What do we do?

Each year, we have a workshop at the Allegheny Mountain MAA Spring Section Meeting and a one day session in early Fall. 

Previous Section NExT events:

·       April 2011, “Writing Mathematics Well” given by Ivars Peterson (Director of Publications and Communications at the MAA). 

 

·       September 2010, "Dealing with administrative issues" given by John Zimmerman (Washington and Jefferson College) and Gary Stoudt (IUP) and “Online cheating and plagiarism” led  by Shelly Bouchat. 

 

·       April 2010, Doug Ensley (Shippensburg University) presented the workshop “Discrete Mathematics:  Puzzles, Patterns, and Proof.”

  • September 2009, John Chadam (University of Pittsburgh) presented the workshop "Math Modeling of Toxic Financial Assets."
  • April 2009, Tom Hull (Western New England College) presented his "Origami Geometry Workshop."
  • September 2008, The workshop was on the topic "Writing and Projects in Mathematics Courses."  Barbara Faires (Westminster College) talked about assignments in a discrete math course, a liberal arts math course, and a capstone course.  Carolyn Cuff (Westminster College) talked about projects in statistics classes, and Beverly Michael (University of Pittsburgh) discussed collaborative group projects.
  • April 2008, The theme of the workshop at the 75th Anniversary Allegheny Mountain Section meeting was undergraduate summer programs.  We had a panel of five presenters with a variety of summer program experiences.  Tami Lakins (Allegheny College) and Lyn Miller (Slippery Rock University) talked about the George Washington summer program.  Pam Richardson (Westminster College) and Allegheny College student Becky Egg spoke about their experiences with the Summer Mathematics Program at Carleton College.  We also had Joe Previte (Penn State-Erie) to speak about his department's REU.
  • September 2007, The Fall workshop had the theme, "Using Technology in the Classroom."  We had five presenters who spoke on a variety of topics:  Jon Beal (Clarion University), Voyage 200 and TI-89 projects; Carolyn Cuff (Westminster College), Fathom; Mike McConnell (Clarion University), Tablet PC and Flash movies; Beverly Michael (University of Pittsburgh), Homework Tutor and Smart Board; and Kim Roth (2002-03) (Juniata College), Clickers.
  • April 2007, Rich Marchand, Slippery Rock University, gave a presentation entitled “Mathematical Modeling and Ideas for Creating Successful Modeling Contest Teams.”  He began with a very interesting discussion of modeling a violin string, and he concluded with some great advice about creating and preparing teams for the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM).
  • September 2006, This time the topic for our Fall workshop was teaching a course in the history of mathematics.  In the morning, Doug Faires of Youngstown State University described a course he has taught, showing the group a lot of interesting material from the history of mathematics.  After lunch, panelists John Thompson (1999-2000), University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Paul Gartside, University of Pittsburgh, and Antonella Cupillari, Penn State-Erie, made short presentations on their own history of math courses.
  • April 2006, James Sellers, Penn State University, talked about his experiences supervising undergraduate research in an enthusiastic talk entitled "Mathematics Research with Undergraduates: Stories of Personal Success."
  • September 2005, The theme of our one-day fall meeting was mathematical modeling. John Bukowski (1998-1999), Juniata College, led off the day with "An Introduction to Mathematical Modeling," based on his experiences teaching math modeling and advising teams in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM). After a delicious hot lunch, Karen Bolinger, Clarion University, shared her experiences of judging for the MCM. She provided helpful insights and led us in evaluating several sample MCM solution papers.
  • April 2005, Joe Gallian, National Project NExT Co-Coordinator (and from the University of Minnesota-Duluth), returned to his alma mater, Slippery Rock University, and gave his famous and inspiring talk, "Getting undergraduates involved in research", to a room packed with NExTers and invited guests.
  • September 2004, The theme of the meeting was undergraduate research with a panel and presentations by faculty in our Section. In the morning, panelists Tami Lakins (1995-1996), Allegheny College, Eric Rawdon (1998-1999), Duquesne University, and Cathy Stenson (2001-2002), Juniata College, described their individual experiences with undergraduate research. After lunch, Barbara Faires (Westminster College) and Ron Harrell (Allegheny College) concluded the meeting with additional comments regarding their own experiences regarding undergraduate research.
  • March 2004, Ed Burger from Williams College answered our questions on a multitude of topics, including undergraduate research, attracting math majors, dealing with unmotivated students, keeping professionally strong, and more. He reminded us that we are in the business of changing people’s lives, in a good way.
  • September 2003, The theme of the one-day meeting was mathematical biology. Bard Ermentrout from the University of Pittsburgh spoke to us in the morning about “Synchrony in Biology.” After lunch, Jon Rubin from the University of Pittsburgh gave a presentation on “Neurons and Nullclines.” These talks led to discussions about mathematical modeling, student projects in mathematical biology, and summer research programs in mathematical biology.
  • April 2003, Annalisa Crannell from Franklin and Marshall College spoke on strategies for grading large numbers of essays in mathematics courses.
  • September 2002, Doug Ensley  (1994-95) from Shippensburg University spoke to us about his discrete math project, with attention to issues about teaching mathematical proof to freshmen, using technology to illustrate abstract concepts, creating engaging classroom materials, and getting students involved in undergraduate research. 
  • April 2002, Joe Gallian from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, conducted two sessions for Section NExT prior to the Section meeting at West Liberty State College:  "Getting undergraduates involved in research" and "Finding your niche."  During the meeting, Section NExT fellows were able to attend the panel discussion "Capstone experiences," where panelists Karen Bolinger (Clarion), Carolyn Cuff (Westminster), and Ron Harrell (Allegheny) described the capstone experiences at their institutions.
  • September 2001, Nancy Baxter Hastings from Dickinson College lead a workshop entitled "Changing Direction:  Emphasizing Learning, Not Teaching."  The discussion focused on interactive teaching techniques and the "workshop" approach, as well as assessment and learning.
  • April 2001, the Section NExT grant paid our registration for the MAA grant writing workshop. We also had a panel discussion called "Planning and evaluating your career with an eye toward tenure."
  • September 2000, Marc Goulet from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire lead a workshop on strategies for active learning in the classroom with various group classroom activities and lots of discussion.
  • April 2000, Todd Will  (1994-95) from Davidson College spoke to us about teaching linear algebra using technology, in particular, he presented an approach to Singular Value Decomposition, accessible to students in a sophomore level linear algebra course.