Northeastern Section of the MAA

Fall 2003 Meeting: November 21-22, 2003

Wellesley College, Wellesley MA

New Colleague Presentations

Session 1, Room 270

8:00 am Complementary Sequences
             Sam Vandervelde, Wellesley College

We present an elegant method for constructing a partition of the positive integers into a set of sequences, beginning with the Fibonacci and Lucas numbers.

8:20 am Landscape Erosion
              Ted Welsh, Westfield State College

How do you describe landscape erosion? We will look at a system of partial differential equations: What problems arise? How can we fix these problems?

8:40 am Technology in Mathematics for Preservice Elementary Teachers
              Barbara Boschmans, Plymouth State College

A study was conducted last fall on the self efficacy of preservice elementary teachers and using technology in mathematics. Projects were developed and data was collected from experimental and control groups. This presentation will discuss the projects, the study, and the results.

Session 2, Room 274

8:00 am Error-control codes and related areas of discrete mathematics
             Sarah Spence, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering,

Error-control codes are an important aspect of algebraic coding theory. For example, CDs use error-control codes so that a CD player can read data even if they have been corrupted by imperfections on the CD.  This talk will present some undergraduate-accessible basics of algebraic coding theory as well as related teaching interests and projects.

8:20 am A Historic Point of View on Trigonometric Functions
              Semra Kilic-Bahi, Colby Sawyer College,

The presentation will first focus on different techniques applied by ancient civilizations to measure the earth. Then the effect of some approaches on the development of trigonometric functions will be emphasized.

8:40 am The Regularity of Weakly Harmonic Maps on Riemannian Manifolds with Bounded             Measurable Metrics
               Wataru Ishizuka, Providence College.

The Hölder continuity of weakly harmonic maps on Riemannian manifolds with non-smooth metrics will be discussed.

Session 3, Room 278

8:00 am Rolle’s Theorem over Finite and Local Fields
             Cristina Ballantine, College of the Holy Cross,

Rolle’s Theorem implies that if a polynomial splits over the reals, its derivative does as well. We investigate this property over finite and local fields.

8:20 am An Examination of Teacher Knowledge Base Among Undergraduate Mathematics Faculty
             Kimberly B. Santucci, University of Connecticut

This research examined the knowledge base for teaching and instructional practice of seven undergraduate mathematics faculty teaching calculus. Themes across cases and a teacher knowledge base framework will be presented.

8:40 am An Introduction to Weak 2-cocycles
              Jill Shahverdian, Quinnipiac University

I will introduce the theory of weak 2-cocycles as a generalization of the theory of Galois 2-cocycles.

 

E-mail: gingrichr1@southernct.edu
URL: http:www.southernct.edu/organizations/nesmaa/fall2003newcolleaguesessions.html
Revised: November 18, 2003
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