Contributed Papers
Session I - Room 203
Barbara Boschmans,
April Hoffmeister,
Michele Iiams,
Hortensia
Soto-Johnson,
Todd Oberg,
Abstract: Research regarding preservice
teachers' beliefs about mathematics and the teaching of mathematics has
demonstrated that students' beliefs are deeply rooted and change requires
"significant interference" (Lappan, et al.,1988). In this
presentation we report the results of our attempt to change the attitudes and
beliefs of preservice elementary teachers at five
universities through use of excerpts from Liping Ma's
(1999) book, Knowing and Teaching
Elementary Mathematics (KTEM).
Through the analysis of writing assignments, pre- and post-surveys, and
subtraction and multiplication pre- and post-tests, we demonstrate how KTEM
provided a catalyst for change in the attitudes and beliefs of our preservice elementary teachers.
(What ARE they thinking about mathematics?)
Karin Vorwerk,
Abstract: During spring term 2006, I conducted a survey
of over 650 students, mostly non-math majors, enrolled in lower-level math
classes. The questions I asked included
both quantitatively-scored items and qualitatively-scored items. The results showed several unexpected trends,
some of which run counter to intuition and conventional wisdom. In several questions that were designed to
test students’ predisposition toward math, I found that of all majors at our
college, education majors had a statistically significantly worst attitude
toward math. Obviously, this result causes
some concern for our educational system’s future. In my talk, I will discuss these and other
study results. I will also share my
observations and discuss their implications on such diverse areas as: course
design, curriculum development, hiring of new faculty, and improving students’
attitude towards math.
Mathematics Since
1980 (Preliminary Report)
Robert Vaden-Goad, Southern
Abstract:
Since the end of the so-called Sputnik Era,
there has been a catastrophic decline in the number of highly capable, US born,
publicly educated persons electing to study mathematics and pursuing that study
to the completion of the Ph.D. A number of contributing factors have been
identified. However, even during these times a number of such persons have
still decided to pursue such study. An understanding of the motivations and
individual histories of these individuals contributes to an understanding of
the "comparative advantage" of mathematics in attracting such
individuals to the field.
Session II - Room 205
Joan
Weiss,
Abstract: Many calculus texts describe some of the
“pitfalls” that can occur on a graphing calculator. The techniques used to
display a graph on a graphing calculator will be outlined. Based on these graphing calculator
parameters, trigonometric identities dependent on the specific graphing
calculator will be derived.
Donna
Beers* and Ellen Davidson,
Abstract:
This presentation will describe a collaboration between the mathematics and education
departments to promote integrative learning for prospective elementary school
teachers. The model used was a learning community that combined a mathematics
content course for prospective teachers, taught by the mathematics department,
with a methods course taught by the education program. In this talk we will
briefly address the administrative structuring of the students’ time and
credit, as well as the faculty members’ time and workload. We will also address
the following questions: What learning outcomes were stated in the course
syllabus? What educational experiences or tasks were used to promote each of
these learning outcomes? What methods of assessment were used to measure
student achievement of the learning outcomes and why? How do we interpret the
results of the assessment? What changes
in the learning community design or assessment would we like to make for the
future?
Session
III - Room 210
L.J.Balasundarame,
Abstract: Of the available prime patterns, the Mod (6)
pattern yields all primes > 3. It also provides criteria to determine which
of the integers in this pattern will not be primes. By combining the
two, the number of primes
less than or equal to a given number n has been computed to be in exact
agreement with those found. This prime pattern is used to account for
the differing number of primes for the same 100 digit
interval---25
primes between 0 and 100 whereas 2 primes between 10,000,000 and
10,000,100.
8:20 – 8:35 The Goddard Prime
Number Theorem Revisited
(or: On the Harmonic
Frequency of Primes)
Tom Kalmar,
Abstract: By
graphing the highest prime factor of say 1-50, you can see and talk about
surprising patterns that emerge. (Try it right now!) This is a way of finding harmonic patterns in
the distribution of primes that permits a rapid entry into what the prime
number theorem is really about, and is definitely accessible to
"ordinary" students.