MAA newsletters and announcements

May 13, 2002

PREP Workshops

There are still openings available in two of this year's PREP workshops:
* Mathematical Methods and Modeling for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education, on June 23-28, 2002, at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon; and
* Assessment at the Department Level #2, to be held July 29-31, 2002, in Burlington, Vermont, right before MathFest.
Recall that room and board are free, courtesy of an NSF grant. For more details and applications, check out http://www.maa.org/pfdev/prep/prep.html.

MathFest
Remember that MathFest is coming up in Burlington, Vermont, on August 1-3. The deadlines for preregistration are listed at the end of this newsletter. For details about invited talks, contributed papers, minicourses and other special events, click on the banner page at MAA Online, http://www.maa.org, or look it up in the April issue of Focus.

SIGMAAs
Do you have a special interest in a particular subfield of mathematics or math education? Then a SIGMAA (Special Interest Group of the MAA) might be what you are looking for. There are currently four SIGs:
* RUME- Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
* BIG- Business, Industry, and Government
* Stats-Ed- Statistics Education
* HOM- History of Mathematics
For more information, go to http://www.maa.org/sigmaa/sigmaa.html.

Deadlines to Remember
* June 17, 2002 - early bird MathFest registration deadline
* July 15, 2002 - regular MathFest registration deadline
* August 1-3, 2002, MathFest, Burlington, Vermont You may also register at MathFest itself
* January 15-18, 2003, Joint Meetings, Baltimore
For Special Sessions, Contributed Paper Session Organizers, and MAA Session Organizers, contact Jim Tattersall at tat@providence.edu

April 25, 2002

To: Mathematics Faculty/Departments From: Bill Haver Reuben Farley

Subject: Do you have a mathematics faculty member interested in making a major commitment to prepare to take leadership role in K-12 mathematics education?

We are in the process of seeking support for a Center for Learning and Teaching that would prepare mid career mathematics faculty to take leadership roles in the mathematics education of preservice and in-service K-12 teachers.
Under the proposed Center, college/university mathematics faculty would be selected and receive support to spend a summer at the Center and then the following year as a full-time Fellow at one of 10 participating colleges and universities: University of California, Berkeley; Elizabeth City State University; Norfolk State University; Normandale Community College; J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College; University of Minnesota; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University; and Virginia Tech. Applications would be accepted for any of the 10 listed host institutions. The goal is to prepare these college math faculty members to better teach mathematics courses for future and current K-12 teachers; to develop better and more appropriate mathematics courses and programs for K-12 teachers; and to take leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels in developing policy, in supporting and encouraging standards-based programs in schools, in participating in programs to assess the effectiveness of in-service and pre-service programs, and in helping develop statewide and regional partnerships among mathematics departments, departments of education, schools, and the public.
Our preliminary proposal received very positive reviews by the National Science Foundation, and we were strongly encouraged to submit a full proposal by May 3, 2002. However, we were also strongly encouraged to provide evidence that faculty members (and their departments!) would be interested in making the major commitment called for under the proposal. If you are interested in this possibility, more information concerning our plans is attached.
If you believe that there is a strong possibility that someone from your department would be interested in participating:
1) We would appreciate a statement from you indicating the current level of interest that we could include in the proposal; obviously, the stronger the indication and the more details (name of individual, academic year, commitment of your department, etc.) the better.
2) In exchange for being a part of the proposal in this manner, we will notify you immediately should the Center be funded so that your faculty member can have ample time to apply to be accepted to participate.
Thanks for your interest, and we hope to hear from you! Bill Haver
804-828-1301 x 123
804-272-2654 (home)

Subject: Fwd: Modeling/Visualization Opportunity for Undergraduate Faculty & K-12 Teachers

The SC2002 Education Program is inviting undergraduate faculty and K-12 teachers to spend four days to participate in hands-on workshops at the SC2002 Conference and to network with leading scientists, engineers, technologists and other educators. Participants will learn about the latest research, education and development in high performance computing and communications technologies. The SC2002 Education Program is supported by the National Computational Science Institute (www.computationalscience.net ) with funding from the National Science Foundation. This year's conference will be held in Baltimore, Maryland on November 16-22. Teams selected through the national application process will be provided with travel allowances, lodging, meals, course instructional materials, and teacher substitutes. Teams of 2 to 6 members are asked to submit an application form located at: www.sc-conference.org/sc2002/education

Announcing: SAUM Workshop on Assessment Assessment at the Department Level #2 Presented by William Haver and Bernard Madison Two Face-to-Face Sessions: July 29-31, 2002 Burlington,Vermont (Prior to MathFest 2002) And January 19-20, 2003 Baltimore, Maryland (Following 2003 Joint Mathematics Meetings) Plus Electronic Consultation Throughout This workshop series is a continuing education program to help teams of two to three faculty members lead their departments in the conceptualization, formulation, and implementation of assessment of some component of their academic programs.

For more information on SAUM (Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics), please visit the SAUM web page at http://www.maa.org/saum/index.html and the PREP Workshop page for more information and an application at http://www.maa.org/pfdev/prep/SAUMWkshpAnnon.htm . Space is limited for this workshop so we ask you to apply as soon as possible.

Gretchen Brown
Program Coordinator
Department of Programs and Services
Mathematical Association of America
1529 Eighteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-319-8496 phone
202-483-5450 fax