Newsletter

Winter 2001/2002

Volume 24, No. 2
Executive Committee 2001-2002

Chair:

Frank Serio, Northwestern State University of Louisiana

serio@alpha.nsula.edu 

(318) 357-4308

Mississippi Vice Chair/Internet Coordinator:

John Travis, Mississippi College

travis@mc.edu

(601) 925-3817

Louisiana Vice Chair:

Judith Covington, Louisiana State University- Shreveport

covingt@pilot.lsus.edu

318-797-5354

Secretary/Treasurer:

Leigh Ann Myers, Northwestern State University of Louisiana

myers@alpha.nsula.edu

(318) 357-4308

Newsletter Editor:

Bonnie Oppenheimer, Mississippi University for Women

boppen@muw.edu

(662) 329-7239

Immediate Past Chair:

Gerard Buskes, University of Mississippi

mmbuskes@hilbert.math.olemiss.edu

(662) 915-7425

Section Governor:

Connie Campbell, Millsaps,

campbcm@okra.millsaps.edu

(601) 974-1371

Section Info on the Web

Past newsletter as well as an electronic version of this one:

http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/newsletters/index.html

Dates for the Spring 2002 LA-MS Section meeting are March1-2, 2002.Northwestern State University of Louisiana, under the direction of Section Chair Frank Serio, will be the hosting institution.A registration form, Call for Papers, and Hotel Information for the meeting in Natchitoches, Louisiana, is available on our section web site: http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/.A registration form and tentative schedule are included in this printed version of the newsletter.

Section Chair’s Report

Edward Burger, MAA Polya Lecturer, will be our guest speaker; he will deliver the keynote address on Saturday. Bonnie Gold from SAUM (Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics) will conduct a workshop to inform us about this new project from our national organization. There will also be panel discussions and workshops led by members of our own section.

One of the strengths of our section is active student participation in the annual meeting. I encourage you to bring a team to compete in the team competition. The student paper competition also provides a great opportunity for your students to showcase their work. All registered students are invited to attend a luncheon on Friday sponsored by the Northwestern State University Foundation and the Department of Mathematics. Edward Burger will deliver a special address at this luncheon.

The Executive Committee has been carrying out all of its business through e-mail this year. I would like to thank each of the members of the committee for all their hard work and for indulging my request that we conduct our business electronically. I would also like to thank everyone else who is serving on our standing committees; we couldn’t get everything done without you.

I believe we have an exceptional section meeting planned. All of us here at Northwestern State University of Louisiana are looking forward to having you enjoy the hospitality ofhistoric Natchitoches, the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase. Please, plan to join us at our Friday night banquet for some local cuisine. See you at the meeting!

The LA/MS Section of the MAA has published two issues of proceedings from the Spring 2000 and Spring 2001 meetings.TheProceedings Committee is led by Editor-in-Chief Michael Pearson (pearson@math.msstate.edu)of Mississippi State University, Technical Editor John Travis (travis@mc.edu) of Mississippi College, Managing Editor for Research James Reid(mmreid@olemiss.edu) of University of Mississippi, Managing Editor for Pedagogy Bradd Clark (bec1033@louisiana.edu) of University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and Managing Editor for Student Papers Ken Li (kli@selu.edu) of Southeastern Louisiana University. Members are encouraged to make plans for submitting papers for the third set of proceedings following our upcoming Spring 2002 meeting.

Papers presented at the annual meeting are eligible to be submitted for consideration of publication in the Proceedings.The editorial board will consider papers in the broad categories of Research, Pedagogy, and Student papers.Papers submitted will be refereed for both content and style.The area editor will make a recommendation for or against publication for each paper submitted in that area.Final approval for publication rests with the full editorial board.

All papers must include author name, institutional affiliation and complete contact information, including e-mail address, on the title page of the paper.Student papers must also include corresponding information for the faculty advisor.While we have not yet fixed any overall style constraints, authors are encouraged to avoid any unusual style elements.

Electronic submission of the paper is required.File formats must be either Unix or PC.All papers will be published in PDF format (readable using the Adobe Acrobat plug-in), and it is therefore preferable that papers be submitted in that format.However, LaTeX, PostScript (preferred), DVI, Word or WordPerfect files may also be submitted.Authors should be aware that graphics files are not usually embedded in LaTeX, DVI, Word or WordPerfect files, so care should be exercised if papers include any tables, graphs or other figures.

Submission deadline for papers presented at a given year’s meeting is the following May 1.

Any section member who would like to comment on this is encouraged to contact the committee via Michael Pearson at pearson@math.msstate.edu.

Proceedings Editor Michael Pearson announced that the Spring 2001 (and Spring 2000)

Proceedings for the LA/MS Section of the MAA are our section web page at http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/proceedings/.

Edward Burger is a professor of mathematics at Williams College.His research interests are in diophantine analysis and the geometry of numbers.He is the author of over 25 research articles and two books-"The Heart of Mathematics: Aninvitation to effective thinking" (winner of a 2001Robert W. Hamilton Book Award), and "Exploringthe

Number Jungle: A journey into diophantine analysis" (published by the AMS).

Burger is known for his entertaining, energetic, and enlightening presentations.He has lectured at numerous conferences and universities around theworld.His over 175 lectures include several AMS- MAA Invited Addresses at winter and summer national meetings; keynote addresses at nationalNCTM Conferences; and many MAA sectionalmeetings.He has also made numerous appearances on radio and television including various NPR affiliates and NBC-TV.

Burger was awarded the 2000 Northeastern Section of the MAA Award for Distinguished Teaching and 2001 MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.He was the 2001 Genevieve W. Gore Distinguished Resident at Westminster College and the 2001 Cecil and Ida Green Honors Professor at Texas Christian University.He was also an Ulam Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.Burger is a member of the AMS Committee on Committees;was the chair of the Program Committee for the

MAA Mathfest 2001; and is an associate editor of the American Mathematical Monthly.

Section Mailing List

Dr. Kathleen Lopez earned her B.S in mathematics. M.S. in mathematics with a concentration in applied mathematics, and Ph.D. (her dissertation in the area of topological groups) from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, formerly theUniversity of Southwestern Louisiana. She won first place in the graduate student paper competition at the LA/MS Section meeting in 1982.She taught a variety of classes, and has had many positions of responsibility at UL-Lafayette.When the South Louisiana Community College opened in 1998, Kathleen was the first faculty member hired.As Coordinator of the Mathematics Component, she was charged with developing the mathematics curriculum for the college.Kathleen has coauthored two textbooks, and is currently head of the Department of Natural Sciences at SLCC.

Distinguished Teaching Award Info

Eligibility:In order to be considered eligible for this award, a nominee must satisfy each of the following criteria:

1.Any nominee must be a college or university teacher assigned at least half-time during the academic year to teaching a mathematical science in a public or private college or university (from two-year college teaching through teaching at the Ph.D. level) in the United States or Canada.Those on approved leave (sabbatical or other) during the academic year in which they are nominated qualify if they fulfilled the requirements the previous year.

2.Any nominee must have at least 5 years of teaching experience in a mathematical science.

3.Any nominee must be a member of the mathematical Association of America.

Nominees will be judged on the following criteria:

1.Is the nominee widely recognized as extraordinarily successful in teaching?Teaching can be interpreted to be more than classroom teaching.It could also include activities suchas preparing students for competitions, attracting students to become majors in a mathematical science or to become Ph.D. candidates, etc.

2.Has the nominee’s teaching effectiveness been well-documented?

3.Has the nominee had an influence in teaching beyond his/her own institution(s)?This can take on many forms such as making a lasting impact on alumni, providing influence on the profession through curricular revisions in college mathematics teaching, making contributions to influential innovative books on the teaching of college mathematics, etc.

4.Has the nominee fostered curiosity and generated excitement about mathematics in his/her students?

To submit a name to the committee:In order to be considered, nominations must be submitted on the Nomination Form at the beginning of the spring semester each year.For more information, including the nomination form and rules for submission of nominations, see the section web page athttp://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/distinguished/index.html.

Please submit nominations to Leigh Ann Myers, Department of Mathematics, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA71497, by February 15, 2002.The winner will be announced at the upcoming spring meeting.

Spring 2002 Meeting Information

CALL FOR PAPERS/PROCEEDINGS

Paper Folding for the Origamically Challenged!

Can you find interesting patterns in simple objects?Can you makea swan out of a piece of paper?Can interesting mathematics arisefrom making a paper airplane?The answers are three-fold and if yourbent on hearing some answers revealed, then this presentation is foryou!

FACULTY PRESENTATION

How to Always Win at Limbo

You can sum some of the series some of the time, and some of the series none of the time... but can you sum some of the series ALL of the time?

Have you ever gone out with someone for a while and askedyourself:"How close are we?"This presentation will answer that question byanswering: What does it mean for two things to be close to one another?We'll take a strange look infinite series, dare to mention a calculus student's fantasy, and momentarily consider transcendental meditation.In fact, we'll even attempt to build some very exotic series that can be used if you ever have to flee the country in a hurry:we'll either succeed or fail... you'll have to come to the talk to find out.Will you be at the edge ofyour seats?Perhaps; but if not, then you'll probably fall asleep and either way, after the talk, you'll feel refreshed. No matter what, you'll learn a sneaky way to always win at Limbo.

WORKSHOP

First efforts from SAUM will be aimed at stimulating thought and discussion about assessment.The sessions will use the MAA Notes #49, Assessment Practices in Undergraduate Mathematics (edited by Gold, Keith, and Marion), as a basis for the discussions. Look for mathematics departmental copy in the mail soon. The SAUM project will be compiling a second volume of case studies and syntheses of case studies on assessment, building a website on assessment, and conducting a series of workshops on how to establish effective assessment programs.

Bonnie Gold will give an overview presentation on assessment and lead the discussions at our Spring meeting and would welcome any persons from the Sections to join in this leadership.As stated in the SAUM proposal, "The sessions will focus on encouraging establishment of assessment cycles and provide forums for sharing experiences about assessment and relations between assessment and research on learning."

The LA-MS Section of the MAA will hold its annual Student Paper Competition at the Spring section meeting. Papers are solicited in two categories; graduate and undergraduate. The graduate category is limited to master's students.Ph.D. students are encouraged to submit for the contributed paper sessions listed above. Presentations at the meeting will be limited to 12 minutes.

A written paper of 6 pages or less must be received by February 15 and include the author's name, institutional affiliation, faculty advisor and an e-mail address. Late entries will not be considered. Richard DeVault (rich@nsula.edu) is the chair of the undergraduate paper committee, and Lisa Galminas (galminas@nsula.edu) is the chair for graduate papers.The address for both submissions is:

Department of Mathematics

Northwestern State University

Natchitoches, LA 71497

Dept. Phone 318 357-4308

Dept. FAX 318 357-5063

Each entry will be judged on the basis of both the written and oral presentation, with equal consideration given to both.Prizes will be awarded in each category separately, with no more than 3 prizes in each. The number of prizes awarded shall be at the discretion of the judges, and shall be determined depending on the number and quality of the entries in each category. The amount of the prizes shall be as follows: first prize, $75.00, second, $50.00, and third, $25.00.

Registration Form

Spring 2002 LA/MS Sectional MAA Meeting

Name: ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________________

(as it should appear on your name tag)

E-mail: ________________________________________________

Affiliation: _____________________________________________

(as it should appear on your name tag)

­­_____Registration fee

Regular Advance = $20

Late Registration = $25 (after February 15, 2002)

Student = $5 (Waived if from Section Institutional Member*)

* LA/MS MAA Sectional membership is $50 per year per department.To join, contact Leigh Ann Myers, myers@nsula.edu.

_____Seafood Banquet - $15.00 ($10.00 for students)

Friday Evening, March 1

_____Department Chairs Luncheon - $10

Friday, March 1

_____Section Meeting T-Shirt - $12

Mark desired size:MLXLXXLXXXL

_____Contribution to support student activities.

_____= Total

Please make check or money order payable to MAA, LA/MS Section

Mail to: MAA Registration, c/o Leigh Ann Myers

Dept of Mathematics

Northwestern State University

Natchitoches, LA71497

The ninth student team competition will be held at the Spring Section Meeting on Friday, March 1 from 8:30-11:00 a.m.Each institution may send at most two teams, each team consisting of at most four students.Each team must have a faculty sponsor (which could be the same person, for teams coming from the same institution).Team members must be undergraduate students and must be currently enrolled at the institution that they represent.The contest will consist of 2 groups of problems. The problems are from the following areas: Calculus, Abstract Algebra, Advanced Calculus, Differential Equations, Discrete Mathematics, Probability/Statistics, Linear Algebra, Numerical Analysis, Point-Set Topology, and Set Theory/Logic.Teams will be able to choose among several of the problems.Cash prizes will be awarded for 1st place ($100), 2nd place ($75) and 3rd place ($50), and lunch for all will follow the competition.For more information about rules for the competition and to obtain an application form, go to:

http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/meeting/index.html.

Send completed forms to Student Competition Chair George Cochran

Dept. of Mathematics, LSU

Baton Rouge, LA70803-4918

Questions?Contact information for George Cochran: e-mail: cochran@math.lsu.edu (plain text only) or gt_cochran@yahoo.com (attachments OK)Phone #: (225) 388-1614 Fax #:(225) 388-4276

Please register teams no later than February 15, 2002.

·The guest speaker will be Edward Burger who is a Polya Lecturer for the MAA this year. Ed is a great speaker for those of you who haven't heard him speakbefore. He will be speaking to the student luncheon on Friday and to the entire membership on Saturday before the business meeting.

·Kathleen Lopez who won the teaching award last year will give the opening address on Friday.

ACCOMODATION INFORMATION

Some other hotels close by (at Natchitoches exit off I-49):

Holiday Inn Express, 318-354-9911

Hampton Inn, 318-354-0010

Best Western, 318-352-6655

Comfort Inn, 318-352-7500

For more information or if you have questions, contact Kathy Autrey, autrey@nsula.edu.

For additional details check the section website:

http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/meeting/index.html

PLEASE POST THIS PAGE IN YOUR DEPARTMENT

LA/MS Section MAA

2002 Spring Meeting Location Information

Dates:March 1-2, 2002 with registration and check-in February 28, 2002

Location:Friedman Student Union, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA

Hotel:Ramada Inn, 318-357-8281.For more information, see hotel information.

Highlights of the Meeting: 

The annual meeting of the Louisiana-Mississippi Section of the Mathematical Association of America will be held in Natchitoches, Louisiana on the campus of Northwestern State University March 1-2, 2002.We will have a registration and

hospitality room at the Ramada Inn on Highway 1 Bypass from about 5-9 pm on Thursday, February 28.Registration will continue in Friedman Student Union, 2nd floor, from 8 am until noon on Friday, March 1.

Dr. Edward Burger will be our invited lecturer this year.Professor Burger has been selected as a Polya Lecturer for the MAA this year, and we are pleased that he could speak for us.He will be speaking at the student luncheon on Friday and will be giving an invited address on Saturday to close the presentations of our spring meeting.Theopening address on Friday will be given by Dr. Kathleen Lopez.Kathleen is our Distinguished Teaching Award Nominee, and currently serves as coordinator of the Mathematics Department at South Louisiana Community College.As many of you know, she is actively involved in mathematics teaching reform at all levels.

The MAA has been awarded $499,928 for a 3-year project "Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics (SAUM)."Part of the project is aimed at stimulating thought and discussion about assessment through forums at MAA section meetings.We are trying to schedule a forum for our upcoming meeting.The session will use the MAA Notes #49, Assessment Practices in Undergraduate Mathematics, edited by Gold, Keith, and Marion, as a basis for the discussions, and will focus on encouraging establishment of assessment cycles and will provide a forum for sharing experiences about assessment

and relations between assessment and research on learning.

We also hope that you can join us for Natchitoches fare (catfish and meat pies) and camaraderie at the banquet Friday night.

For more information regarding the upcoming meeting, contact Frank Serio, serio@nsula.edu, or visit the section web site,

Northwestern – A Direction for Mathematics in 2002

General Information at a glance…

Thursday

Registration, packet pick-up, and refreshments, 5:00 - 9:00 p- Ramada Inn

Friday

Registration and Information8:00 a- 12:00 n Lounge

Student Team Competition8:30 a – 11:00 aBallroom

MET Workshop9:30 a – 11:00 aRoom 320

Student Teams Luncheon11:30 a – 12:30 pBallroom

Department Heads Luncheon11:30 a – 12:30 pCane River Room

Registration and Information12:30 p – 4:30 pOutside Ballroom

Opening Session1:15 p – 2:30 pBallroom

SAUM Workshop2:45 p – 4:00 pBallroom

Undergraduate Papers I2:45 p – 5:45 pRoom 320

Contributed Papers I and II2:45 p – 5:45 pRoom 321 and/or

Cane River Room

Panel Discussion I4:15 p – 5:30 pBallroom

Food, Foolishness,7:00 p – 10:30 pRec. Plex.

and Camaraderie- a Dinner

Saturday

Registration and Information8:00 a – 11;00 aOutside Ballroom

Liaison’s Breakfast7:30 a – 8:30 aCane River Room

Undergraduate Papers II9:15 a – 10:30 aRoom 320

Contributed Papers III and VI9:15 a – 10:30 aRoom 321 and/or

Cane River Room

Panel Discussion II9:15 a – 10:30 aBallroom

Invited Address, Edward Burger10:45 a – 11:45 aBallroom

Business Meeting11:45 a – 12:45 pBallroom

Book Exhibits will be in the President’s Room

Committees can meet in Room 221 or upstairs in small rooms

Bylaws Update: Proposed Amendment

The suggested changes are:

1. Article III, Paragraph 3

The Executive Committee of the Section shall consist of the officers of the Section, the Section Governor, the Immediate Past Chair and the Internet Coordinator.

[Mostly changes to make it clear that the Internet Coordinator has a vote.]

2.Article III, Paragraph 8

Officers other than the Section Chair shall be eligible to serve two, but not more than two, consecutive terms in the same office. The Chair shall not serve consecutive terms.

[This is just cleaning up the wording]

3. Article III, Paragraph 9

Nominations of candidates for Section offices: (a) shall be submitted by the Location and Nominations Committee, and (b) may be submitted by members of the Section at any time prior to the election.

[This is to clear up redundancy in (a) and to make it clear that nominations can be taken from the floor during the business meeting in (b)]

Proposed Amendment

Delete and replace the second sentence of Article III, Paragraph 10, section d.

The current version:

The Newsletter Editor shall produce a Section Newsletter at least once per year and shall be responsible for the distribution of this Newsletter to all Section members, either by regular mail or electronically. The Newsletter Editor shall also be responsible for

producing and distributing an announcement of the regular annual meeting, along with a tentative program, a registration form, and other pertinent information.

Proposed Version:

The Newsletter Editor shall produce a Section Newsletter at least once per year and shall be responsible for the distribution of this Newsletter to all Section members, either by regular mail or electronically. The Newsletter Editor shall also be responsible for the dissemination of information for the regular annual meeting.This should include a registration form, information regarding hotel accommodations, a tentative program (if available at time of printing) and any other pertinent meeting information.

There will be a vote on the proposed amendment at the Spring Meeting.

Call for Special Session

Our thanks to those who serve the LA/MS Section on the various committees.If you are asked to serve on a committee, we urge you to say yes.If you haven’t been contacted and are interested in serving on a section committee, contact Connie Campbell atcampbcm@okra.millsaps.edu.She writes:“I'll have that as a reference for future situations; we like to have people doing things that they are interested in doing.”

Committee assignments are also listed on our webpage athttp://www.mc.edu/campus/users/travis/maa/committees.html)

Mathematical Concerns Committee

Chair: Clifton Wingard - Delta State University

Tilak de Alwis - Southeastern Louisiana University

Stan Chadick - Northwestern State University

Melinda Gann - Mississippi College

Brian Heck - Nicholls State University

Shaochen Yang - Mississippi University for Women

Location and Nomination Committee

Chair:Jenna Carpenter - Louisiana Tech University

Connie Campbell - Millsaps

Georgia Miller - Belhaven - GeorgiaSMiller@aol.com

Roger Waggoner - University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Clifton Wingard - Delta State University

Student Competition Committee

Chair: George Cochran - Louisiana State University

Email: cochran@math.lsu.edu (plain text only) or

gt_cochran@yahoo.com (attachments OK)

Phone #: (225) 388-1614

Fax #:(225) 388-4276

snailmail:George Cochran

Dept. of Mathematics, LSU

Baton Rouge, LA70803-4918

David Bramlett – Jackson State University

Lew Lefton - University of New Orleans) -llefton@math.uno.edu

Mark Lynch - Millsaps

Vic Schneider - University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Student Paper Committee

Undergraduate Paper Chair: Richard DeVault – NSU -rich@nsula.edu

Graduate Paper Chair: Lisa Galminas- NSU- galminas@nsula.edu

Department of Mathematics

Northwestern State University

Natchitoches, LA 71497

Dept. Phone 318 357-4308

Dept. FAX 318 357-5063

Paul Fabel – Mississippi State University

Xavier Retnam - Blue Mountain

Haidong Wu – University of Mississippi

Outstanding Teacher Award Committee

Chair:Bradd Clark - University of Louisiana at Lafayette - bec1033@louisiana.edu

Dept. of Math

University of Louisiana

Lafayette, La. 70504

Melinda Gann - Mississippi College

Kathleen Lopez - South Louisiana Community College

Wallace Pye - University of Southern Mississippi

Resolutions Committee

Chair: Bobby Thrash

Preston Dinkins - Southern University

Martha Goss - Hinds Community College - MGoss@hinds.cc.ms.us

Grace Cascio-Houston - Louisiana State University at Eunice

Necrology Committee

Chair:Kathleen Lopez(SLCC) - klopez@slcc.cc.la.us

Bonnie Oppenheimer (MSU) - boppen@muw.edu

Joe Thrash - University of Southern Mississippi
Non Profit Org.

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

Columbus, MS

Permit # 62

MISSISSIPPI UNIVERSITY

FOR WOMEN

Founded in 1884 Admitting men since 1982

Division of Science and Mathematics

Box W-100

Columbus, MS39701