MSP News: Undergraduate Mathematics Education
December 17, 2009
HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE
1. MSP LEARNING NETWORK CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
A. Pre-Conference Required Meeting:
All MSP-Start and MSP-Institute Projects Funded in 2009
Sunday, January 24, 2:00-6:00 pm, with refreshments from 6:00-7:00PM See details below.
B. Pre-Conference Optional Meeting:
All NSF-MSP projects that are considering submitting a proposal for Phase II funding are strongly encouraged to attend.
Sunday, January 24, 3:00-4:30PM See details below.
C. CORRECTION: Poster Specifications
Poster Size: Posters must be no larger than 3.5' Tall (height) x 7.5' Wide (length). The maximum space for your poster, brochures and any other items of interest is 4' Tall x 8' Wide. See details below for poster and handout information.
2. NEW IN RESOURCES
A. Useful Website: NSF Resources for STEM Education - http://nsfresources.org
This prototype website was created as a testbed for sharing NSF-funded educational resources and findings in support of the U.S. Department of Education's "Race to the Top" program. Please see details below. Your feedback would be appreciated.
B. To What Degree? NSF Special Report: What Science is Telling Us About Climate Change
3. NEW IN MSP PAPERS
A. "Layers of Abstraction: Theory and Design for the Instruction of Limit Concepts," Michael Oehrtman, Making the Connection: Research and Teaching in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, Winter 2008.
B. "Foundational Reasoning Abilities That Promote Coherence in Students' Function Understanding," Michael Oehrtman, Marilyn Carlson, Patrick Thompson, Making the Connection: Research and Teaching in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, Winter 2008.
C. "An Investigation Into Precalculus Students' Conceptions of Angle Measure," Kevin C. Moore, Proceedings of the 2009 Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 2009.
4. ANNOUNCEMENT
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Solicitation
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program seeks to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers.
DETAILS BELOW
1. MSP LEARNING NETWORK CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
A. Pre-Conference Required MeetingDate: Sunday, January 24
Time: 2:00-6:00 pm, with refreshments from 6:00-7:00 pm
Location: Renaissance Washington Hotel (room TBA)
Who: All MSP-Start and -Institute projects funded with start dates between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2009 are required to attend this pre-conference meeting
RSVP: By January 8, 2010, to Daphne Rainey (drainey@nsf.gov) - see details in the description below on information to send
This pre-conference meeting offers an opportunity for new MSP projects to learn about programmatic features common to all MSP projects. These include annual reporting, fiduciary reporting, and participant reporting, as well as resources such as the Knowledge Management and Dissemination (KMD) and MSPnet projects that serve the MSP community. Projects will also have time to meet individually with their program officers. This meeting will be most informative for the PI and Project Director, who are expected to attend. Other project team members are also permitted to attend. Please email Daphne Rainey (drainey@nsf.gov) by January 8, 2010, with the names and project roles of members of your project who will be in attendance at this meeting.
MSPnet Location: CONFERENCES>>MSP Conferences
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/msp_conf_2010_faq
B. Pre-Conference Optional Meeting -- Carpe Diem Phase II!
Date: Sunday, January 24 Time: 3:00-4:30 pm Location: Renaissance Washington Hotel (room TBA) Who: All NSF-MSP projects that are considering submitting a proposal for Phase II funding are strongly encouraged to attend this pre-conference meeting RSVP: By January 8, 2010, to Kathleen Bergin (kbergin@nsf.gov)
Innovation, Research, Partnership, STEM Faculty Engagement, Scaling-up, Analysis, Adaptation, Dissemination, Documented Evidence-Based Outcomes, Deepening/Extending Proven MSP Project Aspects, Importance to the M/S Education Field, Implementation, AND Evaluation = the ingredients of a Phase II proposal. Eligible Partnerships are all those who have successfully completed or are about to complete their original five years of funding. So the competition is great and the focus on research that emanates from successful aspects of the original funding and is of significant importance to the Math and Science Education field cannot be over emphasized.
MSPnet Location: CONFERENCES>>MSP Conferences
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/msp_conf_2010_faq
C. CORRECTION: Poster Specifications
Poster Size: Posters must be no larger than 3.5' Tall (height) x 7.5' Wide (length). The maximum space for your poster, brochures and any other items of interest is 4' Tall x 8' Wide.
Handouts: We have suggested that projects may wish to bring printouts of their posters on "standard size" paper. Projects are welcome to interpret "standard size" as any size that fits in their printer. However, keep in mind that participants who pick up the handouts may wish to put them in their MSP LNC Conference notebook, which would more easily accommodate 8.5" x 11" paper.
MSPnet Location: CONFERENCES>>MSP Conferences
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/msp_conf_2010_resources
2. NEW IN RESOURCES
A. Useful Prototype Website: NSF Resources for STEM Education
This prototype website was created as a testbed for sharing NSF-funded educational resources and findings in support of the U.S. Department of Education's "Race to the Top" program. This site contains an initial sampling of resources and findings from NSF-funded projects in four areas: Teacher Development, Instructional Materials, Assessment and Research Synthesis.
The site represents a first step towards a more comprehensive and sophisticated future site. The MSP community is encouraged to visit the site and provide feedback.
Here are a few questions that might be helpful in guiding feedback:
What types of resources would be most helpful to you?
Tell about a resource on the site that was helpful and why it was useful?
What are your suggestions for new content types and site functionalities that would make this a more powerful tool?
MSPnet Location: RESOURCES>>Useful Websites
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20051
B. To What Degree? NSF Special Report: What Science is Telling Us About Climate Change
Leading climate change experts discuss one of the most complex scientific puzzles ever to confront humankind.
MSPnet Location: RESOURCES>>Useful Websites
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20054
3. NEW IN MSP PAPERS
A. "Layers of Abstraction: Theory and Design for the Instruction of Limit Concepts," Michael Oehrtman, Making the Connection: Research and Teaching in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, Winter 2008.
Imagine asking a first-semester calculus student to explain the definition of the derivative using the epsilon-delta definition of a limit. Given the difficulty of each of these concepts for students in such a course, you might not be surprised at the array of confused responses generated by a question requiring understanding of both. Since the central ideas in calculus are defined in terms of limits, research on students' understanding of limits and the ways in which they can develop more powerful ways of reasoning about them has significant implications for instructional design. Throughout this paper we will focus on calculus courses intended as an appropriate introduction for students who have never seen limits or derivatives and that is not intended to be a rigorous treatment of analysis.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/19688
B. "Foundational Reasoning Abilities That Promote Coherence in Students' Function Understanding," Michael Oehrtman, Marilyn Carlson, Patrick Thompson, Making the Connection: Research and Teaching in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, Winter 2008.
This article provides an overview of essential processes involved in knowing and learning the function concept. We have included discussions of the reasoning abilities involved in understanding and using functions, including the dynamic conceptualizations needed for understanding major concepts of calculus, parametric functions, functions of several variables, and differential equations. Our discussion also provides information about common conceptual obstacles to knowing and learning the function concept that students have been observed encountering. We make frequent use of examples to illustrate the 'ways of thinking' and major understandings that research suggests are essential for students' effective use of functions during problem solving, and that are needed for students' continued mathematics learning. We also provide some suggestions for promising approaches for developing a deep and coherent view of the concept of function.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/19686
C. "An Investigation Into Precalculus Students' Conceptions of Angle Measure," Kevin C. Moore, Proceedings of the 2009 Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 2009.
What follows in this report is a description of an approach to trigonometry intended to promote coherent student trigonometric understandings by developing foundational understandings of angle measure. This report also describes findings from an investigation into student conceptions of angle measure in the setting of an instructional sequence whose design was based on the described approach to angle measure. This investigation consisted of a teaching experiment that included multiple individual interviews and three teaching sessions with subjects from the undergraduate precalculus level. Through the use of a teaching experiment and individual interviews, insights were gained into students' developing images of angle measure.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/19684
4. ANNOUNCEMENT
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Solicitation
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program seeks to encourage talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers. The program provides funds to institutions of higher education to support scholarships, stipends, and academic programs for undergraduate STEM majors and post-baccalaureate students holding STEM degrees who commit to teaching in high-need K-12 school districts. A new component of the program supports STEM professionals who enroll as NSF Teaching Fellows in master's degree programs leading to teacher certification by providing academic courses, professional development, and salary supplements while they are fulfilling a four-year teaching commitment in a high need school district. This new component also supports the development of NSF Master Teaching Fellows by providing professional development and salary supplements for exemplary math and science teachers to become Master Teachers in high need school districts.
Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (optional) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): February 10, 2009
Noyce Scholarship and NSF Teaching Fellowship/Master Teaching Fellowship Proposals Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. proposer's local time): February 24, 2009
Innovation through Institutional Integration March 10, 2009
Noyce Scholarship and NSF Teaching Fellowship/Master Teaching Fellowship Proposals August 25, 2009
MSPnet Location: RESOURCES>>NSF Resources
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20048