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The Math Community Forum (formerly called Math 2000 Colloquium Series) began in 1997 with a group of speakers focused on calculus reform. In order to reach out to the university community and to the public, the Department of Mathematics has sought to expand the series to embrace issues of interest to the general mathematics community (e.g., physicists, chemists, economists, mathematics teachers, social scientists, etc.). Such issues include discussions on teaching, K-12 outreach, public policy, research funding and educational trends.
Mathematics is a central discipline in modern education, touching all aspects of life. Problem solving skills garnered through math education have logical application to science, technology and even society as a whole. The goal of the Math Community Forum is to strengthen and improve relationships between the OSU Department of Mathematics, the university community, and the general public by presenting a forum for discussion of the issues affecting us all.
Talks are at 4:30pm in MW 724 . There is an
informal tea at 3:30 in the same room, before each talk.
| Jacques Hadamard lived a long life: he was born in 1865 and died in 1963. As a boy, he hated mathematics, had a passion for botany and played the violin. As an adult, he became a great mathematician without losing his childhood interests. He founded a famous seminar, traveled worldwide, fought for justice and human rights and at the same time made contributions which became landmarks in various domains of mathematics. He worked on function theory, number theory, partial differential equations, geometry, analytical mechanics, elasticity, hydrodynamics, calculus of variations, algebra, psychology, etc. I'll tell the story of his life, rich with joys and sorrows and survey his principal mathematical achievements. |
| WeBWorK, an online homework delivery and checking system developed at the University of Rochester, has received considerable support from the National Science Foundation and the mathematics community and is now used at more than 100 institutions annually. At Rochester, we have examined student responses to the system, tracking first how students actually use the program and their opinions about its value to their learning. More recent work has included detailed analyses of reactions to the "incorrect" message the system supplies for wrong answers. Our evaluation efforts have informed both the use of WeBWorK as learning tool and the re-design of WeBWorK itself. The evaluation methods can be imported and adapted by other institutions that wish to examine how their students respond to this system. Another curricular innovation, the student-led Workshops, has recently been added to a WeBWorK-supported calculus course at Rochester; this work-in-progress will be briefly described. |
Upcoming
and previous Colloquia
(complete list)
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