The Need for HBCUs in the STEM Pipeline

The Failure to Quell Racism and Racialized Experiences Supports the Need to Maintain and Sustain HBCUs in the United States  Note: This introductory article is the first one in a series of articles on HBCUs. By: Jacqueline Brannon-Giles, Resident Professor, Houston Community College Central Campus, Adjunct Professor Texas Southern University, @JackieBGiles Consultants: Willie Taylor, PhD;...

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COURAGE in Undergraduate Mathematics

By Erin Moss, Co-editor of DUE Point Challenging, Operationalizing, and Understanding Racialized and Gendered Events (COURAGE) in Undergraduate Mathematics is a collaboration between researchers at Rutgers University and Vanderbilt University.  It is supported by the NSF IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) program, which funds projects addressing educational advances in STEM fields for both majors and...

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Connecting Departments, Policies, and RUME

By Naneh Apkarian, Dana Kirin, Jessica Gehrtz, and Kristen Vroom, guest bloggers This is part of the occasional series of guest blog posts on Launchings. Others who wish to submit a guest blog post for consideration should contact bressoud@macalester.edu. This guest blog is to promote a new article, titled “Connecting the Stakeholders: Departments, Policy, and...

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How relevant is Cognitive Load Theory to learning?

By Keith Devlin @profkeithdevlin A tweet from educator (and original MOOC co-creator) Stephen Downes (@oldaily) caught my eye as I was about to get down to writing this month’s post. In standard Downes fashion, the tweet took me to a short commentary on his blog with a link to the longer post he was commenting on,...

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Calculus Reform: What is different this time?

By David Bressoud @dbressoud This is an excerpt from a longer article that has been submitted to the Notices of the AMS. A draft of the full submission can be found here. On May 30–31, 2019, representatives of the departments of mathematics at 24 public and private universities met in Lincoln, Nebraska to share department-wide...

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Differential Equations Come to Life

By Audrey Malagon, Lead Editor, DUE Point Since 2003, the SIMIODE (Systemic Initiative for Modeling Investigations and Opportunities in Differential Equations) organization has been promoting a modeling-first approach to teaching undergraduate differential equations. With recent NSF support, they are expanding their offerings of course materials and training workshops. In this blog, I get to interview...

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Finding Community at MAA MathFest with the New NAM-MAA Blog Editors

By Omayra Ortega and Anisah Nu'Man Hello, world! We are Omayra Ortega, Anisah Nu’Man, Haydee Lindo, Jamylle Carter, Jacqueline Brannon-Giles, and Leona Harris; and we are the members of the new NAM editorial board for MAA Math Values! Watch this space for posts on teaching ideas, opportunities, current events, and cool math concepts. While you...

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Part 1: Resisting the Temptation to Skip the “Good” Stuff

By: Maria Hernández, Mathematics Instructor, The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, @mathmodeling Image by Nick Koberstein In my job as a mathematics educator, I have had the good fortune of working with high school students and teachers in various capacities. Most recently I have been teaching Precalculus and Calculus courses. As the school...

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Living Proof: Exploring Privilege and Prejudice in Mathematics

By Michael Pearson, Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America I am reading a book, Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility,” that carefully discusses the complex and nuanced relationships between white privilege, prejudice, and racism. DiAngelo also notes the role of ideology in preserving existing social ideals and structures, such as individualism and consumerism, and how...

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The Mathematics of Gerrymandering and the Supreme Court

By Dr. Rachel Levy, Deputy Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America with an excerpt from Dr. Jeanne Clelland, University of Colorado, Boulder One of the interesting things about working at the MAA in Washington, DC is that people talk politics and policy. Honestly, I find it hard to keep up or even to...

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