The Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA was held virtually on April 16-17, 2021.
Recordings of the plenary talks are now available (see below).
Meeting Highlights
This year’s conference will feature:
Three plenary speakers:
Travis Kowalski (South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and 2019 Burton W. Jones Award Winner)
Carol Schumacher (Kenyon College)
Shelby Stanhope (United States Air Force Academy)
Concurrent contributed paper sessions:
History of Mathematics and Its Use in Teaching
The Flipped Conference Session
Student Session
General Session
Information/Discussion Panel: Four Corners COMmunity for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching (COMMIT)
Student Activities
Social Hour for Faculty
Download and distribute a printable flyer to help spread the word.
Questions? Contact Program Chairs Tracii Friedman and Kyle Riley.
Meeting Schedule, Registration, and Abstracts
The RMS-MAA Virtual Spring 2021 Meeting is FREE!
The conference will run virtually on Friday (April 16) and Saturday (April 17). Tentatively, sessions are scheduled on Friday 12:30 – 6pm and Saturday 8am – 2pm. All meeting activities will be hosted through the meeting’s Virtual Conference Website, which includes a live schedule, abstracts, and links to zoom sessions for all talks. Alternatively, see these pdf versions of the Schedule and Abstract Booklet.
You can still register for the meeting through the Virtual Conference Website linked above.
Social Events
Throughout the Conference
There will be a Gather.town Venue available during breaks and throughout the conference so that you can mingle with colleagues, talk with collaborators, discuss with presenters, etc. If you haven’t tried “Gather” yet, you are in for a treat-- you make an avatar (super easy) and walk around the space; you can see and chat with people who are near you in the space. The link will be available on the Virtual Conference Website. Look for the “Gather Breakroom” link.
The Main Event
What: The Social Hour and The Amazing Math Race
Who: ALL conference participants are invited
Where: Gather.town Castle (link on the Virtual Conference Website)
When: Friday, April 16 after the talks
The Social Hour and The Amazing Math Race events have been combined into one fantastic Gather.town extravaganza! There is something for EVERYONE!
Come to our Gather.town Castle to network, play games, and socialize with fellow attendees in a more informal setting. Here, you will find rooms where you can share your most successful innovations in remote teaching and learning, vent about what was most frustrating, or bond over favorite topics like pets or the great outdoors. Additionally, there will be a friendly competition with clues to find and puzzles to solve, should you choose to partake! You can participate is one, some, or all of the Gather.town Castle options!
The Gather.town link will be available beginning Friday at 5pm on the Virtual Conference Website.
Contributed Paper Sessions
There are two themed sessions, a general session, and a student session. Descriptions for the two themed sessions follow. The abstract submission deadline has passed.
History of Mathematics and Its Use in Teaching
Organized by Janet Heine Barnett of Colorado State University – Pueblo.
This session invites talks on any topic related to the history of mathematics. Talks on the use of history in teaching undergraduate mathematics courses other than the history of mathematics are especially welcome.
The Flipped Conference Session
Organized by Kyle Riley of South Dakota Mines.
This past year has involved a great amount of innovation (and challenges) on adapting instruction to be delivered online. In the spirit of innovation, this session seeks to gather the developments, techniques, and tools that have been created to meet the challenge of teaching college mathematics in the past year. We plan to share these presentations in a unique format for our virtual conference. Session speakers will record their presentations prior to the conference and the recordings will be placed on a YouTube playlist. Conference participants can review the presentations at their convenience prior to the conference. During the conference, we will hold a panel session with the presenters and use the conference time to answer audience questions. We welcome your innovations that helped you transition to the online delivery challenges you faced in the past year, particularly those that you might continue in future semesters. Check out the video intro at https://youtu.be/Tyir_ekU66g.
Once an abstract is accepted, the presenters will be notified and the recordings (in a YouTube friendly format) will be due April 8. The recordings will be posted to a YouTube playlist with a link provided to the people registered for the conference. The videos will be deleted and the playlist will be removed from YouTube on June 1.
Plenary Speakers
Travis Kowalski (South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and 2019 Burton W. Jones Award Winner)
Title: The Sine of a Single Degree
Abstract: In this talk inspired by the Polya- and Chauvenet-award-winning paper, this talk is ostensibly a derivation of an algebraically exact formula for the value of the sine of 1 degree, presented as a “historical romp” looking at the problem through the tools of geometry, then algebra, and finally complex analysis. Each one of these approaches gets the audience nearer to the elusive value, but also serves to frame several vignettes of surprising and beautiful mathematics along the way.
Carol Schumacher (Kenyon College)
Title: Art forgery, differential equations, and swindling Hermann Göring.
Abstract: In this talk I will tell the tale of the Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren. Though van Meegeren was active as a forger in the 1930s and 40s, one of his forgeries Supper at Emmaus was not conclusively shown to be a fake until the 1960s, when a team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University proved that it was a modern forgery. I will discuss the science and the mathematics that they used to demonstrate this. It uses (fairly simple) differential equations in a clever way.
Shelby Stanhope (United States Air Force Academy)
Title: Bringing Multivariable Calculus to Life: Enhancing Student Learning of 3-Dimensional Concepts Using 3D Printed Objects, Computer Visualization, and Experiential Learning Field Trips
Abstract: A unique transition occurs as students enter multivariable calculus. Up to this point, students have spent their mathematical careers becoming experts in the two-dimensional xy-plane. Adding another dimensions allows us to explore this 3D world we live in, but the transition to three-dimensional mathematical thinking does not come easily to many students. To better support students’ spatial understanding of concepts in the course, we should provide interactive computer visualizations, tactile manipulatives, and experiential learning opportunities. In this presentation, I will discuss the use 3D printed surfaces in the classroom. Students can touch, write on, and rotate the surfaces as they work together with classmates to build their understanding of new concepts. Additionally, the free applet CalcPlot3D can be used to provide insightful computer visualizations. The program requires no coding and is extremely accessible to students. I will present demonstrations that instructors can use to illuminate concepts and visualizations that students can easily create themselves. Finally, I will discuss two experiential learning activities, which give students the opportunity to physically experience concepts that may often feel abstract when approached only on paper in a classroom.