The Conference

TROY MathFest 2012 is a one-day primarily undergraduate mathematics conference to be held on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at Troy University, Montgomery Campus, in Montgomery, Alabama. The purpose of the conference is to have a common mathematics forum accessible to all undergraduate students in the Southeast and beyond. Undergraduates, graduates, and faculty students are all encouraged to give presentations and attend. Presentations in all areas of mathematics, mathematics education, mathematics history, and mathematics applications are welcome. There is NO CONFERENCE FEE TO ATTEND THIS CONFERENCE! Lunch and refreshments will be provided for all in attendance. We have limited travel funds (and limited to the actual cost) to students who do not have support from their host institution.
Click here for the flyer.
 

Click here for program details, abstracts, directions, and hotel information.

 

Highlights include:

• Presentations throughout the day by undergraduates (some graduate students and faculty, too)
  on their research projects.
• Invited speaker: Professor Michael Starbird of The University of Texas (see biography and abstract
  below) on The Fourth Dimension.
• Graduate School Information Booth (on area graduate schools)
• Calculus Competition (with possible prizes).
• Workshop on "Inquiry-Based Learning: Mathematics and Beyond" by Professor Michael Starbird
  (see abstract below)
• Lunch and refreshments provided to those in attendance.

Directions to the campus: http://montgomery.troy.edu/about/maps.html

We request all students and faculty who wish to present a 15-minute talk on their research at TROY MathFest to send a word or latex source file containing the title, presenter's name, and abstract to vgompa@troy.edu

Please register online (due February 17, 2012) by filling the following:

 

Michael Starbird biography

Michael Starbird is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin. He has been at UT since 1974 except for leaves, including leaves to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He has received more than a dozen teaching awards including the Mathematical Association of America's 2007 national teaching award and most of the UT-wide teaching awards. He has produced Teaching Company DVD courses in the Great Courses Series on calculus, statistics, probability, geometry, and the joy of thinking. His books with co-author Edward Burger include the textbook The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking and the general audience book Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas. With Edward Odell and David Marshall, he co-authored the IBL textbook, Number Theory Through Inquiry.

The Fourth Dimension

The fourth dimension sounds eerie, mysterious, and exciting; and it is. Untying knots, stealing gold bricks from closed iron safes, and unfolding hypercubes are all part of the journey. We are transported to this abstract domain by a powerful method of creating ideas, namely, thinking insightfully about the world that we know well. A deep understanding of the simple and familiar is the key to exploring the complex and mysterious, and the fourth dimension illustrates that principal magnificently.

Inquiry-Based Learning: Mathematics and Beyond

Guided discovery methods of instruction are centered on students' proving theorems on their own and presenting their results to their peers. Expected outcomes for students include their developing theorem-proving skills and the ability to tell whether a proof is correct or flawed. But beyond those mathematical skills, this experience frequently involves interesting consequences on students' attitudes concerning self-reliance, independent thinking, and willingness to make mistakes. Guided discovery can be an important component of the education of students.

Supported by

NSF grant DMS-0846477 through the MAA Regional Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences program, www.maa.org/RUMC and by Troy University.