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MAA Math Alert - August 2014

News

Fields Medals and Other Prizes Awarded at ICM
The latest crop of Fields medalists—including the first woman—were honored at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2014 in Seoul, Korea, on August 13. Learn more about the prizes and winners.

New NSF Program Solicitations Relevant to Math Community
Three NSF program solicitations with deadlines this fall are of interest to the mathematics community: Improving Undergraduate STEM EducationEnriched Doctoral Training in the Mathematical Sciences, and Innovation Corps Teams Program. Check out the funding opportunities! Keep in mind that this year's "proposal pressure"—the number of proposals submitted regardless of how many get funded—helps drive future budget allocations.

Record Attendance at MAA MathFest in Portland
Thanks to all attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors for making this year's MAA MathFest a great conference. We hope to see you all next year at MAA MathFest 2015 in Washington, D.C., for our much anticipated centennial celebration. See a gallery of photos from MAA MathFest 2014.

Announcements

Found Math Relaunched
The Found Math feature of the MAA website is now curated by Steve Phelps of the Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (Thanks, Steve, for taking on this responsibility!) Send your submissions to foundmath@maa.org.

Submit Your Story Suggestions
Got an event, program, person, or idea you think warrants coverage in MAA FOCUS? Send your story suggestions to FOCUS managing editor Lois Baron at lbaron@maa.org.

Now Open

Volunteer Sign-Up for MegaMenger Project
This October, 20 sites around the globe will simultaneously build level three Menger cubes out of business cards, creating a distributed version of the world's first level four Menger cube. If you, your students, or your department would like to be involved either as volunteers or by hosting a build site, or if you have business cards you could donate to the project, then please record your interest at www.megamenger.com. The build sites will be chosen soon, so act fast if you want to host a build location. Volunteer sign-up will continue through October. 

Registration for American Mathematics Competitions
Now is the time to make sure that middle and high schoolers get to participate in the AMC 8 (November 18, 2014) or AMC 10/12 (February 3 or 25, 2015). Teachers who register their students receive not only a $10 discount (if they register online), but also a free one-year MAA K-12 Teacher membership. Learn more about registration and registration benefits or, for information on proctoring an AMC contest at your institution, contactamcinfo@maa.org.

Call for Minicourse Proposals
We invite all MAA members to be a part of the MAA Centennial at MAA MathFest 2015 by submitting a minicourse proposal. MAA MathFest 2015 proposals are due by October 14, 2014, and due to the MAA's implementation of a new submission system, we suggest waiting until after October 1 to submit (or contacting the committee directly). We also invite you to submit proposals for the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) in 2016. JMM 2016 proposals are due by January 31, 2015. More information is available here.

Upcoming Deadlines

September 1: Nominations for Falconer Lecturer
Nominations for the 2015 AWM-MAA Falconer Lecturer are due September 1. Learn more.

September 16: Abstracts for JMM 2015 Contributed Papers
The MAA Committee on Contributed Paper Sessions is soliciting abstracts for contributed papers pertinent to sessions described on the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings website. Abstracts can be submitted electronically through September 16, 2014. 

Online Now

Hear Hilbert's Famous Words
Visit MAA Convergence to see and hear the article "Hilbert's Radio Address," which includes an audio recording, transcription, and translation into English of Hilbert's four-minute radio version of his longer 1930 address with its famous finale, "Wir müssen wissen; wir werden wissen." 

Limit as Motion, Collapse, Approximation?
In the second installment (of three) of his "Beyond the Limit" series, David Bressoud describes eight metaphors students of calculus employ when reasoning about limits. Read the Launchings post.

Rarely Is There One Right Answer
In a post that touches on the Common Core State Standards and Jordan Ellenberg's How Not to Be Wrong and mathematical video games, Keith Devlin discusses the difference between classroom math and the real world stuff. Read the August Devlin's Angle.

How to Learn and Serve Simultaneously
In a mid-July guest post for Math Ed Matters, Karl-Dieter Crisman (Gordon College) explains what service-learning is and argues that it can have a place in mathematics education. Read the post.

Pep Talks Are a Must
In an early August Math Ed Matters post, Angie Hodge outlines lessons she learned while helping elementary school teachers engage with mathematics more deeply than they ever had before. Read the post.

Publishing Date: 
August, 2014