Mathematics faculty and students participate in state conference

SUNY Fredonia was well represented at the Seaway Section of the Mathematical Association of America conference, held April 25 and 26 at SUNY Buffalo State.

Professor Keary Howard welcomed students with an invited address, "I See me in You: Regarding the Self-Evident Truths of Teaching and Learning Mathematics,” on the morning of April 26. Julia Wilson, associate professor, contributed a talk during the afternoon, "A Discovery Learning Approach to Axiomatic Geometry."

Mentored by Dr. Howard and Associate Professor Teodora Cox, several mathematics education graduate students presented results from their capstone projects. The students and their capstones included:

Suzanne Constantinou, ’13, “Derivatives as Rates of Change: A Study of College Students' Understanding of the Concept of Derivative;” Kristen Joseph, ’13, “Pardon My Expression: A Study of College Students' Misconceptions of the Order of Operations and Its Applications;” Sara Maiorana, ’13, “Spatial Ability in Adolescence and How it Varies by Age, Gender, and College Major;” Ashley Melinski, ’13, “College Students' Accuracy in Measurement Estimation: The U.S. Customary Units vs. the Metric System;” Elizabeth Schake, ’13, “Understanding and Misconceptions of Rates of Change and Unit Conversions;” and Shannon Tydings, ’13, “Procedural and Conceptual Understanding of Fraction Concepts in College Students.”

Undergraduate Heather Kappel, ’14, reported on her honors thesis, mentored by Dr. H. Joseph Straight. Her title was, "Varying Path-Perfect Graphs."

Finally, continuing SUNY Fredonia's long tradition of service to the section, Dr. Jonathon Cox was elected to a two-year term as First Vice Chair and Program Chair.