Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2017, 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 …

Examining The Relationships Between Gender Role Congruity, Identity, And The Choice To Persist For Women In Undergraduate Physics Majors, Bronwen Bares Pelaez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent gender disparity limits the available contributors to advancing some science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. While higher education can be an influential time-point for ensuring adequate participation, many physics programs across the U.S. have few women in classroom or lab settings. Prior research indicates that these women face considerable barriers. For university students, faculty, and administration to appropriately address these issues, it is important to understand the experiences of women as they navigate male-dominated STEM fields.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explored undergraduate female physics majors’ experiences with their male-dominated academic and research spaces in the U.S. …

The Birds Of A Feather Research Challenge, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Neller presented a set of research challenges for undergraduates that allow an excellent formative experience of research, writing, peer review, and potential presentation and publication through a top-tier conference. The focus problem is the analysis of a newly-designed solitaire card game, Birds of a Feather, so potentials for discovery abound. Open access talk slides, research code, solvability data sets, research tutorial videos, and more are also available at http://cs.gettysburg.edu/~tneller/puzzles/boaf .

Experiential Learning Opportunity (Elo) And Utilization Of Field-And-Data- Based Information Obtained Through The Infusion Of Technology: Highlights On Nasa Stem And Earth Science Curricula, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Matthew Khargie, Shuayb Siddiqu, Sol De Leon, Katina Singh, Newrence Wills, Krishna Mahibar

Publications and Research

There is a greater emphasis on hands-on involvement and critical thinking skills in the geosciences and other STEM fields to inspire and engage K- 16 students to value scientific content and enable them to discover the well-documented nature of the fundamental scientific principles needed to explain various earth science and other STEM-related core phenomena. NASA MAA curricula are ideal for engaging K1-16 students in this context, since grade-specific lesson plans open-up a plethora of pedagogically sound and relevant earth science activities. These include earth’s materials and properties, meteorites, robotics, hot air balloon, flight simulation, star gazing, material science, crystal growth, …

The Roots Of Early Group Theory In The Works Of Lagrange, Janet Heine Barnett

Abstract Algebra

No abstract provided.

The Pell Equation In India, Toke Knudsen, Keith Jones

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Generating Pythagorean Triples: A Gnomonic Exploration, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Certainty: The P-Value, Dominic Klyve

Statistics and Probability

No abstract provided.

Fermi Questions, Question 1: Trumpet Spit; Question 2: Tall Buildings, Larry Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

A quiz concerning physics is presented on topics such as the amount of saliva consumed by trumpeter Louis Armstrong during his career and the effect of buildings in the rotational inertia of the planet Earth.

Enhancing The Teaching And Learning Of Biometeorology In Higher Education, David R. Perkins Iv, Jennifer Vanos, Christopher Fuhrmann, Michael Allen, David Knight, Cameron C. Lee, Angela Lees, Andrew Leung, Rebekah Lucas, Hamed Mehdipor

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Information about the annual meeting organized by the organizations the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) and the Students and New Professionals (SNP) held in Norfolk, Virginia from July 28 to August 1, 2016 is presented. The event was organized to improve the teaching methods of teachers and learning of students on high education biometeorology and the presentations, practical sessions and group discussions participated by attendees.

Mathematical Knowledge As Memories Of Mathematics, Wes Maciejewski

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

I propose that an understanding of a mathematical concept is comprised of both a conceptual understanding of, and recollections of working with that concept. That is, a mathematical concept may not be immediately distilled in its abstract form from lived experience, didactical or otherwise, and this milleu is brought along in subsequent recollections of the concept. In an effort to balance pedagogical recommendations for increased conceptual teaching/understanding, I propose that memories of encountering a mathematical concept improve its utility in novel problem situations. I support this claim by drawing on the literature on episodic future thinking and on our developing …

The Definite Integrals Of Cauchy And Riemann, Dave Ruch

Analysis

Rigorous attempts to define the definite integral began in earnest in the early 1800's. One of the pioneers in this development was A. L. Cauchy (1789-1857). In this project, students will read from his 1823 study of the definite integral for continuous functions . Then students will read from Bernard Riemann's 1854 paper, in which he developed a more general concept of the definite integral that could be applied to functions with infinite discontinuities.

Rigorous Debates Over Debatable Rigor: Monster Functions In Introductory Analysis, Janet Heine Barnett

Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Compact Introduction To A Generalized Extreme Value Theorem, Nicholas A. Scoville

Topology

In a short paper published just one year prior to his thesis, Maurice Frechet gives a simple generalization one what we might today call the Extreme value theorem. This generalization is a simple matter of coming up with ``the right" definitions in order to make this work. In this mini PSP, we work through Frechet's entire 1.5 page paper to give an extreme value theorem in more general topological spaces, ones which, to use Frechet's newly coined term, are compact.

The Closure Operation As The Foundation Of Topology, Nicholas A. Scoville

Topology

No abstract provided.

Construction Of The Figurate Numbers, Jerry Lodder

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Generating Pythagorean Triples: The Methods Of Pythagoras And Of Plato Via Gnomons, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Pascal's Triangle And Mathematical Induction, Jerry Lodder

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Babylonian Numeration, Dominic Klyve

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Primes, Divisibility, And Factoring, Dominic Klyve

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Gaussian Integers And Dedekind's Creation Of An Ideal: A Number Theory Project, Janet Heine Barnett

Number Theory

No abstract provided.

Solving A System Of Linear Equations Using Ancient Chinese Methods, Mary Flagg

Linear Algebra

No abstract provided.

Equity Of Success In Clasp Courses At Uc Davis, Cassandra Paul, David Webb, Mary Chessey, Wendell Potter

Faculty Publications

We have recently described the reformed introductory physics course, Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-Making in Physics (CLASP), for bioscience students at UC Davis and argued that the course was more successful than its predecessor (Physics 5) by several measures. Now we examine the effects of these courses for different student ethnic groups. We find that, compared to Physics 5, students of most ethnic backgrounds were more successful in CLASP. We also find that students from ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM who took the CLASP course were more likely to graduate as STEM majors. We discuss possible features of CLASP that …

The Resolved And Unresolved Conjectures Of R.D. Carmichael, Brian D. Beasley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

Even before heading to Princeton University to work on his doctoral degree, Robert Daniel Carmichael started influencing the path of number theory in the 20th century. From his study of Euler's totient function to his discovery of the first absolute pseudoprime, he set the stage for years of productive research. This talk will present a brief overview of Carmichael's life, including his breadth of mathematical interests and his service on behalf of the Mathematical Association of America. It will focus mainly on his two most famous conjectures- which one has been settled, and which one remains open to this day?

"Big Idea" Reflection Assignments For Learning And Valuing Mathematics, Jeremy Case, Mark Colgan

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

While participating in a Faculty Learning Community, we explored the "big questions" we wanted our students to take away from our mathematics courses. We called these questions the Big Ideas of the course and developed a Big Ideas Reflection Assignment, which we continue to assign at the end of each of our courses. Students are able to demonstrate understanding and application of their learning as well as their values and appreciation of mathematics. The assignment encourages students to move beyond a focus on technique and symbolic manipulations towards a broader and more holistic approach, including making connections between their learning …

Using Real-World Team Projects: A Pedagogical Framework, Mike Leih

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

The use of team projects in a program capstone course for computer science or information systems majors has been a popular method for reinforcing and assessing program learning objectives for students in their final semester. Using real-world group projects as a learning activity is an excellent pedagogical approach in helping students develop critical thinking, team work, real-world problem solving, and communication skills. However, real-world group projects also provide many challenges to both the instructor and students alike. Instructors or students must find real-world projects appropriate for the learning objectives in the course. Instructors must determine how to provide teams with …

Variations On The Calculus Sequence, Christopher Micklewright

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

Many institutions have embraced a standard format for the Calculus sequence, comprising three four-credit courses covering a fairly consistent set of topics. While there is much to recommend this approach, it still leaves some fantastic concepts rushed or untouched, and it can be argued that it demands too much of students with weaker backgrounds. As such, some schools have experimented with variations on the standard format. In this talk, I will present the model that my institution currently uses, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of our particular approach. I will also suggest ideas, developed in conversation with other ACMS members …

The Topology Of Harry Potter: Exploring Higher Dimensions In Young Adult Fantasy Literature, Sarah Klanderman, Alexa Schut, Dave Klanderman, William Boerman-Cornell

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

As one of the most beloved series in children’s literature today, the Harry Potter books excite students of all ages with the adventures of living in a magical world. Magical objects (e.g., bottom-less handbags, the Knight Bus, time turners, and moving portraits) can inspire generalizations to mathematical concepts that would be relevant in an undergraduate geometry or topology course. Intuitive explanations for some of the magical objects connect to abstract mathematical ideas. We
offer a typology with a total of five categories, including Three Dimensions in Two Dimensions, Higher Dimensions in Three Dimensions, Two and Three Dimensional Movement, Higher Dimensional …

Ten Mathematicians Who Recognized God's Hand In Their Work (Part 2), Dale Mcintyre

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

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." Evidently Hume's cynical pronouncement did not apply to Descartes, Newton, Riemann, 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 …

The Set Of Zero Divisors Of A Factor Ring, Jesús Jiménez

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2017

Let A be a ring and a an ideal of A. In this paper we show how to construct factor rings A/ a and a finite set of ideals a1, a2, ... , ak, of A/a, such that: each ideal aj is contained in the set of zero divisors of A/a, the factor ring A/a is a direct sum of these ideals, and each ideal aj is a ring with unity when endowed with addition and multiplication modulo a. Explicit examples are given when A is the ring of integers, Gaussian integers or the ring of polynomials over a field.