Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont All HMC Faculty Publications and Research HMC Faculty Scholarship 8-1-2006 Teaching Time Savers: Style Points Michael E. Orrison Jr. Harvey Mudd College Recommended Citation Orrison, Michael. "Teaching Time Savers: Style Points." FOCUS, 26.6 (August/September 2006): 24. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the HMC Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in All HMC Faculty Publications and Research by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOCUS August/September 2006 FOCUS is published by the Mathematical Association of America in January, February, FOCUS March, April, May/June, August/September, October, November, and December. Volume 26 Issue 6 Editor: Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College; [email protected] 4 USAMO Winners Fêted in Washington, D.C. By Harry Waldman and Fernando Q. Gouvêa Managing Editor: Carol Baxter, MAA [email protected] 6 Association for Women in Mathematics Announces Michler Prize Senior Writer: Harry Waldman, MAA hwald- 7 Is the Poincaré Conjecture Proved at Last? [email protected] By Fernando Q. Gouvêa Please address advertising inquiries to: Re- 8 University of Mississippi Graduates Record Number of African-American becca Hall [email protected] PhDs President: Carl C. Cowen By Tristan Denley President-Elect: Joseph Gallian 10 Oral History and the Archives of American Mathematics By Kristy Sorensen First Vice-President: Carl Pomerance Second Vice-President: Deanna Haunsperger, 12 Making the Most of Your Sabbatical Secretary: Martha J. Siegel, Associate By Jennifer R. Galovich, Charles R. Hampton, William A. Marion and Secretary: James J. Tattersall, Treasurer: Thomas Q. Sibley John W. Kenelly 14 Some Advice for Graduating PhDs Executive Director: Tina H. Straley By Felix Lazebnik and Keith E. Mellinger Associate Executive Director and Director of Publications: Donald J. Albers 16 NUMB3RS: Positive and Negative FOCUS Editorial Board: Rob Bradley; J. 18 Letters to the Editor Kevin Colligan; Sharon Cutler Ross; Joe 20 2006 Award Winners for Distinguished Teaching Gallian; Jackie Giles; Maeve McCarthy; Colm Mulcahy; Peter Renz; Annie Selden; 22 How to Help Your Students Get the Most Out of the MCM and ICM Hortensia Soto-Johnson; Ravi Vakil. By Holly Zullo, Mark Parker, and Kelly Cline Letters to the editor should be addressed to 24 Teaching Time Savers: Style Points Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College, Dept. of By Michael E. Orrison Mathematics, Waterville, ME 04901, or by email to [email protected]. 25 What I Learned...From Teaching With Technology By Meighan Dillon Subscription and membership questions should be directed to the MAA Customer 26 The Open Source Revolution Service Center, 800-331-1622; e-mail: By Jeff Suzuki [email protected]; (301) 617-7800 (outside U.S. and Canada); fax: (301) 06-9789. MAA 28 Advertise! Headquarters: (0) 387-500. By Richard Ehrenborg Copyright © 006 by the Mathematical 30 AP Calculus: Friend or Foe? Association of America (Incorporated). By Susan Schwartz Wildstrom Educational institutions may reproduce articles for their own use, but not for sale, provided 31 In Memoriam that the following citation is used: “Reprinted with permission of FOCUS, the newsletter 32 Measuring the Perception of Leadership of the Mathematical Association of America By Randall J. Covill (Incorporated).” 34 College Algebra Redesign at Louisiana State University Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC and By Lawrence Smolinsky, Phoebe Rouse, George Cochran, Jimmie Lawson additional mailing offices.Postmaster: Send address changes to FOCUS, Mathematical 36 The National Mathematics Advisory Panel Association of America, P.O. Box 90973, By Fernando Q. Gouvêa and Victor Katz Washington, DC 0090-0973. On the cover: The 2006 USA team at the International Mathematical Olympiad, ISSN: 0731-040; Printed in the United States Ljubljana Slovenia, July 17, 2007: Alex Saltman, Deputy Leader; Ryan Ko, Silver of America. Medal, Allendale, NJ; Zuming Feng, Leader; Zachary Abel, Silver Medal, Dallas TX; Yi Sun, Silver Medal, Saratoga, CA; Steve Dunbar, MAA Director of American Mathematics Competitions; Alex Zhai, Silver Medal, Champaign, IL;, Arnav Tripathy, Gold Medal, Chaepl Hill NC; Zeb Brady, Gold Medal, Van Nuys, CA. August/September 2006 FOCUS U.S. Team Comes in 5th at 2006 IMO By Harry Waldman and Fernando Q. Gouvêa At the 006 International Mathemati- cal Olympiad, held Ljubljana, Slovenia, nearly 500 young mathematicians com- peted in solving problems posed in a test administered on July 1 and July 13. The USA team came in 5th among the 90 participating countries. Top honors went to the People’s Republic of China (14 points), followed by Russia (174), Korea (170), and Germany (157). Iran and Moldova placed among the top ten teams. Overall, the IMO awarded 4 gold med- als, 87 silver and 14 bronze medals. The top three individual contestants tied for first place with 42 points, the maximum possible score. They were Zhiyu Liu of China, Iurie Boreico of Moldova, and Alexander Magazinov of Russia. One of the testing rooms during the competition. Photograph by George Csicsery. The USA team has consistently finished in the top five for the last seven IMOs. The six members of the USA team got 15 points overall, receiving gold and 4 silver medals. The team members and their results were: • Zachary Abel, a graduate of Green- hill School in Dallas, TX received a silver medal. • Zarathustra Brady, who attends Magnolia Science Academy in Van Nuys, CA, received a gold medal. • Ryan Ko, who graduated from Philips Exeter Academy in Exeter NH and is from Allendale, NJ, received a silver medal. • Yi Sun, who graduated from Harker School in Saratoga, CA, The US team waiting for the opening ceremonies to begin. Photograph won a silver medal. by George Csicsery. • Arnav Tripathy, who graduated from East Chapel Hill High School competitions. The competition poses six The US team members are selected for in Chapel Hill, NC, won a gold math questions to be solved, three very their high scores in the various stages of medal. challenging problems each day in a 4.5 the competitions organized by MAA’s hour session. American Mathematics Competitions • Alex Zhai, who attends University program, including the USAMO (for Laboratory High School in Cham- The MAA is the main sponsor of the USA which see page 4). More details on paign, IL, won a silver medal. team at the IMO. Additional contribu- this year’s IMO are available at http:// tions come from 3 organizations and imo2006.dmfa.si. The 006 IMO was the 47th in the an- companies in the mathematical sciences. nual series of international mathematical 3 FOCUS August/September 2006 USAMO Winners Fêted in Washington, D.C. By Harry Waldman The 35th U.S.A. Mathematical Olym- Winners received the USAMO Medal, The highlight of the evening came when piad Awards Ceremonies took place in named in honor of Gerhard C. Arenstorff, the Akamai Foundation Scholarships Washington, DC on Sunday and Monday, twice a winner of the USAMO and a were presented to the 1st place win- May 1 and . This event honored the member of the first USA team in the In- ner, Brian Lawrence, nd place winner, twelve top winners of the annual USA ternational Mathematical Olympiad. Alex Zhai, and 3rd place winner, Yufei Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), the Zhao, by Wendy Ravech, Director of the premier high-school level mathemati- After dinner, Brian Lawrence received Akamai Foundation. These scholarships cal problem solving competition in the the Samuel L. Greitzer/Murray S. Klam- are in the amounts of $0,000, $15,000, United States. kin Award for his superior achievement and $10,000, respectively. By awarding in the Olympiad exam. Dr. James Carl- these scholarships, the Akamai Founda- The two day celebration began with son, President of the Clay Mathematics tion hopes to encourage these and other a Sponsors’ Reception at the MAA Institute, designated Brian Lawrence as students to continue their pursuit of math- Headquarters, at 159 18th. St. N.W. the eighth CMI Mathematics Olympiad ematics education. Representatives of the sponsoring orga- Scholar as Brian best fulfilled the prize’s nizations of the American Mathematics criteria of elegance, beauty, imagination, The road to the USAMO began with the Competitions along with members of the and depth of insight. American Mathematics Contest 10 (AMC MAA Executive Committee greeted the 10) and American Mathematics Contest winners and their families. On Monday The Robert P. Balles Distinguished Math- 1 (AMC 1) exams. In February, about morning, the winners toured the Crypto- ematics Student Award, given to each 40,000 students from over 4,000 schools logic Museum at the National Security of the twelve winners, is a prize given participated in these contests. The AMC Agency and enjoyed a talk on classical to the winners in an effort to recognize 10 and AMC 1 have 5 questions from cryptography from one of the on-site and reward their high achievement in the high school mathematics curriculum mathematicians. the world of mathematics competitions. to be answered in a timed 75 minute Robert P. Balles is a life long student of format. The problems range from easy to The 006 USAMO winners were Yakov mathematics, former community college quite challenging. The top 5% of scorers Berchenko-Kogan of Raleigh, North instructor of mathematics, and retired on the AMC 1 and the top 1% of scorers Carolina; Sherry Gong of San Juan, businessman who established this gener- on the AMC 10 are then invited to take Puerto Rico; Yi Han of Pittsburgh, ous prize in 005. the American Invitational Mathematics Pennsylvania; Taehyeon Ryan Ko of Al- Exam (AIME). lendale, New Jersey; Brian Lawrence of Kensington, Maryland; Tedrick Leung of Winnetka, California; Richard Mc- Cutchen of Silver Spring, Maryland; Peng Shi of Toronto, Canada, Yi Sun of San Jose, California; Arnav Tripathy of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Alex Zhai, of Champaign, Illinois; and Yufei Zhao of Toronto, Canada.