Changing Course Design to Enhance Students’ Success

By Shanise Walker Shanise Walker As we begin to prepare for the start of the next academic year, many of us are thinking about changes we have made to our courses prior to the pandemic or during the pandemic and deciding which changes to keep. We are also thinking about other ways we can enhance...

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Let’s Remember the Year Everyone Wants to Forget

By Patrick Honner, @MrHonner It’s October, and I have no idea what I’m doing. Patrick Honner Students are logged into my Zoom meeting. I can see some faces, some avatars, some dark, blank rectangles. The problem set is posted in Google Classroom: transformations of functions, composition, domain and range. They’re good problems, a nice mix...

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Empathy with Uncertainty

Tim Chartier By Tim Chartier @timchartier The 2020-21 academic year was demanding. In the fall, the family scheduled a day in which we’d all be free—no school, no email, just togetherness. We drove into the mountains, hiked, and simply enjoyed being unplugged and connected to the natural world. It was a wondrous day. Then came...

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Joint Efforts to Promote Inquiry and Equity in Coursework for Preservice Teachers

By Erin Moss, Co-Editor, DUE Point, Millersville University Helping preservice teachers experience the exploratory nature of mathematics, develop their own mathematical questions, and challenge preconceived notions of who can be successful in the discipline are the ultimate aims of Focus on Inquiry and Equity in Mathematics for Education Faculty, an NSF DUE-funded project. In August...

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Pandemic and Post-pandemic Mental Health

By Tim Chartier with Susan Denny and John Brunelle Susan Denny The 2020-21 academic year offered many challenges in adjusting to new modes of instruction and also to life itself in a pandemic. Classrooms and office hours supported learning, which intrinsically included mental health check-ins and adjustments inherent in our uncertain world. To reflect on...

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Covid Lessons Hit Home: Reflections from a High School Teacher

Henry Neale By Henry Neale, Community School of Davidson I recognize that my experience as a teacher this past year probably differed in many important ways from other teachers. I was trying to take care of two kids at home along with our new Covid puppy. My kids are 13 and 16, so that was...

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A Pen-Pal in the Time of Covid

By Deanna Haunsperger I felt like a kid again as I “tore” open the email marked, “A letter from your pre-scientist is attached!” and read the pdf. My name is Manuel [name changed] and I am going to be your pen pal this year!\ And immediately we were off and running. Although I like writing...

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Creating Virtual Escape Rooms

Julie Barnes, Western Carolina University By Julie Barnes, Western Carolina University; Shih-Wei Chao, University of North Georgia; Rachel Epstein, Georgia College; Kerri Jamerson, Mars Hill University; Wei-Kei Lai, University of South Carolina at Salkehatchie; Allie Ray, Birmingham-Southern College; Laura Steil, Mars Hill University How can we do fun, interactive activities with students when we can’t...

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The Colorful History of Binary Arithmetic

By Keith Devlin @profkeithdevlin Performer, satirist, and mathematician Tom Lehrer in the 1950s As the musical satirist (and mathematician) Tom Lehrer quipped in one of his songs (“New Math”), “Base-eight arithmetic is just like base-ten—if you are missing two fingers.” It was a funny line that always got a laugh, but it highlights a major...

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Thoughts on Advanced Placement Precalculus

By: David Bressoud @dbressoud The College Board is now actively exploring the possibility of an AP Precalculus course. I have agreed to be part of the advisory board for this exploration and am sharing my thoughts and concerns in this article. The College Board welcomes “academic conversations” about this possibility. Those who would like to...

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