Dr. Edel Reilly presented sessions on “Literacy and Mathematics: A Bridge to Social Justice” and “The Tangram Tango: Geometric Manipulatives for Elementary Students.” Dr. Margaret Stempien presented “Coloring Maps: Fun with Students in Discrete Mathematics,” and Dr. Mary Lou Metz presented “Fractals: The ‘New Math’ of the 21st Century.”

In addition, four students from the Mathematics Department did presentations at the Pre-Service Teacher Day component of the conference. Hayley Markoff, a junior Secondary Mathematics Education major, presented her research on “Women in Mathematics—Still a Man’s World?” Alyssa Aiello, Daniele Chahoy, and Jay Murgi, all Elementary Education majors from the CCAC cohort with a Mathematics Concentration, presented their lesson, “All About Pittsburgh,” which integrated geometry in the study of the architecture and history of Pittsburgh. Of the seven students presenting at Pre-Service Teacher Day, four were from IUP.

Over one hundred pre-service teachers from fourteen colleges and universities in Pennsylvania attended Pre-Service Teacher Day. IUP was represented by ten students. In addition to the four presenters, Sarah Romasco, Annalese Weldy, Julie Kardell, John Sokol, Heather Hobbins, and Kayla Kohler—all Secondary Math Education majors—participated.

After a quick overview of using the Smart Board, Annalse will show how to create object animations and “training videos.” She will also present a list of research articles discussing the impact of using Interactive Electronic Boards.

Her presentation will be on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, in Stright Hall, room 202, at 3:30 p.m.

Plan to come to G-12 in the Suites on Maple West to learn more!

Thursday, November 5, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.

• Learn ideas, strategies, and techniques to make mathematics important to you and your students.
• Learn more about the proposed Middle School Mathematics certification and degree program.

Department of Mathematics

The program will be held on Thursday, November 12, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. in the Northern Suites. Five alumni of the Mathematics Department, who have a variety of careers in mathematics education, will talk about how their careers as teachers of mathematics led them to their current careers. They will also answer questions from students and others in the audience.

Returning department alumni include Dr. Rose Zbiek, professor of Mathematics Education at Penn State University; Mr. William Hadley, cofounder and former chief academic officer of Carnegie Learning; Dr. John Uccellini, coordinator of K-12 Mathematics for the Indiana Area School District; Ms. Barbara Carnahan, elementary mathematics coach for the Armstrong School District; and Ms. Shari Reed, elementary mathematics specialist for the Bellefonte Area School District. The program is being organized by Dr. Mary Lou Metz, also an alumna of the Mathematics Department.

These review sessions will be conducted by by Drs. Sharp and Stempien. Junior and senior Mathematics Education majors who have not previously passed the Praxis II exam should attend both these sessions and take the Praxis II exam soon.

Department of Mathematics

The presentations will be October 14, 2009, from 4:00–5:00 p.m. in Stright Hall, Room 302, and all are welcome. Ben interned in the IUP Admissions office, Christine worked with the IUP College of Education and Educational Technology, and Cody interned at the Local Management Board of Allegany County in Maryland.

Come hear about their experiences and learn about other internship possibilities.

• Tuesday, October 13
  Stright Hall, Room 201, 4:30–5:30 p.m.
  Topic: Internships and Job Search
• Tuesday, October 27
  Stright Hall, Room 201, 4:30–5:30 p.m.
  Topic: Interviews and the Hiring Process
• Tuesday, November 10
  Stright Hall, Room 201, 4:30–5:30 p.m.
  Topic: TBA
• Tuesday, November 24
  Stright Hall, Room 201, 4:30–5:30 p.m.
  Topic: TBA

Contact Dr. Yu-Ju Kuo for more information.

Department of Mathematics

This year's conference was in honor of the sixty-eighth birthday of Walter Wallis and was held at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

For a graph G having chromatic number k, an equivalence relation is defined on the set X consisting of all proper vertex k-colorings of G. This leads naturally to an equivalence relation on the set P consisting of all partitions of V (G) into k independent subsets of color classes. The notion of a partition type arises and the algebra of types is investigated. Visual assistance is provided by Mathematica.

Dr. Walker and her coauthor, Maggie Niess of Oregon State University, discuss the use of video clips to help students explore mathematical ideas.

The Northern Suites are behind Weyandt Hall, and everyone has access to the lounge area, so no key scan is necessary.

Dr. Reilly also participated in a workshop on mathematics and fiction in Oxford, England.

The article can also be accessed on line. The Post-Gazette is doing a weeklong series on mathematics education.

The Datasets and Stories department of the journal provides a forum for exchanging interesting datasets and discussing ways they can be used effectively in teaching statistics. Rossman compiled his dataset as part of his master's thesis under the direction of Dr. Christoph Maier. His thesis concerned players in baseball's minor league system, and he explored factors that best predict their making it to the major leagues.

Department of Mathematics

Come and meet the other new students, our faculty members, and your academic advisor. Snacks and beverages will be available. The meeting is in Stright Hall, room 226.

The article relates experiences in teaching about elections to a class of fifth graders and connecting the activities to fractions, percent, and working with multiple variables. The journal is published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and is considered the premier magazine for mathematics education at the elementary school level in the United States.

She is poised to break the IUP career records for goals, assists, and points. Sarah is currently second on the career lists with 57 goals, 31 assists, and 145 points. She is also an excellent student in the Secondary Mathematic Education program who consistently makes the Dean’s List for her high academic performance.

You can read a full article on Romasco on the IUP Magazine website: Mighty Mite.

All three were recommended by a universitywide committee of their peers, and their promotion was recently granted by President Tony Atwater.

Members of the editorial panel are selected from NCTM’s council members that have demonstrated extraordinary leadership in mathematics education. The eleven-member panel is charged with producing and editing ready-to-use mathematics activities for students in grades 5-10. Student Explorations in Mathematics appears five times a year.

Thomas, the daughter of Dale and Tammy Thomas, is a 2008 graduate of Northern Cambria High School. A Math Education major with a Geography minor, she is a member of IUP’s track and field team.

Daniel Griffith is a spatial statistician and is the Ashbel Smith Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education in 1970 and his master’s degree in Geography in 1972 from IUP. He earned a second master’s from Penn State University and his doctoral degree from the University of Toronto. He is a 1982 recipient of an IUP Distinguished Alumni Award and was IUP’s 2008 commencement speaker, receiving an honorary doctoral of science degree at the ceremony.

Griffith and his wife established the Griffith Scholarship to provide interested students with the financial support to pursue a joint program in Geography and Mathematics at IUP. The scholarship is awarded to high-achieving freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior students who have declared an academic course of study as a dual Geography-Mathematics major, a Geography major and a Mathematics minor, or a Mathematics major and a Geography minor.

From left: Dr. Francisco Alarcon, Mathematics Department chairperson; Elizabeth Thomas, Griffith scholarship recipient; and Dr. John Benhart, Geography and Regional Planning chairperson

The student organization, established and advised by Dr. Mary Lou Metz, is one of only two student affiliates in the state of Pennsylvania. Nationally, there are only twenty such students groups in twelve states. The forty-three members of IUP-PTM are secondary Math Education majors and Elementary Education majors at IUP who are interested in developing teaching and leadership skills in mathematics.

From left: Tori Groves, Emily Golden, Jen Hunter, Dr. Mary Lou Metz, and Alyssa Aiello receive the affiliation documents.

Department of Mathematics

The presentation was given to faculty and students in the Mathematics Department at Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on May 13, 2009. The presentation consisted of an overview of the life and work of Leonhard Euler, his solution of the Basel Problem, and the connections of that problem with the Riemann Hypothesis.

B.S. Applied Mathematics 

Christopher Lynn DeLeo (Lake City)

Timothy Brannon Muller (Doylestown)

Joseph Damian Veltri, Jr. (New Kensington)

Colin Patrick Zinda (Plover, WI)

B.S. Mathematics 

Lauren Jeanine Abbott (North Potomac, MD)

Adam Craig Moser (Kittanning)

B.S. Ed. Secondary Mathematics Education 

Tori L. Groves (DuBois)

Jennifer L. Hunter (Bellwood)

Jeffrey Daniel Krznaric (West Mifflin)

Jonathan R. Lunieski (Irwin)

Drew Tyson Moyer (Hollidaysburg)

Erin Bethel Porter (Pittsburgh)

Allison L. Yorks (Camp Hill)

M.Ed. Mathematics 

Jason A. Myers (Mount Pleasant)

Traci Renee Stevens (Indiana)

M.Ed. Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Education 

Lisa Marie Thompson (Ford City)

M.S. Applied Mathematics 

Melissa A. Bagi (Indiana)

Amy Berdett Bowser (Reynoldsville)

Jason A. Smith (Punxsutawney)

Tao Sun (Indiana)

The James A. Boytim, Ed.D. Scholarship in Mathematics is awarded to a senior in the Mathematics Department who is of good character and who demonstrates the promise of future success in the education profession. This year’s winner is Annalese Weldy from Canonsburg, Pa. Annalese is a Secondary Mathematics Education major. She was joined at the banquet by one of the people who inspired her, Susan Stonebraker, her elementary school principal.

Kaitlyn Yeomans is the recipient of the Dr. Willard W. Hennemann, Jr., Memorial Scholarship, awarded to a deserving and worthy student with a strong commitment in the field of mathematics education at the elementary or middle school level. Kaitlyn is an Elementary Education major with a Mathematics concentration from Creekside, Pa.

This year’s Tony and Carole Kuczinski Memorial Scholarship winner is Tiffany Cornman, a secondary Mathematics Education major from Home, Pa. Tiffany credits the teachers she had as a student for her decision to pursue mathematics education.

The Arthur G. Morrell Memorial Scholarship is given to a Mathematics major completing the sophomore or junior year at IUP who best reflects the character and interests of Captain Arthur G. Morrell. This year two scholarships were awarded, to Antonio Ayllon and Sarah Romasco. Antonio is an Economics/Mathematics major from Avondale, Pa., who is originally from Mexico. Sarah is a Secondary Mathematics Education major from Freedom, Pa., and is the latest in our tradition of scholar athletes. Sarah a first team member of the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District II squad for women’s soccer.

The second James R. Myers Scholarship was awarded to Rachel Holuta from Indiana, Pa. Rachel is an Elementary Education major with a Mathematics concentration. Rachel was able to meet with Dr. Myers’ family during the ceremony.

The Mildred M. Reigh Scholarship was awarded to Julie Kardell of Indiana, Pa. Julie teaches at the Seeds of Faith Christian Academy in Indiana and is looking to finish her degree in Secondary Mathematics Education.

This year there were two winners of the Rebecca A. Stoudt Memorial Scholarship for Mathematics: Jessica Schnebel and Amelia Uecker. Jessica is a Secondary Mathematics Education major from Pittsburgh who is active in dance and the Robert E. Cook Honors College. Amelia is another Cook Honors College student majoring in Mathematics and Physics. Amelia is from Mason, Ohio, and active in Bella Voce, a choral group that performs at local nursing homes.

The awards banquet is a special time in the life of the department as we honor both our current outstanding students and the IUP faculty and alumni who are an important part of our past.

The session began and ended with a link to research findings of Liping Ma. Participants went through activities that had been done with fifth graders with the help of Katie Bungo (a student in the M.Ed. in Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Education program).

Reilly, along with Julie Bisi, M.Ed. Elementary and Middle School Mathematics ’08, and another middle school teacher from Connecticut reported on their work with two hundred students in exploring math concepts and writing new math stories.

Megan Sheeler won the New Teacher Award at Thornburg Middle School. Megan graduated in May 2008 with a B.S.Ed. in Mathematics Education and currently teaches eighth grade mathematics.

Derek Stiffler won the New Teacher Award at Post Oak Middle School and subsequently won the New Teacher Award for the entire Spotsylvania County School system. Derek is also a May 2008 graduate of the B.S.Ed. in Mathematics Education program. Derek teaches seventh grade mathematics at Post Oak.

Congratulations to Megan and Derek and all of our graduates who do the important work of educating young people.

Reilly’s article “Parental Involvement Through Better Communication” has been included in the Middle Level Education Research Annual 2009 Connecting with Parents and Families published by the National Middle School Association.

IUP Department of Mathematics

SSHEMA is the organization of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) educators who are involved in courses or programs that are considered to be a part of mathematics or the mathematical sciences.

Description: We define an equivalence relation on the set of all k-colorings of a k-chromatic graph. Partition types are subsequently defined from the equivalence classes, and we explore how these algebraic techniques give some insight into a longstanding conjecture of Erdos and Lovasz. Visual aids will be provided by Mathematica.

Dr. Navaratna also presented “Non-linear Filtering with Mobile/Fixed Antennas,” another joint work with Menaka Navaratna, at the February Joint Meeting of the Florida Section of the MAA and the Florida Two-Year College Mathematics Association.

Formal recognition was approved at the February 2009 meeting of NCTM’s Board of Directors, and the group will receive its charter at the Washington, D.C., delegate assembly in April.

Dr. Wu’s research applies mathematical modeling and social science tools to environmental health problems. In particular, she is interested in food safety and indoor environmental quality and the economics of regulating these. This talk will feature her work on genetically modified crops.

The majority of the corn, cotton, and soybean fields we plant today in the U.S. are genetically modified (GM), in most cases for herbicide tolerance and/or pest protection. GM crops have a variety of benefits for growers and secondarily for animals and humans (for example, through mycotoxin reduction), but it is important to fully understand and reduce any potential environmental and food safety risks.

Dr. Wu’s work in this area concerns quantitative benefit-risk assessment of environmental and health impacts of GM crops and application to improving policy. Dr. Wu has focused on issues of pesticide and mycotoxin reduction. For this work, she has spoken at the United Nations Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, on mycotoxin reduction in Bt corn and its health and economic benefits.

About Dr. Felicia Wu

Dr. Wu is an assistant professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Pittsburgh. She conducts research on the economic and health impacts of agricultural and food safety issues today, including ethanol production from corn, genetically modified crops, and mycotoxins (fungal toxins) in food.

Dr. Wu is the 2007 winner of the Chauncey Starr Award, given annually by the international Society for Risk Analysis to an outstanding risk analyst under age forty. She has a National Institutes of Health Early Career Award as well as grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Wu serves on the editorial boards of the journals Risk Analysis, World Mycotoxin Journal, and Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health. She earned her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University and her A.B. from Harvard University.

The goal of this T³ Conference is to provide quality professional development, empowering educators to be successful in the classroom with appropriate use of technology. T³ Conferences are open to all kindergarten to university educators interested in using educational technology to enhance teaching and learning.

We invite you to learn from experienced educators via hands-on and demonstration sessions for both new and experienced users of technology.

Find more information about the T3 Conference.

(Please note the date change.)

Please join us in room 202 Stright Hall at 6:00 p.m.

The updated schedule is as follows:

For MATH 100, 101, 105, or 110:
Monday 12:10–1:10 p.m. in STRGT 202; 4:00–5:00 p.m. in STRGT 202; 6:30–7:30 p.m. in STRGT 202
Tuesday 2:30–4:30 p.m. in STRGT 231
Wednesday 12:10–1:10 p.m. in STRGT 202; 6:30–8:30 p.m. in STRGT 231
Thursday 2:30–4:30 p.m. in STRGT 231

For Other 100-and 200-level MATH courses:
Monday 2:30–5:00 p.m. in STRGT 202; 6:30–8:30 p.m. in STRGT 231
Tuesday 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m. in STRGT 231
Wednesday 3:30–5:00 p.m. in STRGT 331; 6:30–8:30 p.m. in STRGT 231
Thursday 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m. in STRGT 231

For memorial donations to the Mathematics Department, the family has requested funds be contributed to the Arthur G. Morrell Scholarship fund. Don and Wally Morrell (Art’s dad) were good friends, and since Don himself was a military man, the family thought it would be appropriate.

Checks should be made payable to The Foundation for IUP, and the memo line of the check should contain “Morrell 630142 in memory of Don Duncan.”

The schedule is as follows:

For MATH 100, 101, 105, or 110:
Tuesday 12PM-4:30PM in STRGT232
Thursday 12PM-4:30PM in STRGT232

For other 100- and 200-level mathematics courses:
Tuesday 9AM-4:30PM in STRGT 231
Thursday 9AM-4:30PM in STRGT 231

Additional hours may be added later, so check our news page often.

The New Faces of Engineering program highlights the interesting and unique work of young engineers and the resulting impact on society. Each year, the National Engineers Week Foundation—a coalition of engineering societies, major corporations, and government agencies—asks its members to nominate colleagues thirty years old and younger who have shown outstanding abilities and leadership.

Tessa is a systems engineer in the Advanced Technical Leadership Program for Lockheead Martin in Moorestown, New Jersey. Tessa is also a 2007 recipient of a Young Alumni Ambassador Award from IUP. She will be honored in the winter issue of the SWE Magazine.

This past summer and fall, Colen provided a workshop, “Enhancing Instruction in Mathematics: Numbers and Numeration,” to two hundred Atlanta public school teachers.

The colloquium will be held on Tuesday, October 7, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Stright 112A.

Social network analysis is a method of research using data to analyze relationships between individuals, organizations, and committees, and driving the concept is the idea that social networks are fundamentally a part of any group or community. The people who know each other and, in turn, know others present a web of power and knowledge. Theoretically, these connections and relationships speak volumes about our society and the individual players, or actors, themselves. This field is very popular amongst social scientists, and even journalists have begun to use it. However, the field is rooted deeply in mathematics—namely graph theory. This presentation will provide an introduction to the basic concepts of social network analysis, some of its fundamental ideas in graph theory, and an overview of software used to perform the analysis. It will also look at several applications of social network analysis, including analyzing a few datasets.

Reilly also presented “Mathematics Apart: Examining the History of Subject Isolation and Its Implications for Mathematics Education” at the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics Meeting in Mexico City, and her paper was accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.

• James Boytim Memorial Scholarship: to Jennifer Hunter, a Mathematics Education major from Bellwood, Pa.
• Mildred M. Reigh Memorial Scholarship: to Sarah Romasco, a Mathematics Education major from Freedom, Pa.
• Willard W. Hennemann, Jr., Scholarship: to Nicole Park, an Elementary Education (mathematics concentration) major from Creekside.
• James R. Myers Memorial Scholarship: to Lyndsay Book, an Elementary Education (mathematics concentration) major from Edinburg, Pa.

Congratulations!