Teaching Interests

I am very interested in using writing assignments in all levels of mathematics courses, especially Calculus, Linear Algebra and Real Analysis. The MAA has published Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses: Crushed Clowns, Cars and Coffee to Go, a book that I co-authored with Annalisa Crannell, Gavin LaRose, and Elyn Rykken. It is available at the bookstore on the MAA website.

For the last several years, I've also used email reading assignments in Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Statistics, which has worked out really well. I have an article with Matt Boelkins from January 2001 at MAA Online which talks about these assignments in more detail, and I have shorter article from July of 1997 there as well.

I believe that it is extremely important that upper level students give presentations on significant mathematics. All of the students in my upper level courses give at least one presentation per semester. I am also the local organizer for the Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference.

I have participated since 1994 in Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching), which is a program for recent math PhDs who are interested in improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics.

Pedagogical Publications

• "A geometric approach to voting theory for mathematics majors'", in Innovative Methods in Courses Beyond Calculus published in the MAA Notes series, 2005.

• Crushed Clowns, Cars, and Coffee to Go . . . Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses, with A. Crannell, G. Larose, and E. Rykken, published in the Classroom Resource Materials series of the MAA, 2004.

• "How we get our students to read the text before class", with M. Boelkins, FOCUS, Vol 21, Num 1 (2001), 16-17. Also available here.

• "How I (finally) got my calculus I students to read the text", Innovative Teaching Exchange at MAA Online, 1997.