MAA  Mathematical Association of America

Seaway Section

Location: Roger Bacon Hall 412

1. Time:

   3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

   Title:

   MAA Convergence Workshop : Mining the Resources of MAA Convergence: Where Mathematics, History, and Teaching Meet

   Speaker:

   Janet Heine Barnett, Colorado State University Pueblo & MAA Convergence

   Abstract

   The value of using the history of mathematics in its teaching as a support for student learning has been increasingly recognized by instructors and educational researchers alike. History of mathematics is not only for the history of mathematics classroom any longer! Since 2004, MAA’s peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal Convergence has offered its readers high-quality scholarship and classroom resources to help them leverage that value in teaching a wide range of grades 8–16 mathematics courses. Whether you’re looking for new ideas for bringing history into your classroom, a venue for sharing your own ideas, or just wanting to know more about the benefits that history has to offer for student mathematical learning, this interactive workshop will help you to mine Convergence’s riches. Workshop activities will include a scavenger hunt (with prizes!) that will wind its way through Convergence’s pages to uncover its hidden (and not-so-hidden) gems. Note : Please bring your laptops with you if you are able to. It is not necessary that everybody have one, but the more that we have, the better!

Location: SSU 240-243

1. Time:

   2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

   Title:

   Meetings of the Executive and Extended Executive Committees

Location: Century House, 997 Loudon Rd, Latham, NY 12110

1. Time:

   6:00 pm – 6:45 pm

   Title:

   Social hour (cash bar) and Registration

2. Time:

   6:45 pm – 8:00 pm

   Title:

   Banquet

3. Time:

   8:00 pm – 9:00 pm

   Title:

   The unreasonable ineffectiveness of mathematics (with and without the axiom of choice)

   Speaker:

   Alan Taylor, Union College

   Abstract

   The title is a bit tongue-in-cheek with apologies to Eugene Wigner; nothing we say is in conflict with his wonderful 1960 paper in the Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics entitled "The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences." But although the abstract mathematics we do does, as Wigner suggests, produce many results that yield strange-but-true things about the real world, it also produces some results that seem to be in conflict with the real world that we know. The most famous example is the Banach-Tarski paradox, asserting that a solid ball can be decomposed into five pieces and then reassembled using translations and rotations into two solid balls that are each the same size as the original. We'll mention a couple of others along these lines (predicting the future ...) that rely on the axiom of choice, but we'll also mention a couple that don't (more teams than players; more leagues than teams ...). And we'll mention (with permission) some remarkable unpublished results of Elliot Glazer that reveal paradoxes in the absence of AC and anything contradicting AC.

4. Time:

   9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

   Title:

   Math Game Night

Location: SSU 240-243

1. Time:

   7:45 am – 8:30 am

   Title:

   Registration / Continental Breakfast

Location: SSU 240-243

1. Time:

   8:30 am – 8:40 am

   Title:

   Welcome Address

   Speaker:

   Dr. John Cummings, Dean of School of Science

2. Time:

   8:45 am – 9:30 am

   Title:

   The French Connection: Borda, Condorcet, and the Mathematics of Voting Theory

   Speaker:

   Janet Heine Barnett, Colorado State University Pueblo & MAA Convergence

   Abstract

   Voting theory has become a standard topic in the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. Its connection to important issues within a democratic society and the accessibility of its methods make a unit on voting theory especially well-suited for students in liberal studies program. The piéce de resistance of such a unit is a somewhat startling theorem known as Arrow’s Impossibility Theory which essentially asserts that there is no fair voting system for elections involving three or more candidates. Unpacking what this means by exploring the relationship between different methods for determining election results (called voting methods) and different notions of fairness (called fairness criteria) is the primary objective of the standard undergraduate treatment of voting theory. The study of specific voting methods and their drawbacks itself dates back well before Arrow’s twentieth-century work. This talk considers the contributions of two revolution-era French mathematicians for whom certain key ideas of voting theory are now named: Jean Charles, Chevalier de Borda (1733–1799) and Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794). In addition to exploring the technical contents of works written by Borda and Condorcet about elections, I provide an overview of the intriguing biographical and historical contexts in which they developed their ideas. Along the way, I describe a classroom-ready project designed to introduce students to all of the content contained in today’s standard textbook treatment of Voting Theory by engaging them directly with Borda’s and Condorcet’s original writings through a series of project tasks. By drawing on Condorcet’s rich discussion of his personal motivations for studying the problems of collective decision-making, the project then goes beyond a standard textbook treatment in terms of its investigation of why Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, and voting more generally, matters in today’s society.

3. Time:

   9:40 am – 10:10 am

   Title:

   Business Meeting

4. Time:

   10:15 am – 11:00 am

   Title:

   Randolph Lecture: Do Teachers Need Real Analysis?

   Speaker:

   Xiao Xiao, Utica University

   Abstract

   In 1965, MAA’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics made a recommendation in the General Curriculum in Mathematics for Colleges report that real analysis should be part of any general undergraduate mathematics curriculum. A few years later in 1971, the same committee recommended that real analysis should be part of the minimum requirement for preparing high school mathematics teachers. Since then, real analysis has been taught extensively in many universities and colleges that have an undergraduate mathematics program. Based on a 2015 survey conducted by the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, approximately 66% of all mathematics program and 54% of the secondary mathematics teacher training program require at least one semester of real analysis. A traditional real analysis course often contains a broad range of topics that tends to focus on preparing students for graduate school. Essential though they are, it creates a disconnect for future high school teachers because only very few topics are directly relevant to what these students will be teaching in the future. In this talk, we report on a recently completed textbook on real analysis written in an inquiry-based style with secondary school mathematics teachers in mind. We choose course content to give students a working knowledge of that part of real analysis that directly underlies the materials on numbers and functions that is taught in high school. The book is a joint work with David M. Clark.

5. Time:

   11:05 am – 11:15 am

   Title:

   Group Photo

Location: SSU 240-243

1. Time:

   11:15 am – 12:15 pm

   Title:

   Lunch

Location: Various Rooms in Siena Hall

1. Time:

   12:15 pm – 3:15 pm

   Title:

   Contributed, Special, and Student Sessions

Location: Siena Hall 123

1. Time:

   12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

   Title:

   Leadership in Mathematical Sciences : Department management during and post-pandemic.

   Speaker:

   Mihail Barbosu, RIT

   Abstract

   Every semester Mihail Barbosu leads a workshop on effective leadership in the mathematical community. The latest workshop focuses on managing a department during and post-pandemic. Recent chairpersons, former chairpersons, and especially anyone who has considered the path to becoming a department chair are all welcome to participate!

Location: Roger Bacon Hall 202 (Key Auditorium)

1. Time:

   12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

   Title:

   Careers in Mathematics Panel Discussion

   Abstract

   A session for students interested in hearing about various careers available to math majors. The panelists will be Spencer Tibbitss from The Athletic, Francesca Romano from Acuitas Health, Karlee Strong from Glens Falls Hospital, and Sal Baisley from Cardinal Financial Company. This session will be moderated by Ahmad Almomani from SUNY Geneseo.

Location: Siena Hall 224

1. Time:

   12:15 pm – 3:15 pm

   Title:

   Special Session : History of Mathematics and its Use in Teaching

   Speaker:

   Toke Knudsen, SUNY Oneonta

   Abstract

   Convergence is the MAA’s free online journal about the history of mathematics, and ways to use historical documents, scenes, and ideas in teaching. To celebrate the participation of Janet Heine Barnett, editor of Convergence, in the Seaway Section’s fall meeting, Toke Knudsen (SUNY Oneonta) and Elizabeth Wilcox (SUNY Oswego) are organizing a special session dedicated to presentations on the history of mathematics and its use in teaching. Section members with ideas for presentations fitting this theme are encouraged to submit their title and abstract to the special session for consideration!

Location: Siena Hall 308

1. Time:

   1:30 pm – 2:20 pm

   Title:

   Listening Session with your Section Chair and Program Chair

   Speaker:

   Brad Emmons, Utica University and Leah Bridgers, SUNY Oneonta

   Abstract

   Sit down with the Chair and Program Chair of the Seaway Section to discuss initiatives for the future. Do you have suggestions for future meetings? Any requests for workshops, mini-courses, or other fun events? Suggestions or thoughts about charity fundraisers? Do you want to get involved with the section? Maybe you just want to talk about mathematics? Our section chair, Dr. Leah Bridgers (SUNY Oneonta) and Program Chair, Dr. Brad Emmons (Utica University) are ready to listen!

Location: Siena Hall 119

1. Time:

   1:45 pm – 2:45 pm

   Title:

   Discussion about the needs of the post-Covid student

   Speaker:

   Alex Rennet, U of Toronto Mississauga

   Abstract

   While Covid as a disease isn't over, its impact on the educational system has shifted to a new phase. As students who had weeks or years of remote instruction -- or no instruction -- in mathematics matriculate into colleges and universities, we need to adapt to changes. But how? What are our current students better at than our previous students? What deficiencies do they have? How has the pandemic changed our efforts toward active learning, inclusive education, and instructional technology? This isn't a lecture but rather a discussion; all will be invited to contribute to the discourse.

Location: Roger Bacon Hall 202 (Key Auditorium)

1. Time:

   3:25 pm – 4:10 pm

   Title:

   Closing Keynote : Kostant's partition function and magic multiplex juggling sequences

   Speaker:

   Pamela E Harris, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

   Abstract

   Kostant’s partition function is a vector partition function that counts the number of ways one can express a weight of a Lie algebra g as a nonnegative integral linear combination of the positive roots of g. Multiplex juggling sequences are generalizations of juggling sequences that specify an initial and terminal configuration of balls and allow for multiple balls at any particular discrete height. Magic multiplex juggling sequences generalize further to include magic balls, which cancel with standard balls when they meet at the same height. In this talk, we present a combinatorial equivalence between positive roots of a Lie algebra and throws during a juggling sequence. This provides a juggling framework to calculate Kostant’s partition functions, and a partition function framework to compute the number of juggling sequences. This is joint work with Carolina Benedetti, Christopher R. H. Hanusa, Alejandro Morales, and Anthony Simpson.

Location: Roger Bacon Hall 412

1. Time:

   4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

   Title:

   UNYIBL/Seaway NExT Workshop : Beginning IBL with today's students

   Abstract

   Students who are entering college have had an interrupted high school learning experience. What does this mean about their eagerness to participate in an inquiry-based learning (IBL) classroom? What about considerations such as social anxiety of students, content coverage, and disparities in preprequisites? In this workshop, we'll address some of these as we look at what it takes to get started in IBL with today's students. Note : Afterward, we invite anyone who is interested to meet at a particular local restaurant for dinner.