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[to the Legacy of R. L. Moore Home Page] The Legacy of
R. L. Moore

16th Annual Legacy of R.L. Moore — IBL Conference,
13 – 15 June, 2013, in Austin, TX
Program


(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)

— Roundtable discussions by course topic (organized by Brian Katz)

— 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.


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