News from the Regions

Northern
The Northern Region held their annual fall meeting on November 5th at the Manassas campus of Northern Virginia Community College. Despite the beautiful fall weather, there were over 50 attendees. Special thanks to Ed Anderson and the rest of the Manassas faculty for being such excellent hosts! The fine presentations were:
TJ Johnson, BRCC Movable Algebra
Jane Serbousek, NVCC Creating a Learning Community for Developmental Math Courses
Ed Anderson, NVCC The 2005 AP Calculus Exam
Jon Hexter, PVCC Taming Trinomials Tersely
Judy Williams, TCC Exploring Statistical Reasoning and Probability for Teachers of Pre-Service Elementary Teachers
Jon Wilkin, NVCC How I Use Software in the Classroom

Kevin Chouinard, NVCC

Eastern
The VMATYC Eastern Regional Conference, hosted by the Virginia Beach Campus of Tidewater Community College and held on October 21, 2005, was an enriching and successful venture. Approximately thirty mathematics professionals attended. I would like to thank our six speakers who each graced us with thoughtful, informative, and engaging presentations. A brief synopsis of the presentations follows.

Roberta Barlok, TCC
George Derise Bicentennial of the Birth of Sir William Rowan Hamilton
TCC

This year is the 100th anniversary of Einstein's famous miracle year; but it is also the bicentennial of the birth of Sir William Rowan Hamilton . This lecture introduced Hamilton 's quaternions, an algebra with 3 imaginaries and a more advanced Clifford algebra with n 1's and m imaginaries. 
Sally Harrell
Kristine Ortwine
Supplemental Instruction: What It Is and What Makes It Work
TCC

During this session, the origins, underlying theory, and outcomes of Supplemental Instruction, as well as the training required of students who wish to become Supplemental Instructors, was discussed.  In addition, this presentation outlined the differences between the evolving TCC model and the original model as it was first developed, along with success data for TCC. There was also be a demonstration of proven techniques, both for the SI Leader and the classroom instructor, from within and outside of TCC.
Joe Joyner Perfect Little Programs
TCC This featured multimedia learning activities for math and science         
Mike Kirby Round Table Discussion
TCC This was an open discussion concerning student retention
Lee Monroe
Addison-Wesley

Identifying and Applying Student Learning Styles to Mathematics in the Classroom           

Tom Carson from Midlands Technical College presented his research on identifying and applying student learning styles to mathematics in the classroom.  His goals are to help build student confidence, understanding, and appreciation of mathematics.  

Judy Williams
TCC

Exploring Statistical Reasoning and Probability for Teachers of Preservice Elementary Teachers
Judy shared some information from this, the most recent AMAYTC Summer Institute.
   

Western
 
The Western region meeting of VMATYC was held on Oct. 2, 2005 on the campus of Wytheville CC. The acting dean, Susan Fleming, hosted the meeting. Chris Allgyer showed the group some of the new TI-84 applications and programs. Break out groups discussed transfer issues and placement issues.

Will Galliher
 
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