Mathematics: A Critical Tool for Understanding the Oceans

By Adrian Constantin and George Haller Editor’s Note: In honor of Earth Day today, we are reprinting this post from 2018 about using mathematics to understand ocean dynamics. We encourage all Math Values readers to get outside and do something for the planet today! This post is adapted from the introduction to a special issue...

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Squishy Problem, Real-World Solutions: An interview with Steve Krak of Denison University’s Red Frame Lab

By Tim Chartier Established in 2017, Denison University’s Red Frame Lab builds on the college’s liberal arts tradition by equipping students with entrepreneurial and design thinking skills. Through coaching, innovative programs, and real-world projects, students strengthen their education and prepare for meaningful careers and lives. With a growing focus on data science and entrepreneurship, they...

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Calculus for Teachers: Uniform Continuity

By David Bressoud @dbressoud As of 2024, new Launchings columns appear on the third Tuesday of the month. As an example, consider the function a contradiction. Notes from this lecture were taken and saved, but they were not published until 1904. This question is important because there is something bigger than just uniform continuity going on...

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Adding the ‘Ñ’ Back to My Name: Embracing My Latin Heritage in Mathematics

By Kim Saviñon When my parents first immigrated to the United States from La Vega, Dominican Republic, they encountered pressure to conform to American culture, resulting in a change in our legal family name from 'Saviñon' to 'Savinon'. The American legal system did not allow diacritics such as tildes or accent marks over characters in...

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Still Needed In the Picture

By Lew Ludwig I'm starting to see real progress. At workshops and webinars, more colleagues are reaching out with, "Hey, I gave AI a try!" That's the point—whether you end up using AI or not, you've got to try it in your own teaching arena to understand what it's really capable of and where it...

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Fostering Belongingness in a Corequisite Math Support Course

By Amy Scheerhorn As humans, we all need to feel like we belong. For students placed into developmental math, that sense of belonging may be missing. These students often feel out of place in a math class, which has negative implications for their academic success. A student’s sense of belonging impacts their attitudes, motivation, participation, engagement,...

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Why are we mathematicians?

By Keith Devlin @KeithDevlin@fediscience.org, @profkeithdevlin.bsky.social Here are two groups of Western philosophers. Group A: Plato, Epicurus, Plotinus, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Francis Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Newton, Leibniz, David Hume, Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, Schopenhauer, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kurt Gödel, Karl Popper, Jeremy Bentham, Alan Turing, Saul Kripke. Group B: Aristotle, Socrates, Descartes, Bishop...

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Complimentary Angling

By Matt Beechan I look out over the water’s surface searching for signs of disturbance from below. The rain that is gently falling on the lake is making this exercise more challenging than usual. After a while, I notice a curious trout rise to the surface like it is gasping for a breath of the...

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The Torching of the Department of Education: What’s at Stake and What You Can Do

By Dave Kung In the two months since the inauguration, education – including mathematics education – has been under attack like never before. Postdocs have had their pay withheld, math research institutes have cancelled programs, math ed researchers have had their funding pulled, federal staff (including mathematicians) have been fired at NSF1, and now the...

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How Internships Helped Me Find My Path

By Jocelyn Ornelas-Munoz Throughout graduate school, I’ve been told repeatedly, “Focus on your research.” While I agree that graduate school is a time of deep academic exploration, it’s also a stepping stone to broader career opportunities and professional growth. One of the most valuable—and even life-changing—experiences of my PhD was participating in summer internships. These...

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