MAA Awards Given in Baltimore
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MAA Awards Given in Baltimore At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, concluded that “highly integrated content-methods Maryland, in January 2014, the Mathematical As- instruction provided no measurable advantage sociation of America awarded several prizes. for students but that coordination of separate courses in content and methods served to improve Gung and Hu Award for Distinguished students’ performance in both.” Another step was Service the early placement testing for high school juniors, The Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award followed by an appropriate twelfth-grade course for Distinguished Service to Mathematics is the to prepare for college mathematics. One problem most prestigious award made by the MAA. It revealed by early placement testing was that many honors distinguished contributions to mathemat- high school juniors had very limited algebra skills ics and mathematical education in one particular and no appropriate course for them to take in aspect or many, whether in a short period or over their senior year. With funding from the Battelle a career. Foundation, Leitzel and Demana undertook the The 2014 Gung and Hu Award was presented to project A Numerical Problem-Solving Course for Joan Leitzel for her farsighted work of creating Underprepared College-Intending Seniors. The programs to decrease the need for remediation course they developed took a highly numerical in colleges and for her leadership on the national approach to algebra and geometry and very suc- level. Her distinguished career began at Ohio State cessfully brought students up to competency at the University, where she led visionary projects that level of intermediate algebra. A final step was the formed parts of a coherent plan to reverse the need project A Numerical Problem-Solving Approach to for remediation in Ohio. Variables and Functions in Pre-algebra for Grades 7 By 1974, Ohio State, an open-door university, and 8, led by Leitzel, together with Frank Demana had twice the enrollment in remedial mathematics and Alan Osborn. that it had had ten years earlier. Leitzel, with Bert These early articulation programs provided Waits and Frank Demana, attacked this problem instructional materials and served as models later by developing a curriculum for a remedial course copied by many universities that now have early that was not a repeat of the typical high school placement testing for high school students and a course. The course was centered around problem more coordinated mathematical transition from solving, while including computation and symbolic high school to college. One final piece was the manipulation. They wanted students to be able to course Algebra for Adults, developed by Leitzel confront more realistic problems and explore situ- with Suzanne Damarin. Data documented that the ations numerically, relieving classes from focusing course was successful in preparing students for on arithmetic. All of this sounds rather routine engineering calculus and business calculus. now, but it certainly was not in 1974 when Leitzel, Leitzel joined the Department of Mathematics at Waits, and Demana were designing their program. Ohio State University in 1965, just after receiving The projects were far ahead of their time in that her Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University. they collected data and were evidence based. At Ohio State she served both as a faculty member A second step in the program was teacher and as associate provost. She received the Ohio preparation. From 1976 to 1979, Leitzel was co- State Distinguished Teaching Award (1982) and director (with James Schultz) of the NSF-funded the Distinguished Service Award (2002). From project Testing Alternatives in the Mathematics 1990 to 1992 she served at the National Science Preparation of Elementary Teachers. As part of this Foundation as the division director for materials project, they organized three different course se- development, research, and informal science edu- quences for preservice elementary teachers. They cation. In 1992, she moved to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she served as senior vice DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/noti1120 chancellor for academic affairs and provost. From 524 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 61, NUMBER 5 1995 to 1998, she served as vice chair and chair of biographies, works of mathematical fiction, and the Board of Directors of the American Association anthologies are among those types of books eli- for Higher Education (AAHE). She also served on gible for the prize. The prize was given for the first the governing board of the National Association of time in 2007, the 300th anniversary of the birth of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and on Leonhard Euler. the American Council of Education’s Committee on The Euler Prize for 2014 was awarded to Steven Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness. Strogatz of Cornell University for The Joy of x: A In 1996 Leitzel was appointed president of the Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity (Hough- University of New Hampshire. She served six years ton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2012). and on April 19, 2002, was awarded the Charles From the one-sentence chapter descriptions in Holmes Pettee Medal in recognition of her contri- the table of contents to the extensive endnotes butions to the university. During this period the with comments and guidance for further reading university experienced unprecedented change. (many on the Internet), The Joy of x is a masterpiece Leitzel developed a new institutional strategic of expository writing. plan, worked tirelessly to raise the level of excel- The book is directed to the millions of readers lence in academic programs, implemented new and who claim they never really understood what the exemplary financial and fiscal management poli- mathematics they studied was all about, for whom cies, guided the most ambitious capital campaign math was a series of techniques to be mastered in university history, and coordinated key renova- for no apparent reason. In succinct chapters the tions and expansions of university facilities. The book revisits grade school arithmetic, high school Joan and James Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Sci- algebra and geometry, and selected topics from ence, and Engineering Education was established undergraduate mathematics. Professor Strogatz in 2002 in honor of Leitzel and her late husband, writes, “Instead of worrying about the details of James R. C. Leitzel. From 2000 to 2004 she chaired these subjects, we have the luxury of concentrating the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the on their most beautiful, important, and far-reach- National Research Council, and in 2012 she com- ing ideas.” This explains the book in a nutshell: to pleted a two-year term as chair of the Conference show that these subjects have a beautiful side, a Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS). playful side, a mysterious side, and a practical side Following retirement from the presidency at even in our present-day cyberculture. the University of New Hampshire, Leitzel returned But there is so much more to this book, making to Ohio and plunged into administrative duties it highly recommended for every mathematician. directly connected to mathematics. She worked The forty-five pages of Notes at the end of the with the Ohio Department of Education to design book offer mathematical arguments and sketches and launch their statewide Mathematics Initiative, of proofs, fresh ideas and interesting anecdotes, which was an extension of her earlier work in Ohio and annotated references to online and printed to coordinate mathematics education across the resources, including relevant articles and books levels of instruction. In 2005 the Ohio Resource published by the Mathematical Association of Center thanked her for her vision that placed the America. Pedagogically, the book is a model of state of Ohio at the forefront in moving mathemat- how mathematics can be presented to a general ics education from a reliance on remediation to audience in an appealing and humanizing way. a focus on intervention. Leitzel continues to be Each chapter begins with an anecdote or story that a member of the Ohio Mathematics and Science connects with the reader and rivets attention. The Coalition. She chairs the Ohio Board of Regents’ focus is on the ideas, their simplicity, power, and Mathematics Steering Committee and the na- universality. We are impelled to think, but also to tional advisory board for NebraskaMATH. She is feel, to appreciate, to understand, to connect, to a member of the national advisory board for the relate, to play, to enjoy. Association of Public and Land Grant Universities’ One of the most pleasant aspects of reading Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership. In the book is the feeling that you’re connecting 2008–2009 she returned to Ohio State for another with a real person. Professor Strogatz doesn’t year and led the restructuring of Arts and Sciences, take himself too seriously; he exhibits a sense of which resulted in replacing five separate colleges humor and empathizes with students suffering with one large unified college. She has served on from information/technique overload. Through- many MAA committees, including the Strategic out the book he demonstrates the value of visual Planning and Design Committee in 2004–2005, thinking, common sense, and making educated which she chaired. guesses over trying to remember anxiety-producing prescriptions for solving problems. This lesson Euler Book Prize alone makes the book invaluable. The