 17. All members of MAA (other than undergraduate students) are eligible to vote. All eligible voters with a valid email address should have received an email (from maavote@directvote.net) with a direct link to a ballot. Any eligible member of MAA without an email address in the MAA database should have received a letter with the web address and sign-in information. You must use the sign-in information from the letter or email to vote. Election and candidate information.

Caltech Wins Big at 71st Putnam Competition
A team from the California Institute of Technology ranked first and took home a $25,000 prize in the 71st Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

2011 USA Mathematical Olympiad and USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad Winners
The winners of the 2011 USA Mathematical Olympiad and the 2011 USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad are listed on the AMC page at amc.maa.org/usamo/2011/2011usamo.shtml. News story.
From an initial field of 210,000 contestants in the 2011 AMC 10 and AMC 12 contests, more than 6,000 participated in the American Invitational Math Exam in March, and from the high scorers, we invited 293 to the USAMO and 233 to the USAJMO. The students participated in the Olympiads over two days, April 28 and 29, using 4.5 hours each day to concentrate on the three problems for that day. The problems and solutions for both contests can be found at amc.maa.org. The winning students and about 30 others will now be invited to the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program for training and selection for the International Mathematical Olympiad. This year the International Mathematical Olympiad will be in Amsterdam, July 14-24, 2011.

Announcements

Register Now for MAA MathFest at the Early Bird Rate!
Time is running out to register for MathFest at the Early Bird rate. Through May 13th, you can register at last year's prices! To register today, click here.

Website Feedback Survey
The Mathematical Association of America has begun a web redesign project. As part of this endeavor, MAA will conduct a short online survey. If you are currently an MAA member, you will receive a link to the survey via email on Thursday, May 12, 2011. We would greatly appreciate if you could take a few minutes and participate in our survey. Your feedback is very important to us and will be used to determine our next steps.
If you are not an MAA member and would like to participate, please visit . The survey will be accessible on our website as of Friday, May 13, 2011.

Invitation to R.L. Moore Conference on Inquiry-Based Learning
The Educational Advancement Foundation (EAF) and MAA will co-host the 2011 Legacy of R. L. Moore Conference on June 2-4 in Washington, DC.

Course Communities at MathDL
The new Course Communities in Undergraduate Mathematics component of MathDL recommends and provides links, by topic, to online resources for use in particular courses. Materials for one-variable calculus are now available.

PREP 2011 Workshop Registration
Now is the time to register for the MAA's 2011 Professional Enhancement Programs - the early registration discount expires soon. Click here for information about this year's workshops.

Featured Articles

"The Keyring Problem: NCTM Fumbles the Ball" Keith Devlin's May column focuses on word problems, math modeling, NCTM, Kahn Academy, Dan Meyer, and more. Article.

"The Calculus I Student" The May Launchings column by David Bressoud discusses the MAA survey of mainstream Calculus I. Article.

"Twisting the Knight Away (No Big Deal)" Colm Mulcahy deals out a deck for a tricky result. Article.

New in Loci: Convergence
"Peano on Wronskians: A Translation" Susannah Engdahl and Adam Parker show how their translation of Peano's counterexample to the "theorem" that a zero Wronskian implies linear dependence can be used in your differential equations course (or your linear algebra or advanced calculus or math history course). Article.

"Teaching and Research with Original Sources from the Euler Archive" Euler Archive directors Dominic Klyve, Lee Stemkoski, and Erik Tou offer ideas on how you can use this MAA-hosted online resource (eulerarchive.maa.org) for both teaching and research. Article.


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Publishing Date: 
May, 2011