Thompson Hall (Math/CS Dept)
Thompson Hall, Math/CS Dept
(the fountain is gone now)
PNW MAA Logo

Annual Meeting of
the Pacific Northwest Section of
the Mathematical Association of America
Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, 2005

 Wheelock Student Center
Wheelock Student Center

Program

This is a tentative schedule, times may only change by 15 minutes or so, but locations may change.  Check back closer to the date of the event for updates.

Update (March 24):  There is now a version of the program for the meeting available in electronic form.  There will be a printed copy of this in your registration packet, so it is not necessary to print it out.  Schedules for contributed talks are now FINAL.  [Schedule Grids only]

Update (March 28):  Project NExT Dinner on Friday night is now at Katie Downs, not Engine House 9 as printed in the program.

Friday
8:00 AM - 2:30 PM
 Project NExT
 Wheelock Center, Board Room
2:45 PM - 5:15 PM
 Linear Algebra Minicourse
 Thompson Hall, Room 120
2:45 PM - 5:15 PM
 Combinatorics Minicourse
 Thompson Hall, Room 318
7:30 PM
 Late Registration, Packet Pickup
 Kilworth Chapel Lobby
8:00 PM
 MAA-UPS Presentation, Keith Devlin
 Kilworth Chapel
9:00 PM
 Reception
 Kilworth Chapel Lounge
Saturday
7:30 AM
 MAA Section Officers
 Wheelock Center Board Room
8:00 AM
 Packet Pickup, Late Registration, Coffee and Donuts
 Wheelock Center Lobby
9:00 AM
 Plenary Talk, Jenny Quinn
 Wheelock Center, Rotunda
10:30AM - 12:25 PM
 Contributed Papers
 Thompson Hall, Second Floor
12:30 - 2:00 PM
 Lunch
 Wyatt Hall Atrium
12:30 - 2:00 PM
 Student Problem Solving Session
 Wyatt Hall, Room 109
1:15 - 2:00 PM
 MAA Business Meeting
 Wyatt Hall, Room 307
2:10 PM
 Plenary Talk, Frank Farris
 Wheelock Center, Rotunda
3:30 PM -5:25 PM
 Contributed Papers
 Thompson Hall, Second Floor
5:45 - 9:15 PM
 Dinner Banquet
Section Awards
Video Presentation, Keith Devlin
 Wheelock Center, Marshall Hall

Invited Presentations

Keith Devlin, How Much Mathematics Can Be For All?

UPS-MAA Joint Presentation, Friday Evening

In his book The Math Gene [Basic Books, 2000], Devlin presented an evolutionary argument to show that the basic capacity for mathematical thinking is present in everyone as part of our genetic inheritance. But how much mathematics comes in this way? he now asks. Is there a point beyond which most people will simply never get it? Devlin believes there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the answer may be yes, and that among those parts of mathematics that can possibly be mastered only by a few is at least one topic taught in the middle school.  (Reception following.)

Jenny Quinn, Proofs that Really Count

Invited Talk, Saturday Morning

Every proof in this talk reduces to a counting problem---typically enumerated in two different ways. Counting leads to beautiful, often elementary, and very concrete proofs. While not necessarily the simplest approach, it offers another method to gain understanding of mathematical truths. To a combinatorialist, this kind of proof is the only right one. I have selected some favorite identities using Fibonacci numbers, binomial coefficients, Stirling numbers, and more. Hopefully when you encounter identities in the future, the first question to pop into your mind will not be "Why is this true?" but "What does this count?"

Frank Farris, Forbidden Symmetry—Relaxing the Crystallographic Restriction

Invited Talk, Midday Saturday

If you look at enough swatches of wallpaper, you will see centers of 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold, and 6-fold rotation. Why not 5-fold centers? They cannot occur, according to the Crystallographic Restriction, a fundamental result about wallpaper patterns, which are defined to be invariant under two linearly independent translations. Even so, we offer convincing pictures of wallpapers with 5-fold symmetry and ask “Who is lying?”. The talk is intended to be accessible to students who know something about level curves in the plane and linear algebra.

Keith Devlin, Using Math To Beat The Casino

After-Dinner Presentation, Saturday Evening

Video presentation. In the mid-1990s, a team of MIT students took mathematics into the Las Vegas casinos and came home with millions of dollars. They were playing blackjack, using a method based on a mathematical discovery made 40 years earlier by professor Edward Thorp. Keith Devlin will introduce a recent BBC television documentary, "Making Millions the Easy Way", that chronicles the 50-year war between generations of mathematically savvy players and the might of the casinos, that culminated in the MIT assault. Afterwards Devlin will comment briefly on the program and lead a short discussion.  Documentary Webpage

Minicourses

Jenny Quinn, Combinatorially Thinking

Friday Afternoon, 2:45 PM - 5:15 PM

Faced with an identity, how do you create a combinatorial proof? This hands-on mini-course will provide you with some useful combinatorial interpretations,  well-selected examples, and the challenge of finding your own combinatorial proofs. An  extensive list of identities -- some with known interpretations and others without -- will serve as the basis for our exploration. Of course, you are welcomed to bring along your personal favorites to add to the excitement.

Jenny McNulty, Teaching Linear Algebra with Technology

Friday Afternoon, 2:45 PM - 5:15 PM

Students in a linear algebra course are typically asked to perform calculations and to explain abstract concepts. Consequently, students often find this course challenging and quite different from the mathematics courses they have previously encountered. Technology can be a useful tool in bridging the gap between computations and theory.  The use of computer software gives students the ability to analyze many examples quickly, to study more realistic problems, and to be active learners. In addition, the use of computer assignments integrates student writing with mathematical computations. By having students perform and explain calculations, they learn to communicate mathematical ideas and their knowledge of the subject matter is enhanced.

While technology gives one the capability to utilize the computing, graphing, and word processing capabilities of the computer, it is often challenging to incorporate all three aspects into a single course. The session, which will take place in a computer lab, will provide a hands-on approach to the use of technology in linear algebra. A portion of the workshop will be devoted to solving actual assignments. In addition,  there will be a  discussion about  the challenges and rewards of developing one's own materials. While the focus of the mini-course will be on the use of MATLAB, many of the ideas presented can be used with other software packages.   In addition, a brief history of the reform movement in linear algebra and  a survey of  computer-based linear algebra resources will be given.  (Limited to 20 participants)

Social Events

Panels and Special Sessions

Student Problem Session

There will be a problem session for students, concurrent with the informal lunch. [Announcement]

Junior Faculty Research Talks

We invite faculty who are new to the Pacific Northwest Section to introduce us to their research.

Student Papers

We would especially like to encourage student presentations on summer reserch, REUs, senior projects, the modeling contest, and other projects.  Work presented need not be original research.

Innovation in College Algebra/Precalculus

MAA's CUPM (Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics) and its subcommittee CRAFTY (Calculus Reform and the First Two Years) as well as AMATYC's Crossroads have suggested changes in entry-level courses to improve mathematical understanding for our students and to increase interest in mathematics in general.  How have these suggested changes manifested innovations in College Algebra/Precalculus in your department?  This session provides a forum for math faculty around the Pacific Northwest to share curriculum innovations in these courses.  We invite faculty to share successful (or even unsuccessful) pedagogical strategies for College Algebra and Precalculus, report results of using new curriculum in these courses, or present interesting precalculus-level assignments, exercises, or activities that engage students.

Talks On The Teaching Of Mathematics

We welcome talks on pedagogy, original classroom ideas, interesting applications, and topics related to teaching mathematics.

General Papers

All papers that do not appear in one of the special sessions will be considered for a general paper session.

Submission Instructions

Contributed talks will be 15 minutes in length.  Titles and brief abstracts (300 words maximum) for all sessions should be submitted in plain text or simple TeX/LaTeX (i.e. not word processor formats like Word) by email to Nancy Neudauer. You must include the title, your name, affiliation, and technology needs (overhead projector, computer, blackboard).  The deadline for contributed papers was 1 March.

Project NExT

There will be workshops and activities for Project NExT on Friday morning and early afternoon.  [Webpage]

Contacts

Nancy Neudauer, Pacific University, Program, nancy at pacificu dot edu
Curtis Feist, Southern Oregon University, Student Program, feistc at sou dot edu
Jennifer Laveglia, Bellevue Community College, 2-Year School Program, jlavegli at bcc dot ctc dot edu
Rob Beezer, University of Puget Sound, Local Arrangements, beezer at ups dot edu

Last Updated: March 24, 2005

http://www.math.ups.edu/activities/pnwmaa2005.html