Ohio NExT Abstracts, Spring 2009
History Can Make Your Class Sparkle.
Fred Rickey, United States Military Academy
There are many ways to use history in the classroom. If you report what happened on this day in the history of mathematics, your students will love it, but won't let you skip a day. Quotations are always great fun. Both of these allow you to mention a wide range of people and ideas that the students are otherwise unlikely to encounter. The bulk of the presentation will be a discussion of several tested classroom examples at various levels: completing the square, trigonometry from Archimedes to Euler, Bolzano and the intermediate value theorem, and designing a clepsydra with calculus. There will be time for lots of questions, at the dinner, and at the meeting, so bring yours along.
Using Poster Presentations to Foster Undergraduate Learning and Enhance Dual Enrollment Programs
Katie Cerrone Arnold, University of Akron
Poster presentations are becoming increasingly popular tools for supplementing math curriculum. They provide students with an opportunity to explore mathematics outside of the typical homework assignments by presenting special projects and research. They can also be extremely useful bridging tools, whether it is from undergrad to graduate work or, as in my case, from high school to college. This presentation will discuss how The University of Akron uses an annual poster session to encourage undergraduate research and introduce Early College High School students to college level mathematics and expectations.
Running a Successful Math Club
Leah Gold, Cleveland State University
The current Math Club at Cleveland State University was started by some students and me in the fall of 2006 with the first regular weekly meetings in the spring semester of 2007. The group is quite active with 10-15 people at each meeting and a mailing/membership list of over 90 people. This is also the third year we've had students attend the Ohio MAA spring meeting to talk and compete.
We will discuss how the club was started, the types of activities we plan for our meetings, which activities are most successful, and how to keep it going from year to year.
Using Applied Writing Projects in Undergraduate Math Classes
Gavin LaRose, University of Michigan
Applied writing projects are a good mechanism for providing students with evidence that the mathematics that they are studying is actually relevant (to the real-world, or to a generally broader sense of the academic endeavor), and for promoting their conceptual understanding of the mathematics in their courses. Such projects may even pique students' interest in the subject. In this session we will discuss one type of applied (realistic and not-so-realistic) writing projects that may address these objectives. We will give resources for projects and project ideas, and background regarding their incorporation into class. Finally, we will consider techniques for managing and grading projects of this type, with an eye on reducing instructor mortality (to zero!).