Spring 2010 Number 4 Spring Meeting at Kent State University April 16-17, 2010

Spring 2010 Number 4 Spring Meeting at Kent State University April 16-17, 2010

hio Focus The MAA Ohio Section Newsletter Volume 9 Spring 2010 Number 4 Spring Meeting at Kent State University April 16-17, 2010 The Spring Meeting of the Ohio Section MAA will be held at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, on April 16-17, 2010. The meeting will start at noon on Friday, with the first invited lecture starting at 1:45 pm in Henderson Hall, and will conclude on Saturday at 1:00 pm. Major addresses will be given by Karen Parshall of The University of Virgina, John Oprea of Cleveland State University, Ivars Peterson, the Director of Publications and Communications for the MAA, and Mark Miller of Marietta College. Other meeting participants are encouraged to submit talks for the contributed paper sessions on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Graduate and undergraduate students in Mathematics and Computer Science Building: Meeting Registration Location mathematics or mathematics education are encouraged to attend. It All Started in Ohio Meeting Registration Centennial Note #1 Inside Online registration is preferred. It is a well-known fact that the Visit the Section web site at Spring Meeting Details Mathematical Association of www.maa.org/Ohio on or after America was organized in Page Tuesday, March 2, for one-stop Hall, on the Ohio State University registration, banquet reservation, Governor’s Report campus, December 30-31, 1915. and abstract submission. The But before MAA there was AMM – deadline for meeting pre- President’s Message the American Mathematical registration and banquet reser- Monthly. This journal began as a vations is April 9. Abstracts for Nominations for Section private enterprise, published at contributed papers must be Officers Kidder, Missouri, starting in January submitted by April 2. 1894, but there is an Ohio On-site meeting registration is Ohio NExT Workshop connection. available, but last-minute banquet The founder of the Monthly was tickets cannot be guaranteed. Early Campus Notes Benjamin Franklin Finkel, born near registration helps those making the Lancaster, Ohio, in 1865. He meeting arrangements and is And More! (Continued on page 9) (Continued on page 4) Section Governor’s Report feedback from the membership. when they submit material Beginning later this year, all student (announcements, advertisements) memberships will be ―all electronic‖. for inclusion in the magazine. Not Whatever you think of electronic only are there fewer issues each memberships, be sure to share year, but the lead time for your thoughts and concerns with submitting content has increased. me or directly with the national More information is available at office. These changes are being www.maa.org/pubs/focus.html. thought of as pilot programs, and The Ohio Section has a record feedback from the membership is that we can be proud of, and I urge not only welcomed, but you to continue seeking ways to The Joint Mathematics encouraged. participate in Section activities. Meetings were in San Francisco in The MAA is also trying to keep Maybe now is the time you could January. From all indications, the up with the rapidly evolving world of expand your horizons and volunteer meetings were a big success. I electronic communications. During for something at the national level didn’t hear the final tally, but there the past year, at least two MAA as well. Both the Section and the was either record attendance or related twitter feeds have been national MAA value your input and near-record attendance. Besides established. There are also several your help. I look forward to seeing plenty of mathematics, there were 3 Facebook pages for the MAA and you at Kent State this April. Bring highlights of the meetings for me its publications. Obviously, much someone new to the meeting with personally. First of all, I hadn’t more can be done in this area, and you if you can! Perhaps I’ll also see been to San Francisco in a long it will become more important over you in Pittsburgh at MathFest in time. Secondly, I had a chance to time as we try to reach out to August. sit down and visit with an old friend potential mathematics students. Be Al Stickney from graduate school. Lastly, I had sure to share your ideas on this. Wittenberg University a chance to meet with one of our The MAA has received funding Section Governor recent graduates who is completing from the National Science a Ph.D. this year. When you Foundation to support a five-year OHIO FOCUS combine those 3 factors with all of study, Characteristics of Successful the mathematics, it was a great trip. Programs in College Calculus. The newsletter of the Ohio Section of the Mathematical Association of Phase One of the study will entail a While I’m writing about national America first appeared in 1973 and meetings, let me remind you that large-scale web-based survey to is published twice yearly, in time to MathFest this summer will be in identify factors that are correlated reach members before the fall and with success in Calculus I. The spring meetings. Newsletters are Pittsburgh. I would encourage you published online at www.maa.org/ to consider attending. Phase One survey will be ohio. Notification postcards are sent As you probably know by now, conducted during Fall term 2010. using labels provided by the MAA. Late in Spring 2010 a stratified the MAA has begun offering ―all Editor: Barbara D’Ambrosia electronic memberships‖ for regular random sampling will be used to 216-397-4682 members. The program seems to choose approximately 600 colleges [email protected] and universities whose mainstream Dept. of Math & Comp Science have gotten off to a successful John Carroll University start. As of the start of 2010, there Calculus I classes will be surveyed. University Heights, OH 44118 were more than 1600 members If you are contacted and asked to be part of this study, please help by The deadline for the next newsletter who had selected this option. This is September 1, 2010. E-mail copy represents roughly 20% of recent participating if you can. is preferred. Early submission is membership renewals. The plan is Now that FOCUS is only appreciated. Please send copy to published 6 times each year, we the editor (see above), and also to to continue offering the option, with the Section Webmaster, Darren revisions possible in order to give have been asked to encourage the Wick ([email protected]), for more flexibility and to respond to membership to plan well in advance posting on the web. 2 President’s Message Like many college professors, I various academic disciplines are often am prone to forgetting that the portrayed in the popular culture. As life I lead is rather different than the a mathematician, my primary lives led by non-academicians. I interest in this regard is how usually think of myself as normal. mathematics is portrayed to non- Then from time to time I am mathematicians. In particular, I am reminded that in fact in the eyes of curious about the ways mathe- many non-academicians, my life is matics and mathematicians are a curiosity of sorts. I do not make portrayed in stage plays, films, anything, I do not sell anything, and books and television programs. I do not process anything (to (This is why I enjoy The Big Bang paraphrase Cameron Crowe’s Theory. It reminds me that by the golden ratio and other concepts character, Lloyd Dobler from Say comparison to our cousins in often covered in an introductory Anything): There are no more or Physics, we Mathematicians are math course for liberal arts fewer widgets at the end of my work pretty normal.) students. I love the movie. My wife day than there were when I started. Many colleges and universities hates it. Most of my students are a Just what is it that I do? More to offer mathematics courses with a bit disturbed by it. However, it can the point, what is it that we do as liberal arts bent. Often these be a useful class enhancement. (Is professional academic mathe- courses are designed for students it a coincidence that the director maticians? whose interests lie in the arts and chose an irrational number to This question was brought to humanities. These can be ideal highlight the irrational behavior of the forefront of my mind recently. places for addressing the image the main character? ) Earlier this month, a well known problem of professional Proof [play by David Auburn] former governor of a very large and mathematicians in popular culture Does anyone own a proof of a snowy state was giving a political (―math-pop‖). Also, math-pop can theorem? If a proof is simply a speech. The governor roused the be a useful way of reinforcing verification of truth, then can one crowd by drawing attention to the mathematical concepts that have own truth? Why does it matter fact that there were some people in been covered in class. Finally, (mathematically) who proved public office who – get this – used math-pop can be a way of helping something first? Are women’s to be college professors! This drew students make connections claims in mathematics taken less the intended response from the between math and other disciplines. seriously than men’s? Auburn’s enraged audience. How could it Here are a few works that one play can be a useful spring board be? How could good, hard working might consider for such a course. for discussing these issues. I did people let themselves be duped Some of these I have used in my not find the characters to be similar into being governed by someone as own classes.

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