(See also the current conference schedule (PDF file), as of 30 May.)
Plenary presentations:
— Panel Discussion: Designing a Mathematics Major for Pre-Service Teachers
Moderator: Martha Siegel (chair of the CUPM)
MAA's Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM) is writing recommendations for the curriculum for mathematics majors. Special consideration is being given to the pre-service education of secondary school teachers. The panel will discuss the ways in which departments might modernize with consideration of incorporating the Common Core Standards and IBL.
Panelists: Angie Hodge (University of Nebraska Omaha) is a member of MAA’s Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET), Michael Pearson (Executive Director of the MAA) is working with James Tanton on the development of teacher professional development materials based on high-quality content from the MAA American Mathematics Competitions, and Diana White (University of Colorado Denver) is a member of CUPM’s Course Area Study Group in Abstract Algebra.
— Some Reflections on Issues in Implementing Inquiry-Based Pedagogy in Mathematics
G. Edgar Parker, Visiting Professor, Guilford College and Professor Emeritus, James Madison University
The presenter will reflect on his own evolution as a teacher using IBL principles as the primary basis for instruction. In particular, he will emphasize the notion of “appropriate level of rigor” as it relates to the different levels of expected preparation of students populating target courses. In addition, he will discuss what his experience suggests are enhanced opportunities afforded by IBL in the contexts of grading and student engagement and what his experience suggests are possible social challenges should one choose to use IBL at an institution at which the benefits of IBL are not clearly understood.
— How to beat the lecture/textbook trap, and then throw them both away! Melding inquiry-based alternatives for both
David Pengelley, Professor, New Mexico State University
First, I see a vicious cycle: Students don't read the textbook because they know we will lecture on it, and we lecture on the textbook because we know they haven't read it, despite our exhortations. What a waste of precious classroom time! Couldn't students be actively engaged in higher level work in the classroom, rather than merely in passive first contact with new material? But how to cut the cycle? I will show how one can beat this trap: Surprise, my students CAN learn a lot from reading, writing, and other preparation, always before first classroom contact with new material, and I can find alternatives to lecturing, but only if I design the process right! Second, I will discuss why one might also jettison a standard textbook, and replace it with inquiry-based approaches such as primary historical sources, guided discovery, and 'only when needed', which can put students in the driver's seat as explorers. I will describe a course taught by melding all these approaches.
— Future of the IBL Project at EAF
Strategic Planning Committee
For more than twenty years, Harry Lucas and the Educational Advancement Foundation (EAF) have fostered the development and resurgence of the use of IBL approaches to the teaching of mathematics, particularly at the undergraduate level.
For a variety of reasons, some related to a sense that progress may have slowed, changes to current approaches are being considered. Reasons for the strategic review also include the need to expand the participation of younger IBL practitioners and to raise funds beyond the limited resources of EAF. The Strategic Planning Committee members will provide more details and summarize current approaches under consideration.
Discussion, questions and comments will be welcomed during the session and throughout the legacy conference. Feedback from the IBL community remains critical to the formation of a strategic plan that helps advance inquiry-based learning nationally.
— Mathematical Heroes:
The journey of independent thinkers and
the computer as a mathematical object
Coke Reed, Interactic Holdings, LLC, Austin, Texas; designer of the Data Vortex network; student of H.S. Wall and R.L. Moore.
From Socrates through Seymour Cray: breakthroughs in mathematics, the sciences and computing are achieved by brave persons doing independent original research. To attack something new one must believe the attack has a chance of success. That belief is based on careful and imaginative thinking and is founded on past experience. A purpose of the Moore Method is to produce confident independent thinkers. This talk will trace the history of some heroic mathematicians and explore their powerful influence on the advancement of next generation high-performance computing.
Parallel sessions will include the following topics:
— Implementing IBL (coordinated by Dana Ernst)
- Grading homework and grading the IBL component
TJ Hitchman, Success through Failure: assessment in a Moore Method Geometry course
Javier Garza, Implementing IBL in an Introductory Real Analysis Course
Melvyn Jeter, Engaging, Assessing and Grading in my IBL Courses
- Assessment
- How to engage students
Ruthmae Sears, Increasing High School Students Opportunities to Engage in Proofs: Addressing Shortcoming of Textbooks
David A. Cusick, “I do and I understand.” -- Confucius
Michael Butros, An Inquiry Based Learning Approach To University Physics
- Convincing your colleagues/administrators that IBL is beneficial for students
- Marketing IBL to students
- Other topics
Joseph Malkevitch, A Sample of Fairness and Equity Mathematical Modeling Situations
Ryan Gantner, Playing Games With IBL
Jason Callahan, Inquiry-Based Learning Projects in an Applied Statistics Course
— Roundtable discussions by course topic (organized by Brian Katz)
- Liberal Arts Math
- Math for Elementary Teachers
- Linear Algebra
- Calculus
- Real Analysis
- Abstract Algebra
- Graduate Courses
- Etc.
— Presentation Days and other modified Moore Method techniques
Patrick Rault, Daily e-feedback of informal e-homework
Robert Vallin, Presentation Fridays in Advanced Calculus
Elizabeth Thoren, WikiLogs: Students Reporting on Pre-Work
— Math Teachers Circles
Tatiana Shubin and Diana White, Math Teachers Circles: Navajo Nation Math Circles
Math Teachers Circles: Panel Discussion
— Mathematics for Education Majors
Brian Katz, Teaching Mathematical Maturity through IBL Axiomatic Geometry
Stan Yoshinobu, Using IBL in Courses for Future Elementary Teachers: Doing Math, Video Lesson Study, and Addressing Beliefs
Ali Shaqlaih, Inquiry Based Learning in Math for Elementary Teachers Courses
Michael Matthews, Engaging Teachers in a History of Mathematics Class using IBL: A Skeptic’s Experience
— Advanced Courses
Anna Spice, Success and Failure in Intro-to-Proof
Steven Schlicker, Abstract Algebra: An Inquiry-Based Approach
Andy Schultz, Cross-institutional refereeing in two IBL Number Theory Classes
Dana Ernst, Implementing IBL in an introduction to proof course
— Mathematics Education Research
Anne Cawley, Resource Use of Preservice Elementary Teachers in an Inquiry-Based Learning Mathematics Content Course
Nina White, How pre-service teachers in an IBL content course revise their mathematical communication
Kellu Bubp, An Evaluation of Selected Notes From the Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics With Regard to Proof and Proving at the Undergraduate Level
Sandra Laursen and Chuck Hayward, Building Momentum in a Movement: A Community Snapshot of IBL and Predictions for the Future
— Calculus
John Neuberger,
Calculus and IBL
Janice Rech and Angie Hodge, Getting Everyone Involved in Calculus: IBL-Style!
Ed Parker, Finding a Proper Platform for Appropriate Rigor
Dana Ernst, TBA
Larissa Schroeder, Flipping Calculus to Enhance Student Engagement
— Emerging Scholars Program
Emily Cilli-Turner, Collaborative Revision and its Effects on Undergraduate Proof Skills
Julie Sutton and James Epperson, A Comparison of How Emerging Scholars Program and Non-Emerging Scholars Students Critique and Rate Effective Solutions to Calculus Exam Questions
— General contributed Papers
Thomas W. Judson (co-authors: Lesa L. Beverly, Kimberly M. Childs, Deborah A. Pace),The Role of Inquiry-Based Learning in Developing Teacher-Leaders
Cornelius Stallman, A Tribute to Bill Mahavier
Bernd Rossa, A Tribute to Bill Mahavier
Suzanne Doree, Teaching Conjecturing
— Discovering the Art of Mathematics
Julian Fleron, Phil Hotchkiss (Westfield State University), Workshop: Mathematical Inquiry in the Liberal Arts
— Lessons from the IBL Centers Project
Almost a decade ago EAF started funding large-scale IBL activities at Chicago, Harvard, Michigan, Santa Barbara and Texas.
Ron Douglas and center directors.
Plus:
Open five-minute presentation sessions.