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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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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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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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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IMO Medalists & Their Contributions

By Meera Desai International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for high school students. The first IMO was held in 1959 in Romania and only 7 countries participated that year. Now, the competition has expanded to over 100 countries spanning major regions of the world. The team from the United States won...

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On Microaggressions, Kind Humor, and People Who Lift Your Spirits

By Rachel Levy, Deputy Executive Director of the Mathematical Association of America Rachel Levy, MAA Deputy Executive Director and Francis Su, past MAA President I have been thinking lately about reports of microaggressions at math conferences and in the classroom.  These can take the form of thoughtless comments that might make someone feel unwelcome.  Thoughtless...

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Data 4 Black Lives

By Carrie Diaz Eaton, Associate Professor of Digital and Computational Studies, Bates College Last year, I was checking what’s trending on Twitter (@mathprofcarrie) and started seeing a lot of really cool posts from individuals I respect, such as Dr. Piper Harron (@pwr2dppl) and Dr. Cathy O’Neil (@mathbabedotorg), being retweeted by my community.  They all had...

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