John Prather, associate professor of mathematics and Ohio University Eastern faculty chair, and Barbara H. Margolius, math professor at Cleveland State University and the program chair for the Ohio Section of the MAA, prepare for the conference.
The Ohio Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) recently held its 102nd meeting at Ohio University’s Eastern Campus. The biannual meeting took place on Oct. 27 and 28 in Shannon Hall.
Eastern Campus Dean Paul Abraham welcomed the approximately 100 participants from all corners of the state to get the event started. “As a mathematician and professor for many years, I personally understand and greatly appreciate what the MAA does in advancing the teaching and learning of mathematics. Thank you for your attendance today and for what you do every day for students. We are proud to host you at the Eastern Campus.”
Michelle Younker from Owens Community College gave the first presentation, entitled “Ohio Mathematics Initiative – Re-visioning Post-Secondary Mathematics in Ohio.” According to Younker, the Ohio Mathematics Initiative (OMI) challenged faculty to re-envision post-secondary mathematics in Ohio’s public colleges and universities in 2014. She explained how faculty from both two- and four-year institutions have responded to this call by working to develop high quality entry-level courses connected in meaningful ways to programs of study, updating Ohio Transfer Module (OTM) courses and learning outcomes, and implementing communication strategies that provide opportunities for members of the mathematics community from across the state to share data and ideas.
The conference also featured talks by Partha Srinivasan, Cleveland State University, “Extracting Structural Information from NMR Spectroscopy as Inverse Problems”; Aaron Montgomery, Baldwin Wallace University, “Martingales: For Fun but Not Profit”; Carol Schumacher, Kenyon College, “What is the Definition of Definition? And Other Mathematical Cultural Conundrums”; and Mihai Caragiu, Ohio Northern University, “Sequential Experiments with Primes.”
Barbara H. Margolius, math professor at Cleveland State University and the program chair for the Ohio Section of the MAA, helped to organize the event. “The MAA is an organization that supports mathematics and mathematics teaching,” she said. “This conference at Ohio University Eastern is a great opportunity to network, to spend a weekend thinking and talking about mathematics and to share ideas about mathematics pedagogy.”
John Prather, associate professor of mathematics and faculty chair, nominated Ohio University Eastern to host the event. “I am very glad that the MAA decided to have its conference at the Eastern Campus this year. From my perspective, everything went well and we were able to give faculty from across the state of Ohio a good sense of how regional campuses contribute to the education of students in the state.”
Prather also recognized the entire Eastern Campus community for helping to make the event a success. “The teamwork was amazing, yet typical for our campus. Everyone was pulling in the same direction to get the job done and I cannot thank my peers enough.”
Dr. Zijian Diao, associate professor of mathematics at Ohio University Eastern, and Student Ambassador Ashlyn Callarick did a great job at the registration table for the MAA conference.