FOCUS November 2004 FOCUS is published by the Mathematical Association of America in January, February, March, April, May/June, FOCUS August/September, October, November, and December. Volume 24 Issue 8 Editor: Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College; [email protected] Inside Managing Editor: Carol Baxter, MAA 4Master of Recreational Mathematics—and Much More [email protected] An Interview with Martin Gardner Senior Writer: Harry Waldman, MAA By Don Albers [email protected] 8Low Down Triple Dealing Please address advertising inquiries to: By Colm Mulcahy Frank Peterson, 10 Science Policy at the MAA [email protected] By David Lutzer President: Ronald L. Graham 12 New MathDL President-Elect: Carl C. Cowen By Lang Moore First Vice-President: Barbara T. Faires, 13 MAA Around the World and in the Classroom Second Vice-President: Jean Bee Chan, By Joel Haack Secretary: Martha J. Siegel, Associate Secretary: James J. Tattersall, Treasurer: John 14 The Changing Face of Calculus: W. Kenelly First-and Second-Semester Calculus as College Courses By David M. Bressoud Executive Director: Tina H. Straley 17 First Annual Embry-Riddle Undergraduate Mathematics Conference Associate Executive Director and Director By Greg Spradlin of Publications: Donald J. Albers 19 MathFest 2004 FOCUS Editorial Board: Rob Bradley; J. Kevin Colligan; Sharon Cutler Ross; Joe 20 MathFest in Photos Gallian; Jackie Giles; Maeve McCarthy; Colm 22 The August 2004 Board of Governors Meeting: Mulcahy; Peter Renz; Annie Selden; Hortensia Soto-Johnson; Ravi Vakil. A Graduate Student’s Perspective By Michael Lauzon Letters to the editor should be addressed to Fernando Gouvêa, Colby College, Dept. of 24 NSF Beat Mathematics, Waterville, ME 04901, or by By Sharon Cutler-Ross email to [email protected]. 25 Freshmen Can Offer Mathematical Solutions to Real-World Issues Subscription and membership questions By Joseph Kirtland and Pau-San Hoh should be directed to the MAA Customer Service Center, 800-331-1622; e-mail: 26 ICME Study 16 [email protected]; (301) 617-7800 (outside 27 Research Experiences for Minority Undergraduates: U.S. and Canada); fax: (301) 206-9789. MAA SUMMA’s National REU Program Headquarters: (202) 387-5200. By Robert E. Megginson Copyright © 2004 by the Mathematical 29 SAUM Offers On-line Guide for Assessment of Student Learning Association of America (Incorporated). Educational institutions may reproduce 30 Archives of American Mathematics Spotlight: articles for their own use, but not for sale, The Mathematical Association of America’s Records provided that the following citation is used: By Kristy Sorensen “Reprinted with permission of FOCUS, the newsletter of the Mathematical Association 31 Undergraduate Poster Session at the 2005 Joint Meetings of America (Incorporated).” 32 In Memoriam Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC 34 Wisconsin’s NPrime Project and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: By Linda Thompson and Margaret Wilsman Send address changes to FOCUS, Mathematical Association of America, P.O. 35 Employment Opportunities Box 90973, Washington, DC 20090-0973. On the cover: Martin Gardner sitting on the Alice statue in Central Park. See pages 4-9 for ISSN: 0731-2040; Printed in the United States our tribute to Gardner on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Photograph courtesy of Jim of America. Gardner. 2 November 2004 FOCUS Math Gateway: An NSDL Pathway to Undergraduate Mathematics The National Science Foundation has Math Forum Duke Connected awarded the Mathematical Association (http://www.mathforum.org) The Math Curriculum of America a Pathways Grant as part of Forum is one of the oldest online re- Project (http:// the National STEM (STEM is NSF-speak sources in mathematics with a particu- www.math.duke.edu/ for Science, Technology, Engineering, lar emphasis on K-12 mathematics. education/ccp) and Mathematics) Digital Library This site has online materials for lab ac- (NSDL) Program. This four-year grant iLumina tivities for undergraduate mathematics will support the creation of a portal, The (http://www.ilumina-dlib.org) The courses from precalculus through linear Math Gateway, for undergraduate math- iLumina site, hosted at the University of algebra, differential equations, and en- ematics materials within NSDL. This North Carolina at Wilmington, is one of gineering mathematics. Lang Moore and project will bring together collections the oldest collections in the NSDL. David Smith edit the site. with significant mathematical content and services of particular importance to College Board webODE Project the delivery and use of mathematics on (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com) At This project is just getting underway the Web. The Association will use a new their AP Central site the College Board under the direction of Paul Blanchard at version of the content management sys- has a wealth of resources directed toward Boston University. tem currently supporting the Math- AP high school teachers. The Math Gate- ematical Sciences Digital Library way would link to their resources for cal- Eduworks (MathDL) to support the portal to these culus and statistics. (http://www.eduworks.com) The MAA collections and services. and MathDL are cooperating with Geoff CAUSE Collier and Robby Robson of Eduworks The Math Gateway project is an out- (http://causeweb.org) The Consortium on their NSDL project to improve growth of the Mathematical Sciences for the Advancement of Undergraduate interoperability and reusability. Conference Group on Digital Educa- Statistics Education is a project of the tional Resources. This group of individu- American Statistical Association. WeBWork als with an interest in online mathemat- (http://webwork.math.rochester.edu) ics has met each year for the past four Demos with Positive Impact WeBWork, founded by Arnie Pizer and years at MAA headquarters. Many of the (http://mathdemos.gcsu.edu) This project Mike Gage of Rochester, is one of the organizations represented at these meet- is managed by Lila Roberts of Georgia most useful online homework systems ings will participate in the Math Gate- College and State University and Dave for mathematics. MathDL will provide way. The initial participating organiza- Hill of Temple University. The site pro- some services for WeBWork. tions/collections are listed below. vides teachers with demos and accom- panying information on how these Some of these collections include mate- MERLOT demos might be used. rials related to many disciplines. In that (http://www.merlot.org) MERLOT pro- case, the Math Gateway will only link to vides access to National Curve Bank the mathematics items. an extensive (http://curvebank.calstatela.edu) This site, collection of directed by Shirley Gray at Cal State Los The new grant will support the publica- resources and Angeles, has a wide range of online math- tion of a regular Math in the News col- services over ematical resources including an audio file umn on the Math Gateway portal. In many different disciplines. Flora of Tom Lehrer singing New Math. addition to support of the portal, the new McMartin of MERLOT is supervising the grant will provide resources for the con- evaluation program for the Gateway Virtual Laboratories in Probability tinuing support of MathDL. Perhaps the Project. and Statistics most important of these will be funds to (http://www.math.uah.edu/stat)This site enable the hiring of a full-time web mas- Eisenhower National Clearinghouse was developed by Kyle Siegrist at the ter to support both MathDL and the (http://www.enc.org) The Eisenhower University of Alabama at Huntsville. Math Gateway. The grant also will sup- National Clear- port an extensive system of workshops inghouse is an Ethnomathematics Digital Library at the section meetings of the MAA to extensive (http://www.ethnomath.org) The encourage the mathematical public to online resource Ethnomathematics Digital Library is a explore the learning opportunities af- for K-12 sci- project of Pacific Resources for Educa- forded by The Math Gateway and, more ence and math tion and Learning. The Library has links generally, by the NSDL. teachers. ENC is playing a central role in to relevant websites worldwide. the NSDL outreach to middle schools. 3 FOCUS November 2004 Master of Recreational Mathematics — and Much More An Interview with Martin Gardner By Don Albers On October 21, Martin Gardner cel- he has produced more than 60 books, a few local magicians in Tulsa, Logan ebrated his ninetieth birthday. For 25 of most still in print; many have been Waite and Wabash Hughes, who worked his 90 years, Gardner wrote the monthly bestsellers. His Annotated Alice has sold for the Wabash Railroad. “Mathematical Games “ column for Sci- over a million copies, and the 15 volumes entific American. His columns have in- collecting his “Mathematical Games” DA: At what age did this occur? spired thousands of readers to learn columns have gone through several more about the mathematics that he printings. All 15 volumes have been digi- MG: I was a high school student at the loved to explore and explain. Among his tized and will soon be published by the time. I’ve never performed magic; it’s just column correspondents were several dis- MAA on a single CD entitled Martin been a hobby. The only time I got paid tinguished mathematicians and scien- Gardner’s Mathematical Games. for doing magic was when I was a stu- tists, including John Horton Conway, dent at The University of Chicago; I used Persi Diaconis, Ron Graham, Douglas In his ninetieth year, he has returned to to work at the Marshall Field’s depart- Hofstadter, Richard Guy, Don Knuth, Sol Oklahoma, where he was born. He is in ment store during the Christmas season Golomb, and Roger Penrose. good health and full of energy. We look demonstrating Gilbert magic sets. I forward to more from him as he begins learned a lot from the experience. That Gardner’s columns have earned him a his second 90 years. What follows is a was the first time I realized that you’re place of honor in the mathematical com- small portion of an interview done at really not doing a magic trick well until munity, which has given him many Gardner’s home in Hendersonville, NC you’ve done it in front of an audience awards.