Table of Contents

Notes from the President................................................................................. page 2 2011 State Conference.....................................................................................page 3 Scholarship Committee report.........................................................................page 4 Nominating Committee report.........................................................................page 4 Membership.....................................................................................................page 5 Treasurer's report............................................................................................. page 5 Fall Regional meetings Eastern................................................................................................. page 6 Central................................................................................................. page 6 Northern...............................................................................................page 7 Western................................................................................................page 8

VMATYC Newsletter Spring 2011 page 1

NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT . . .

Greetings from the VMATYC Executive Board! The board held a virtual meeting via VCCS Interactive Video equipment using three different sites on Friday, January 21, 2011. We discussed pertinent issues including reports on membership, the treasury, regional conferences, upcoming elections, and the spring conference. ELECTIONS: Please remember to make certain that your VMATYC membership is current in order to be eligible to participate in the 2011 2013 elections which are scheduled to be conducted electronically from February 14 to March 1. Stay tuned for that announcement. SPRING CONFERENCE: The 2011 Spring VMATYC Conference, Focus on Developmental Mathematics: Developing Successful Students, will be held on March 25 26 at the new Fred W. Beasley Campus of Tidewater Community College, Portsmouth, Virginia. Our own Virginia Community College Systems Chancellor, Dr. Glenn DuBois, will address the assembly on Friday afternoon and Elayn Martin-Gay will be our keynote speaker. In addition Dr. DiCroce, President of TCC, has made a generous donation to this conference. The VCCS Spring Conference Committee is looking for sessions concerning general teaching pedagogy, use of technology for teaching or work, college-level mathematics for non-STEM disciplines (statistics, liberal arts), and computer science. As always sessions concerning STEM courses are welcome as well. Do consider presenting this year. The VCCS Developmental Mathematics Redesign Team is still at work. The team is currently editing the Curriculum Guide/Student Learning Outcomes for the new developmental mathematics units. Our VMATYC Conference will provide a perfect forum for exchange of ideas as this important project progresses. Mark your calendars for what promises to be an invigorating time of professional development! Potential locations for future spring conferences are always being sought. Consider hosting at your college. I look forward to seeing as many as you as possible at Tidewater Community College, Portsmouth Campus, in March! Consider taking time to explore the beautiful tidewater sites and rich history and culture while in the area. Feel free to contact me with questions or concerns. Ann Loving aloving@reynolds.edu

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You are invited to the 25th VMATYC Annual Conference in Portsmouth

Join your colleagues at Tidewater Community College at the Fred W. Beazley campus in Portsmouth, VA for the 25th Annual Virginia Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (VMATYC) Conference and Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Mathematics and Computer Science Peer Group meeting on March 25-26, 2011. The theme of this year's conference is "Focus on Developmental Mathematics: Developing Successful Students". We have two special guests at the conference this year who will address this theme. The keynote speaker at the conference banquet Friday evening will be Elayn Martin-Gay, an award-winning mathematics instructor and best-selling textbook author, whose passion is helping every developmental mathematics student to succeed. On Friday afternoon from 4-5 p.m., Dr. Glenn DuBois, the Chancellor of Virginia's Community Colleges, will address conference attendees in a special session focusing on the revision of developmental education in Virginia's community colleges. Presentation sessions and workshops by our members will be conducted 2:00 4:00 p.m. on Friday, March 25 and 9:50 a.m. 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 26. Applications to make a presentation or conduct a workshop at the conference are now available by clicking here. Sessions pertaining to developmental mathematics are especially welcome at this year's conference. Additionally, we are looking for sessions concerning general teaching pedagogy, use of technology for teaching or work, college-level mathematics for non-STEM disciplines (statistics, liberal arts), and computer science. Presenter applications must be submitted by March 1 in order to guarantee a spot on the program. The conference dinner will be 7:00 9:00 p.m. on Friday evening on campus. The buffet-style dinner is included in the cost of registration. Additionally, thanks to a generous contribution from Tidewater Community College made available by its president, Dr. Deborah DiCroce, conference attendees will be able to enjoy a complementary pre-banquet social hour and post-conference Saturday buffet lunch. Lodging for the conference is located at the Holiday Inn Express Hoteholidayl & Suites in Chesapeake, Virginia, about a ten-minute drive from the Beazley campus. VMATYC has arranged a special conference rate of $75 per night with the hotel. You must make reservations by March 7 in order to guarantee these rates. Attendees can register online and pay for conference registration using PayPal. Attendees are urged to register before March 7. Those who register after this date will pay an additional fee.

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Scholarship Committee Report

Submitted by Sarah Martin I'd like to thank the members of the Scholarship Committee Caroline Abbott (NRCC), Ed Anderson (NVCC), Jim Newsom (TCC), and Joan Tarpley-Robinson (DCC) for their continuing service on the Committee. In May, Ann Loving will become chair of the Scholarship Committee and will contact you with information about the 2011 award. Meanwhile, be thinking about students you might recommend. Applications are usually due in early June, with the decision made by July. Criteria include: 1. Intention to major in mathematics, computer science, or mathematics education and demonstrate potential for success in any of these areas. Preference will be given to those candidates who intend to teach mathematics or computer science. 2. Demonstrate ability, determination, and motivation necessary for successful academic performance. 3. Have completed at least 12 semester hours of college-level courses, including 3 hours of transfer mathematics at a Virginia community college by the end of Spring Semester of the year of application with a GPA of 3.2 or higher. 4. Continue for two semesters (Fall - Spring of the award year) at a Virginia community college and enroll in at least 6 semester hours of college-level courses, including a transfer-level mathematics course, for each semester the scholarship is received. Our current interpretation of these criteria is that students receiving the scholarship be in a math intensive program of study. We have discovered that there exist computer science and education programs for which the terminal math sequence is MTH 163/271 or MTH 157. We have declined to award the scholarship to applicants who have not demonstrated a plan to study mathematics beyond this level. Consequently, we had no scholarship recipient in 2010. If you disagree with this interpretation, please express your views to the 2011 Scholarship Committee.

Nominating Committee Report

Submitted by Sarah Martin The election of the 2011-2013 Executive Board is imminent. Voting will be conducted on-line from February 14th through March 1st. Jon Wilkin will send you voting instructions. Included with the ballot you will find biographical information submitted by the candidates. Our preference is to have two candidates for each office on the ballot. For some offices this is not the case. Please consider running for office yourself or encouraging your colleagues to run, and please take time to vote!

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Membership
VMATYC has 144 current members (who have applied and payment has been received) as of February 1, 2011. I have uploaded the current membership list to the VMATYC Blackboard site, so if you are not sure when your membership expires, you may check there. In Blackboard, you will find VMATYC after clicking the College Connect tab. Please feel free to write me an email ( bwahl@nvcc.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) if you have any questions. The current membership application is available by clicking here. The application is completed and submitted online. The membership dues of $10 can either be paid online using Paypal or by paying by mail with a check. You can also join for this membership year (or renew early for next year) when you register for the Spring Conference

Each membership year ends August 31. Please note there isn't much point in joining or renewing in June, July, or August. VMATYC is largely inactive during these months and in September you'll have to re-up. But if you do join in the summer, at least it only cost you ten bucks. Bruce Wahl, Membership Secretary

Treasurer's Report
As of January 25, 2011, VMATYC had $6,753.43 in checking, $9,357.36 in savings, and 16,358.11 in CDs, totaling $32,468.90 in assets. $7,070.09 of this amount is currently held in the Scholarship Fund. The 2010-2011 Membership Application can be found at http://vmatyc.org/index.php?option=com_chronocontact&chronoformname=membership. Your membership fee may be paid online through PayPal or by check, payable to VMATYC (Federal ID 54-1394373). Karen Walters, Ph.D, treasurer

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Fall regional meetings

Eastern Region
The Eastern Regional Meeting of the VMATYC was held on Friday, Oct. 22 from 3:00-7:00 PM at the Virginia Beach Campus of Tidewater Community College. There were 50 attendees. Dr. Susan Wood, Vice-Chancellor of the VCCS made a brief presentation on the DMRT and then addressed comments and questions from faculty. Jane Sebousek, chair of the DMRT-Curriculum Team also attended and addressed comments and questions. Cathy Hoffmaster from Thomas Nelson CC and Gwen Turbeville from J. Sergeant Reynolds hosted a second session discussing their experiences with modules. Greg Frank, Dean of Mathematics and Sciences hosted a Planetarium show following the two sessions. A light dinner was provided. Mike Kirby, TCC

Central Region
The Central Regional VMATYC meeting was Friday October 29, 2010. The meeting was held at Danville Community College. Our meeting time was from 11:00 AM 4:00 PM. Registration. Lunch was from 11:00 AM 12 Noon. Thirty-one individuals attended this meeting were from Danville, Central Virginia, Patrick Henry, Virginia Western Community Colleges. Also invited were Science Faculty members and Administrators. We were welcomed by Dr. Janet Laughlin, Dean of the Student Success and Academic Advancement Division from DCC. DCC's Developmental Math Students served as greeters and hostesses for this meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to strengthen our comprehension of the Developmental Mathematics Redesign. Our guests were Vice Chancellor, Dr. Susan Wood and Dr. Donna Jovanovich. We are very appreciative of the panel discussion led by the Central Regional community colleges' DMRT committee members. We ended the meeting with a tour of DCC's Student Success Center and had a discussion about module math. Respectfully Submitted, Joan Tarpley-Robinson Danville Community College

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Northern Region
Summary of Northern Region VMATYC meeting Oct 23rd, 2010 9am-2pm Northern Virginia Community College: Alexandria Campus We enjoyed a wonderful continental breakfast as we welcomed about 40 members. Bruce Wahl gave a brief welcome and we began the day with lots of lively sessions (detailed below). Then we enjoyed a wonderful lunch that was arranged by Bruce and provided by Panera. After lunch we had an informative panel presentation led off by Donna Jovanovich from systems office and Jane Serbousek from NOVA. The other members of the panel were currently serving on the DMRT curriculum team. Lots of discussion was generated and this went late into the afternoon and a lot of questions and concerns were voiced and commented. We ended the day with some choosing to stay and learn more about the redesign and others broke out into their specific core subject areas to have round table discussions with colleagues. Session I Tom Tredon, OFCC Mth 163 & 271 Redesign John Hexter, PVCC Adventures in Factoring Quadratics: "In this presentation we look at some alternative methods of factoring trinomials. We will discuss the relevance of these methods to the classroom and their connection to other math subjects such as calculus and matrices." TJ Johnson, BRCC Calculus with Infinitesimals Calculus Without Limits There's a way to teach calculus without using limits. Is it useful to us in the classroom? Learn how the Hyperreal number system justifies the intuitions of the historical developers of calculus, how it makes difficult proofs easy, and how it makes it okay to say things like "infinitely close". John Updike, Lfcc Combinatorial Aspects of Some Mechanical Puzzles: Some non-Rubik's mechanical puzzles are spotlighted when the age-old question "How many?" is asked. Learn different ways to think about counting problems that can benefit any teacher or student of combinatorics. Session II, DMRT update Theresa Thomas Jane Serbousek Martin Bredeck Jon Hexter Donna Jovanovich

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After lunch. Core Subject Breakouts: Linear/Abstract Algebra: Lynne Ryan Liberal Arts Math: Bruce Wahl Developmental Math: Mike Garrand PreCalculus: Tom Tredon Statistics: TBA Calculus: TJ Johnson All day: *Speed Sessions with Don Goral: Find out if you have what it takes to become a Cyborg Professor! Ask Don Goral to demonstrate Mathematica, Scientific Notebook, TI Nspire, Geogebra, and Microsoft One-Note on a tablet PC. Try out these tools yourself to see what could help you in the classroom or online. Respectfully Submitted, Theresa Thomas BRCC

Western Region
The Western Regional VMATYC Group met on Friday, October 22, 2010 at Wytheville CC,in Wytheville, VA. We had 19 attendees representing almost every school in our region.During the meet and greet social time, we enjoyed casual conversation along with a delicious lunch prepared by one of the local caterers. Dr. Bill Hightower, formerly at the VCCS System office, and now a VP at Wytheville CC,gave us a brief overview of the history of the DMRT and entertained a variety of questions regarding the process and progress of the DMRT. There were also questions and discussionrelating to the current Curriculum Team and the work they are involved in. Susan Fleming from Virginia Highlands CC gave us a demonstration on ALEKS, and answered questions regarding her use of it in her courses. Then Bill Feiss, Danny Whited, and Lisa Henley, all from South West CC, gave a presentation entitled "How to Host a Math Contest For Your Area High School Students". They graciously shared with the members' details on how they prepare for and conduct the contests, as well as many of the documents and tests that they use. There was a lot of lively discussion and interaction during each of the presentations, and all attendees seemed to enjoy the afternoon together. Harriette Roadman Western Regional VP

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