Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Mystery Of The Infinite: Developing A Mathematically Based Summer Scholars Program, Christopher Micklewright

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

For the past two years, the Templeton Honors College, at Eastern University, has been conducting a Summer Scholars Program for high school students. The program, which has offered courses in a variety of topics, brings students to campus for an intensive residential program, coupled with pre-program and post-program work, for which students can earn college credit. In summer 2014, I helped to develop a mathematically based course, to include rigorous study of discrete mathematics, as well as a variety of lectures and extracurricular activities integrating faith and philosophy with mathematics. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the …

The Best Religious Calendar, Andrew Simoson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Many religions have deep roots in the rhythms of the moon. And ever since at least the fifth century BC man has known that the moon repeats itself every n = 19 years. Is this integer valuen the best of all choices?Easter follows such a calendar. We briefly show that 19 is second best. And then we run time backwards, and give a rationale as to why a certain species of cicada has a life cycle of 17 years. The answer involves the moon, the Farey series, and Kepler’s laws of motion.

Math, God And Politics—A Fight Over Geometry In 19th Century Italy, Donna Pierce

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In 1839 a polemic, reminiscent of the Renaissance public challenges over mathematical problems, was issued by the leader of the synthetic school of geometry, Vincent Flauti, to the analytical school, headed by Fortunato Padula. Three geometric problems were proposed, all carefully chosen to guarantee a victory for the synthetic school. The judges were from the Royal Academy of Sciences, men also favorable to the synthetic method. Why then did the analytics take up this challenge, and who were the real victors? This was not just a fight over the ‘correct’ way to do geometry, it was a fight over politics, …

Experiencing A Paradigm Shift: Teaching Statistics Through Simulation-Based Inference, Dave Klanderman, Mandi Maxwell, Nathan Tintle

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

For decades, statistics has been taught as an application of formulas, making use of normal and other distributions, and relying heavily on algebraic skills of students, in short, emphasizing mathematical thinking. More recently, several textbook author teams have published statistics books that place an increased emphasis on simulation and randomization methods, and a corresponding decreased emphasis on the algebraic manipulation in formulas (e.g., Lock et al., 2012; Tintle et al., 2015) as a way to encourage better statistical thinking.This session describes simulation-based inference curricula more fully, reports on the necessary steps towards implementation of such an approach, and provides both …

On Random Numbers And God’S Nature, James Bradley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I start with mathematical Platonism, an ancient stream of thought that views numbers as transcending physical reality. I join this to recent insights into mathematical randomness from theoretical computer science. Joining these streams – one ancient, one recent – yields the surprising conclusion that randomness, defined in a particular way, is part of the nature of God. I then explore some of the implications of this conclusion for our understanding of the doctrine of God’s infinitude.

Parables To A Mathematician, Melvin Royer

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Jesus frequently used parables in His ministry, usually short narratives illustrating the outcomes of people’s choices. In John 3:12 and Matthew 13:10-15, He explained that one reason was to be sure that people who genuinely wanted to understand His message would be able to do so. Since most of His audience was familiar with an agrarian economy, Jesus spoke extensively of wheat, fish, trees, wine, debt, tenants, lamps, etc. Many people have speculated on parables Jesus might have used had He lived in a different society. This non-scholarly (but hopefully thought-provoking) talk will propose parables targeted toward groups of mathematicians …

God: One, Daniel Kiteck

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I see the most mathematically significant verse as Deut. 6:4 where God says He is ONE. (And I don’t believe that it is an accident that the greatest commandment to love God with all we are immediately follows.) What is the concept of “one” in relationship to God? Is God dependent on the concept of “one?” What if “one” is ultimately always a comparison going back to God? God is also commonly viewed as infinite. How is this connected to our understanding of the mathematical continuum? Could this help us see how God is foundational both to discrete and continuous …

The Math Olympian, By Richard Hoshino. A Review, Moriah Magcalas, Kyle Spyksma

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

This presentation will be a review of the novel The Math Olympian written by ACMS member Richard Hoshino.

Mathematics Without Apologies: A Portrait Of A Problematic Vocation By Michael Harris. A Review, Jeremy Case

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The subtitle of Mathematics without Apologies by Michael Harris is a “Portrait of a Problematic Vocation,”and that problematic vocation involves pure mathematics. What do pure mathematicians do, and why should they do it? Harris critiques the usual answers of truth, beauty, and potential applications as he gives a contemporary revision of G.H. Hardys’ A Mathematicians Apology. Described as a post-post-modern book, Mathematics without Apologies provides a cultural, sociological, philosophical and psychological landscape of the profession and the life of a mathematician. We will explore whether a romantic view of the profession satisfactorily answers the questions and how it might …

The Remarkable Mrs. Somerville, Richard Stout

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

As a woman growing up in the late eighteenth century, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was denied access to most formal education and getting a university education was completely out of the question. Yet her interests in nature, science, and mathematics, coupled with an intense curiosity and tenacious desire to learn led her to eventually be known and respected by scientists, mathematicians, and intellectuals in both Britain and France. She is one of the important woman in the history of mathematics, even though she did not publish original work. However, she was a talented writer, producing several significant works, including Mechanism of …

Ten Mathematicians Who Recognized God’S Hand In Their Work, Dale L. Mcintyre

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) once observed that

“Whoever is moved by faith to assent to [the Christian religion], is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.” [Hume]

Evidently Humes cynical pronouncement did not apply to Euler, Cauchy, Cantor, and other profound thinkers who believed God had commissioned and equipped them to glorify Him in their pursuit of truth through mathematics And based on their extraordinary achievements the principles of their understanding do not appear …

Home Primes And Foreign Primes, Nicholas Zoller

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Home primes and foreign primes are produced by a simple recipe that blends prime factorizations with recursion. The home prime of a positive integer n is formed by concatenating the prime factors of n in non-decreasing order. If the resulting integer is prime, then we have found the home prime of n. If not, then we repeat the process as many times as needed to obtain a prime. For instance, 35 = 5·7. After concatenation, we have 57 = 3·19, which is followed by 319 = 11·29, which is followed by 1129, which is prime. Thus, the home prime …

Physical Activity In A Theory Of Computing Class, Nancy Lynn Tinkham

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Physical activity breaks, sometimes called brain breaks, are beginning to gain attention among K-12 teachers as a way to keep their students alert and engaged in the classroom. In the Fall 2014 semester, faced with the task of teaching an introductory course in Theory of Computing in a once-a-week, 2 1/2-hour format, I decided to try incorporating physical activity into my own classroom. Time is precious in the college classroom, so any physical activities have to be directly related to the course material. I will describe some physically active exercises that I used in the classroom to teach students about …

Preparing Students To Read A Calculus Textbook, Douglas Phillippy

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Consider the exercise of reading the textbook before class. While most educators agree that this practice leads to better learning, too often students enrolled in a calculus class do not find pre-class reading a valuable use of their time, and their commitment to doing so fades. Why is this? As instructors, we hope that these students will be well-versed in the fundamental concepts of the subject by the time they prepare for their final exam, but as they progress through the course and encounter new concepts, they may not be ready for the technical language of the standard calculus textbook. …

Pressure And Impulse In Student Learning: What I Learned From Teaching Physics, Kim Jongerius

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In the fall of 2014, a one-semester gap between the departure of one physics professor and the arrival of the next afforded me the opportunity(?) to teach a first-semester, calculus-based physics class. The thirty-year gap between the last (of three) physics courses I had taken myself and this course I was to teach, combined with a two-week notice prior to the start of the semester, placed me in the interesting position of learning alongside my students. Wading through an unfamiliar text, trying to understand publisher-produced lecture slides, learning from and getting frustrated with online homework, entering review sessions fearful of …

Paper Abstracts (2015), Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Introduction (2015), Thomas Price, Derek Schuurman, Kevin Vander Meulen

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Table Of Contents (2015), Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Twentieth Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences

Proceedings Of The Twentieth Conference Of The Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences, Association Of Christians In The Mathematical Sciences

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The proceedings of the twentieth conference of the Associate of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences held at Redeemer University College from May 27-30, 2015.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2015, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

What's Grad School All About?, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Presentations

PDF of a powerpoint presentation from the Capital region Celebration of Women in Computing (CAPWIC) Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia, February 27, 2015. Also available on Slideshare.

Creative Discussions Or Memorization? Maybe Both? (On The Example Of Teaching Computer Science), Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

We all strive to be creative in our teaching, but there is often not enough time to make all the topics creative fun. So sometimes, we teach memorization first, understanding later. We do it, but we often do it without seriously analyzing which topics to "sacrifice" to memorization. In this talk, we use simple mathematical models of learning to come up with relevant recommendations: Namely, all the topics form a dependency graph, and if we do not have enough time to allow students to treat all topics with equal creativity, then the most reasonable topics for memorization first are the …

Motivation And Learning Of Non-Traditional Computing Education Students In A Web-Based Combined Laboratory, Michael Jesse Green

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Hands-on experiential learning activities are an important component of computing education disciplines. Laboratory environments provide learner access to real world equipment for completing experiments. Local campus facilities are commonly used to host laboratory classes. While campus facilities afford hands-on experience with real equipment high maintenance costs, restricted access, and limited flexibility diminish laboratory effectiveness. Web-based simulation and remote laboratory formats have emerged as low cost options, which allow open access and learner control. Simulation lacks fidelity and remote laboratories are considered too complex for novice learners.

A web-based combined laboratory format incorporates the benefits of each format while mitigating the …

Math In The Dark: Tools For Expressing Mathematical Content By Visually Impaired Students, Patricia M. Mcdermott-Wells

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Blind and visually impaired students are under-represented in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines of higher education and the workforce. This is due primarily to the difficulties they encounter in trying to succeed in mathematics courses. While there are sufficient tools available to create Braille content, including the special Nemeth Braille used in the U.S. for mathematics constructs, there are very few tools to allow a blind or visually impaired student to create his/her own mathematical content in a manner that sighted individuals can use. The software tools that are available are isolated, do not interface well with other …

Community Chairs As A Catalyst For Campus Collaboration In Stem, Neal Grandgenett, David Boocker, Hesham Ali, Angela M. Hodge, Brian Dorn, Christine E. Cutucache

Biology Faculty Publications

Strong collaborative partnerships are critical to the ongoing success of any urban or metropolitan university in its efforts to build the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pathways so critical to our nation. At the University of Nebraska at Omaha, we have established a faculty leadership structure of "community chairs" that work across colleges to support campus priorities. This paper describes UNO’s STEM community chair model, including selected initiatives, impacts, and challenges to date.

Building Cloud-Based Information Systems Lab Architecture: Deriving Design Principles That Facilitate The Effective Construction And Evaluation Of A Cloud-Based Lab Environment, Thomas J. Trevethan

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The problem explored in this dissertation report was that at the time of this study, there were no design principles or methodologies based on design science research (DSR) available to use for artifact construction, implementation, and effective evaluation of cloud-based networking lab environments that can be used to foster hands-on technology skills in students. Primarily based on Hevner’s 7 guidelines of DSR, Peffer’s design science research methodology (DSRM), and Gregor’s IS design theory, this study forms the groundwork for the development of procedures and specifications derived from DSR literature to facilitate the construction, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive cloud-based …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2014, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Improving The Efficacy Of Web-Based Educational Outreach In Ecology, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Andrew D. Fulton, Colin D. Witherill, Javier F. Espeleta

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Scientists are increasingly engaging the web to provide formal and informal science education opportunities. Despite the prolific growth of web-based resources, systematic evaluation and assessment of their efficacy remains limited. We used clickstream analytics, a widely available method for tracking website visitors and their behavior, to evaluate 60,000 visits over three years to an educational website focused on ecology. Visits originating from search engine queries were a small proportion of the traffic, suggesting the need to actively promote websites to drive visitation. However, the number of visits referred to the website per social media post varied depending on the social …

An Investigation Of The Dayton Regional Stem School Public-Private Partnerships, Kimberly S. Poole

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation study documents in-depth the exploration of the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) between the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) and their industry partners as well as the establishment of a framework for evaluating and assessing PPPs. The public-private partnership agreements were studied in order to answer the over-arching research question: How is an effective public-private partnership established, assessed, and evaluated in education? A descriptive case study methodology was used to study DRSS' public-private partnership agreements to determine if goals and objectives were established and whether or not the partnerships met those goals and objectives. This case study also included …

Using Remote Sensing Data To Predict The Spread Of Mosquito Borne Disease, Mary Ellen O'Donnell, Erika Podest

STAR Program Research Presentations

There is interest in how environmental variables derived from satellite data such as temperature, vegetation cover, and precipitation correlate to vector borne disease occurrence such as malaria and dengue fever. This study will be carried out using a decision tree based open source software called Random Forests to find correlations between the remote sensing variables and mosquito abundance. Software will be written in C# to take large amounts of data from the NASA satellite database and automatically format it for the Random Forest Software input. Correlations found, using Random Forests, between disease incidence and the variables can be used as …