Playing with Place Value

James Tanton By James Tanton @jamestanton, Facebook: James Tanton, LinkedIn: James Tanton The invention of place value is one of humankind’s greatest intellectual achievements. Yet, as natural and straightforward as it seems to us today—that “333,” for instance, represents three-hundreds and three-tens and three-ones despite the repeated use of the one symbol “3”—is a concept...

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What we’ve got here is failure to communicate – and adequately educate!

By Keith Devlin @profkeithdevlin The first part of the title for this month’s essay is the oft-repeated line from the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman and distributed by Warner Brothers - Seven Arts. Actor Strother Martin’s iconic line as the prison warden, "What we've got here is failure to communicate", is one of...

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Experiences with Active Learning at 26 Universities

By: David Bressoud @dbressoud David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College and Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences In my June Launchings, How to Transform a Department of Mathematics, I discussed the SEMINAL project of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and the recent publication by CBMS...

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The Spark Ignited by AMC: Finding and Spreading the Beauty in Math

By Hannah Guan, @hannahguan_, @_hannahguan I hated math when my mom signed me up for my first math club in sixth grade. I hated the simplicity of the class curriculum. I hated the 50 formulas we had to learn again and again each year. I hated the way I was punished for trying to teach...

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A Curriculum that prepares teachers benefits everyone

By Audrey Malagon In the midst of a global pandemic and school shutdowns, the value of K-12 teaching became more apparent than ever before. But does the mathematical community adequately value applications of the undergraduate mathematics core curriculum to high school teaching? Does fostering the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching take a backseat to pushing for...

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Gathering Around a Virtual Poster Session

By Tim Chartier, Davidson College Along with our remote world came virtual MAA section meetings. An important event in many section meetings is a poster session where mathematicians share their work and attendees peruse a potpourri of topics. For many, the meandering nature of a poster session is part of its charm and utility as...

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Mugs to Donuts: An Interview with Co-Editors Carl Schildkraut and Joe Gallian

By Deirdre L. Smeltzer Deirdre L. Smeltzer Joseph Gallian and Carl Schildkraut are the inaugural co-editors of the Mugs to Donuts (MtD) e-newsletter, a recently-launched MAA publication aimed at connecting with current and future Putnam competition participants. I sat down with Joe and Carl to learn more about their interests and find out their plans...

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Rigor in the Mathematics Classroom

By Scott Adamson Scott Adamson Think about the following statements: “That math class is rigorous!” “That college has a rigorous math curriculum!” “That was a rigorous math lesson/lecture/test today!” I contend that if these statements were heard by a variety of mathematics educators and if we could see their “thought bubble” containing what they imagine...

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My Path to Math: A Math Team Made the Difference

By Silva Chang Silva Chang My life revolves around math. I am currently co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Mathematics Competitions 8 (AMC 8), director of the Colorado Math Circle, and faculty member in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Was I destined from a young age to pursue a career in...

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Testimonios: Dr. James A. M. Álvarez

Testimonios, a new publication from MAA/AMS, brings together first-person narratives from the vibrant, diverse, and complex Latinx and Hispanic mathematical community. Starting with childhood and family, the authors recount their own particular stories, highlighting their upbringing, education, and career paths. Testimonios seeks to inspire the next generation of Latinx and Hispanic mathematicians by featuring the...

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