NEWS
July 14, 2009
Math curriculum needs remediation The article written by Liz Bowie about the mathematics gap in Maryland ("Math gap hits many in Md.," July 12), was very refreshing. The gap is not unique to Maryland. It is a nationwide and a societal problem. A 2004 study by the U.S. Department of Education found that more than 40 percent of all students and over 60 percent of community college students need remediation. The attitude of the K-12 system is that every student who graduates and enrolls in college should be considered as a success and anything that happens afterward is someone else's problem.
NEWS
By Cassandra A. Fortin | September 28, 2008
Pam Tabor vividly recalled a day in high school when she asked her Algebra II teacher, "Why is x to the zero power 1 and not zero?" to which the teacher responded, "That's just the way it is, Pam. Just accept it and go on." She decided that math was illogical, and therefore not something to be pursued. But then she had the opportunity to ask a college professor the same question, and he explained it to her with a simple proof. Math became sensible, and her life's passion. "From that point on, I decided that I would do everything within my power to help children make sense of mathematics," she said.
NEWS
By Ariane Szu-Tu | June 12, 2008
Growing up in rural Iowa, Carey E. Priebe said, he knew early on that he wanted a career in mathematics. "I was clearly going to be a failure at farming," joked Priebe, 45, a professor of applied mathematics and statistics at the Johns Hopkins University. Priebe, who calls himself "just a math guy," won a $3 million federal grant last week as one of the first six university professors to be named National Security Science and Engineering Fellows. The new fellowship program provides the first unrestricted grants of such magnitude that the Department of Defense has awarded to university faculty members.
NEWS
By New York Times News Service. | March 14, 2008
American students' math achievement is "at a mediocre level" compared with that of their peers worldwide, according to a new report by a federal panel. The panel said that math curriculums from preschool to eighth grade should be streamlined to focus on key skills - the handling of whole numbers and fractions, and certain aspects of geometry and measurement - to prepare students to learn algebra. "The sharp falloff in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins as students reach late middle school, where, for more and more students, algebra course work begins," said the report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appointed two years ago by President Bush.
NEWS
August 24, 2006
What would cause someone to take a pass on fame, honors, a lot of money and everything he worked toward in life? After years of work, Grigory Perelman of St. Petersburg, Russia, solved one of mathematics' most tantalizing challenges - the century-old Poincare conjecture - and at the age of 40 he has apparently decided that that was enough. At the 25th International Congress of Mathematicians, meeting in Madrid, Spain, he was announced as one of the winners of the Fields Medal, considered as great an honor in its field as the Nobel.
NEWS
By BILL ORDINE | July 18, 2006
A popular expression in poker is that "you don't play the cards, you play the player." The adage refers to the belief that successful poker playing, especially at the highest levels, is about reading opponents and psychological gamesmanship rather than merely figuring odds. While there's certainly truth to all that, Bill Chen, the winner of two championship bracelets at the current World Series of Poker being held at the Rio All-Suites Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, is proving that superior mathematical analysis is still a handy skill to bring to the table.
NEWS
By JOHN-JOHN WILLIAMS IV | January 29, 2006
School board Chairman Joshua Kaufman was all smiles. He had just successfully answered a questions in a "Math Jeopardy" game - "I'll take students for $500," Kaufman said - and the exercise gave him a bit more appreciation for the scope of school system's mathematics programs. "I think the board really enjoyed it," Kaufman said of the game, which took place at Thursday night's board meeting, part of a half-hour overview of math programs by Bryan Scott Ruehl, coordinator of secondary mathematics, and Kay B. Sammons, coordinator of elementary mathematics.
NEWS
By FRANK ROYLANCE | January 27, 2006
In the real world, organ transplant physicians use sophisticated computer programs to find scarce donors of medically compatible kidneys for their most desperately ill patients. It's math saving lives. But in Hollywood, writers for the hit CBS crime drama Numb3rs wondered whether the FBI could use the same organ-matching mathematics in reverse - to track down the most likely recipient of a black-market kidney, so they can nab the criminals behind the scheme. That's math catching crooks, and it's the premise of tonight's episode of Numb3rs, with a script inspired by organ-pairing mathematics done at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
NEWS
October 19, 2005
Math lecture -- St. John's College will present Sir Michael Berry, physics professor at Bristol University in England, in a free lecture at 8:15 p.m. Friday in the Francis Scott Key Auditorium in Mellon Hall. "Making Light of Mathematics" will consider mathematical phenomena that find application and physical illustration in the physics of light and how these concepts are needed to understand rainbows, twinkling starlight and sparkling seas. 410-626-2539.
NEWS
October 26, 2004
On October 22, 2004 MARY BEAR MCCLAY, 88, a former Mathematics Instructor at the University of Mary land and longtime resident of Severna Park, died of complications from stroke in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A Native of the Midwestern Prairies, Mary was educated at Eastern Illinois State Teachers College and the University of Illinois. She married Clarence H. "Mac" Mc Clay, a Mechanical Engineer, in Seattle in 1943. When the Mc Clay family moved to Maryland in 1955, Mary began teaching mathematics at the University of Maryland, where she directed the mathematics program for non-math majors.