March 5, 2008

Dear Friends and Alumni of the AASU Mathematics Department:

On Saturday, February 16, we hosted our 30th Annual High School Mathematics Tournament. More than 300 students participated! Dr. Paul Hadavas has assumed the coordination responsibilities from Dr. Dale Kilhefner (who is now on a 49% workload prior to full retirement). Of our 27 faculty in the AASU Mathematics department, all full-timers and many part-timers and our front office staff (especially, Mrs. Kattie Tisdale) pitched in. We introduced our newest faculty member Professor Elizabeth Scott-Janda (who is about to finish her thesis at Colorado State University on finite projective planes of Lenz-Barlotti class I.3) to the job of quiz bowl ciphering monitor. Check out the questions at http://www.math.armstrong.edu/tournaments/jvcipher.pdf

Many of our faculty continue to do innovative instructional activities and in an exceptional manner. A testament to this fact is Dr. Jim Brawner earning the all-university 2007 H. Dean Probst Award for outstanding teaching, advisement, counseling, and student support. This year, Professors Ebonee Jarrett-Brown and Dr. Brawner are utilizing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) grant money to involve a “peer mentor” in their College Algebra (Math1111) classes. Research that Dr. Brawner, Professor Tim Ellis and I have completed and have presented at two conferences this month has shown that these kinds of resources are beneficial to our students. Our current peer mentor is a recent mathematics graduate. She attends classes and is a dedicated tutor to her classmates, presumably with special insights since she has identical in-class experiences to share with her cohorts. Professor Ellis also taught a class that was linked to a Learning Community (where the students are grouped and take two or more classes together in order to create better opportunities for study groups and team work). That group of students participated in a field trip to Ossabaw Island. Our Web-based Math2200 (Elementary Statistics) course continues to draw high enrollments, because it serves a niche demographic. Dr. Paul Hadavas (who was just awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor) extended his experiments with online homework and testing modes for College Algebra and found funding through an NSF PRISM (Partnership Reform in Science and Mathematics) grant. Several faculty contributed this year to the PRISM grant objectives collaborating with many P-12 regional school system teacher groups: Professor Carolyn Smith was a science fair judge at Bartow Elementary; PRISM funding aided Dr. Jane Barnard in organizing the national T^3 Technology conference held here in May; Dr. Tim McMillan is a PRISM consultant to Southwest Elementary. Dr. Sabrina Hessinger is still the director for the PRISM grant. We expect her to return to her usual duties in Spring, 2009. Our math content courses for Early Childhood and Middle Grades education majors were enhanced this year with the introduction of Math2008 (Foundations of Numbers and Operations), a course that emphasizes problem solving with multiple strategies including manipulatives. Professors Jamie Newman, Jarrett-Brown and Barnard teach most of these courses and receive high marks from their students on their teaching evaluations. Many of our courses are designed as service to other disciplines and our instructors garner great reviews from students on their ability to “make math relevant.” Our Economics majors rave about Professor Maryann Barbieri’s explanations in Math1950 (Applied Math) and Professor Donna Bryant’s nursing students enjoy her delivery of statistics information.

Many of the faculty are making time to present some of their research findings, either orally or via formal publications. Drs. Greg Knofczynski, Hadavas and myself published findings on the use of projects in elementary statistics courses in Mathematical Sciences & Mathematics Education. Dr. Sean Eastman published some results from his thesis work in the highly regarded journal Applicable Analysis. Dr. Mark Budden wrote “A Generalization of Scholz's Reciprocity Law,” with his students R.J. Eisenmenger and J. Kish. It appears in Journal de Theorie des Nombres de Bordeaux. Dr. Selwyn Hollis, who is “away” on Advanced Academic Research Leave (one of only two AASU faculty earning this award in 2007), published “Some First Impressions of Mathematica 6” in Mathematica in Education and Research.

The weekly Sigmund and Anne Hudson Mathematics and Computing Colloquium continues! Dr. Brawner’s Putnam students presented problems from that exam. He also spoke about solutions that identify counterfeit coins by weighing. Dr. Eastman explored the Banach-Tarski paradox. Dr. Budden’s seminar was titled “The Search for Unique Factorization.” Dr. Sungkon Chang offered insight into two conjectures about elliptic curves. Dr. Kilhefner entertained and informed us about the complications of higher order problems in “Going from 2 to 3.” Dr. McMillan had the audience thinking about B-2 sequences of natural numbers where no two distinct pairs of terms have equal sums. Along with my students Heather King and Jaree Hudson, we presented a statistical application of regression to SeaWorld whale data. Please come spend a Wednesday lunch hour with us to keep your math mind active and your stomach full (since we serve a buffet lunch for $2!) Visit our department site at http://math.armstrong.edu to watch for colloquium announcements and other items and sign the guestbook at http://math.armstrong.edu/docs/alumni.html.

We graduated 14 Mathematics majors last year (2006-7). The AASU Mathematics graduation percentages compare quite favorably to local and national figures at 1.8% of all B.S. degrees awarded here at AASU. We have recently taken on full administrative responsibility for the B.S. with secondary teaching certification and are one of only a few Georgia schools who continue to offer this option. Our graduates secure good jobs and get accepted at top-notch universities. Again this year, two of our seniors, Jonathan Keith Hagan and Jaree Hudson, scored a perfect 200 on the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test in Mathematics. Of the thousands sitting yearly for this exam about 1% achieve at this level. The two students who scored 200s last year both chose to attend University of Florida for their graduate work. Several of our recent graduates selected teaching positions at area high schools (Windsor Forest and in Soperton). If you are one of our past students and have news about yourself or know a student who would be interested in our program here, we want to hear from you -- so drop us a line or email!

Dr. John Hansen informed me that he is completely retiring! As I write this, he is off vacationing in Ireland. I was fortunate enough to find a very adept part-time instructor in Professor Leonard Hoke (who teaches full-time at Windsor Forest High School). Our continuing part-timers are: Professor Lauren Oppenheimer (who came to us via East Carolina University), Dr. Anne Miller-Gay (whose full-time job is as a middle school teacher in Camden), Dr. Daniel Harden (his M.Ed. was earned at AASU in 1998), Professor Elizabeth Ewbank (who earned her M.Ed. here in 2002), Professor Joyce Finn (retired industry executive), Professor Harry (Hap) Boyd (a retired engineer), and other area school teachers, Professors Frances Rowland (from Savannah Christian), Ken Brown (teaching at the Liberty Center) and Beth Oberg (teaching at Brunswick). Also, Dr. Ed Wheeler (Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences) is currently teaching one section of Pre-Calculus.

Please come to the April Barbeque this year to partake and celebrate. Again, this year, we have Professor Smith to thank for organizing this “food event.” It is on campus by the main cafeteria (in the Shearouse Plaza) so you can easily visit your favorite AASU places. At this dinner we acknowledge our mathematics students (past and present) for their achievements in this challenging discipline. In addition, we reward a few with scholarships made available through the generosity of individuals and families, and conduct Pi Mu Epsilon inductions. Remember that if you would like to donate to our efforts, simply mail a check to the department written to the AASU Foundation earmarking it to either fund 195 (General) or fund 196 (Mathematics Scholarships).

Sincerely,

Lorrie Hoffman, Ph.D.
Professor and Head

March 5, 2007

Dear Friends and Alumni of the AASU Mathematics Department:

Guiding the department continues to be a challenge, but a personally rewarding one. Twenty-seven faculty in AASU’s Mathematics department serve three campuses with courses mainly in Savannah, but also at the Brunswick and Hinesville campuses and reach more than 2000 students each semester delivering topics ranging from Quantitative Reasoning (Math1001) to Functions of Complex Variables (Math4060).

Several of our faculty are doing innovative instructional activities. Professors Mary Ann Barbieri and Donna Bryant are spearheading a small study supported through AASU’s Student Success initiative that involves a “peer mentor” in their College Algebra (Math1111) classes. Professor Tim Ellis (who, along with his teaching duties, continues as Math Tutor Lab director) conducted research on other Georgia colleges finding benefit from this type of program. The peer mentor is a math major who attends classes and is a dedicated tutor to his classmates, presumably with special insights since he has identical in-class experiences to share with his cohorts. Dr. Sean Eastman and Professor Carolyn Smith each taught a class that was linked to a Learning Community (where the students are grouped and take two or more classes together in order to create better opportunities for study groups and team work). I have developed a Web-based Elementary Statistics (Math2200) course. Dr. Paul Hadavas has been experimenting with online homework and testing modes for College Algebra. Several faculty continue on NSF PRISM (Partnership Reform in Science and Mathematics) grant funding to realize the enhancements created by collaborations with P-12 regional school system teachers. Dr.s Hadavas, Tim McMillan, Dale Kilhefner and Jim Brawner presented talks at the SE PRISM Conference at Jekyll Island. Dr. Sabrina Hessinger is still the director for the grant that will end in 2008 allowing her to return to teaching duties in our department.

Each year our department provides key instructional services by teaching math content courses to Early Childhood and Middle Grades education majors. This really is an investment in the future of the department because students must be “turned on to math” early in their lives by competent P-12 teachers. We do this well. Professor Newman received mention in the graduation program with an award from her students in the College of Education. Professor Jarrett-Brown is bringing insight about topics like the new Georgia teaching standards (PSC) to these students by acquiring current knowledge while working on her Ed.D. at Georgia Southern University.

Many of the faculty are making time to present some of their research findings, either orally or via formal publications. Professor Carolyn Smith spoke at the 30th Annual USG Learning Support Conference in St. Simons. Dr.s Greg Knofczynski, Hadavas and myself presented our poster session on the investigation of in-class student projects at the AASU Teaching and Learning Symposium. Dr. Knofczynski also gave several invited talks at universities in Colorado and Wisconsin related to his thesis work on sample sizes. Dr. Brawner and his students published two problem solutions in Pi Mu Epsilon. Dr. Sungkon Chang gave invited presentations in Arkansas and at Clemson and published two papers in highly regarded journals. Dr. Mark Budden spoke at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio on “Local Coefficient Matrices and Shimura’s Correspondence” and published a paper in the highly-cited Journal of Lie Theory. Dr.s Budden, Hadavas and Hoffman had their joint work on correlation matrices appear in Applied Mathematics E-Notes.

The weekly Sigmund and Anne Hudson Mathematics and Computing Colloquium continues! Dr. Brawner illustrated how computers check correctness of digit transmissions via a “hat trick” (the wearing of a mystery number on one’s head while viewing others’ numbered hats). Dr. Eastman informed and entertained us with facts, funnies, and some proofs related to the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. And followed that by pairing with Dr. Chang for a second talk titled “The Equations That Couldn’t Be Solved.” I explained the estimation of parameters from samples containing missing data via a SPAM email example. Dr. Selwyn Hollis presented “Nuts and Bolts of Nonlinear Optimization.” An outcome of the AASU student collaborative grants won by Dr. Hadavas and Dr. Budden was a joint talk by their students. Let me remind you that you are all invited to come by on any Wednesday at noon to refresh and invigorate your mind (also, satiate your hunger, since we serve a buffet lunch for $2!)

We sponsor Math competitions yearly. In November we hosted the Middle School Math Bowl for about 80 students. We awarded Dr. Kilhefner a plaque during the closing ceremony to thank him for his 27 years of managing and organizing the event. In March, more than 400 high school students competed for individual and group awards. It was a great way to spend a Saturday. The Savannah Morning News announced the event in a February 21 column. We all play a role in each of these contests with our department secretary Mrs. Kattie Tisdale doing a lot of work. The website http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/llh0703/ has photos. Our department site at http://math.armstrong.edu has other items; sign the guestbook at http://math.armstrong.edu/docs/alumni.html

We enrolled 55 mathematics majors (Fall, 2006) and graduated seven in the December ceremony. Our graduates continue to secure good jobs and get accepted at top-notch universities. This year for the first time ever not just one, but two, of our seniors scored a perfect 200 on the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test in Mathematics. We use this test as an exit exam from our program. More than 3,000 students nationwide take the exam and less than one percent score a perfect 200. Congratulations to Duc Van Huynh and Ross Jorgenson. One of our December graduates has been accepted at the University of Missouri. Several are teaching at area high schools and one is expecting to join the Navy where he will continue pursuing an M.S. degree. If you are one of our past students and have news about yourself or know a student who would be interested in our program here, we want to hear from you so drop us a line or email!

We did have illnesses that kept three professors out of the classroom (two for a short term and one for all year). It is nice to report that all parties are on the mend. Dr. Dick Munson (retired from our department) was kind enough to do a few weeks of “guest lecturing” to fill-in! Professor Jane Barnard was able to offer a course over summer, 2006, and we are expecting her to return full-time this Fall, 2007. The “department team” from last year, for the most part, remained intact to return this year since we were able to convert Dr. Chang’s visiting position into a tenure-earning line. Near-term exceptions to this cohesion include anticipated retirements by Dr. Kilhefner (who will be on a 50% load next year) and Professor Gwen Barber (part-time at Brunswick) who is requesting to teach less. These absences led to hiring part-timers Professor Lauren Oppenheimer (who comes to us from East Carolina University) and Dr. Anne Miller-Gay (whose full-time job is as a middle school teacher in Camden). Our very dedicated continuing part-timer group is comprised of: Dr. Daniel Harden (his M.Ed. was earned at AASU in 1998) and Professor Elizabeth Ewbank (who earned hers in 2002), Dr. John Hansen (retired from our department), Professor Joyce Finn (retired industry executive), Professor Harry (Hap) Boyd (a retired engineer), and area school teachers, namely, Professors Rex Demers (from Johnson High), Frances Rowland (from Savannah Christian), and Ken Brown (teaching at the Liberty Center) and Beth Oberg (teaching at Brunswick). Also, Dr. Ed Wheeler (Dean of CAS) taught one section of College Algebra in the Fall.

Come to the April banquet this year to partake and celebrate. We have Professor Smith to thank for organizing this dinner again this year. It is on campus in the new Armstrong Center conference building (the old Publix store) so you can easily visit your favorite AASU places. At this dinner we acknowledge our mathematics students (past and present and future) for their achievements in this challenging discipline. We also reward a few with scholarships made available through the generosity of individuals and families (mostly from the Savannah area). Remember that if you are so inclined to donate to our efforts, then please mail a check to the department written to the AASU Foundation earmarking it to either fund 195 (General) or fund 196 (Mathematics Scholarships).

Sincerely,

Lorrie Hoffman, Ph.D./Professor and Head