Science, Data, and Evidence-Based Public Policy

By Michael Pearson, Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America The federal government has long played a central role in collecting and analyzing data, for all sorts of reasons. Our founders recognized that this should be so; the U.S. Constitution calls for a census (Article 1, Section 2) in order to appropriately allocate votes....

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MAA Math Ambassadors in a Global Mathematics Community

By Rachel Levy, Deputy Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America Jeanette Shakalli, Executive Assistant of the National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Republic of Panama Have you heard about the fantastic mathematics outreach program in Panama run by Dr. Jeanette Shakalli? Jeanette is a mathematician who currently serves as Executive...

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Discovering the Art of Mathematics

By Erin Moss, Co-editor of DUE Point Students participating in DAoM Mathematics for Liberal Arts (MLA) is one of the largest undergraduate mathematics cohorts.  Unfortunately, MLA coursework is largely disconnected from students’ academic interests and frequently fails to engage them in research-recommended active learning approaches.  Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM) curriculum materials provide unique...

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On Marty Badoian and Being a Canton Mathlete

By Carrie Diaz Eaton, Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, Bates College At the beginning of my first semester here at Bates, I received some jarring news. My high school math teacher, Marty Badoian, had passed away. I think everyone has that professor or teacher.  You know - “the one” that all paths lead...

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Echoes from the Past, Looking to the Future

By Michael Pearson, Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America Janet Ray, a dear friend who was one of MAA’s representatives on the project team that launched the AMATYC ACCCESS program, recently sent me a copy of the seventh edition of a 19th century text, Elements of Algebra, advertised by its author James Thomson,...

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Recent Research into IBL in Mathematics

By David Bressoud @dbressoud Notice: I have considered myself part of the IBL community in mathematics since my first IBL conference in 2008. I currently serve on the Board of Directors of The Initiative for Mathematics Learning by Inquiry (MLI), a public nonprofit organization that supports this community of practitioners. The opinions expressed here are...

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Summa de Arithmetica – a landmark in the development of the modern world

By Keith Devlin @profkeithdevlin FOR SALE, ARITHMETIC TEXTBOOK, USED, GOOD CONDITION. DETAILS BELOW. Okay, with an expected sale price at auction of $1M to $1.5M, this is not your typical, used, math textbook. In fact, you can get a sense of the anticipated buyer by the title of the sale: the subtitle of Luca Pacioli’s...

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An Interview with Dr. Cathy O’Neil

By Carrie Diaz Eaton, Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, Bates College Using Popular Books in Teaching and Learning Last semester I organized a book club for my program. I was teaching a Discrete Modeling and Structures course, which attempted combine mathematical modeling with the study of structures for programming.  One of the elements...

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StatPREP

By Audrey Malagon, Lead Editor of DUE Point Data Science is taking the world by storm. Are we preparing our students for this rapidly growing industry? MAA’s DUE Point blog sat down with StatPREP principal investigator Doug Ensley to discuss this five-year project to help faculty incorporate data-centered components in introductory stats courses. Q: What...

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Why the Admissions Scandal Matters to MAA

By Michael Pearson, Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America This week’s indictments of prominent, wealthy individuals for illegal actions as they sought admission for their children to elite colleges and universities brings national attention to inequity in access to higher education. While the extreme (and illegal) acts at the center of these stories...

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