We introduce a ruler and compass activity designed around Islamic Geometry and provide a detailed description of the various components of the activity along with ideas for students exhibitions in both digital and print form. In our experience, this activity helps students to "buy into" actively doing mathematics, making it an ideal…

The Central Limit Theorem is one of the most important concepts taught in an introductory statistics course, however, it may be the least understood by students. Sure, students can plug numbers into a formula and solve problems, but conceptually, do they really understand what the Central Limit Theorem is saying? This paper describes a simulation…

One goal of our Discovering the Art of Mathematics project is to empower students in the liberal arts to become confident creators of art and imaginative creators of mathematics. In this paper, we describe our experience with using string art to guide liberal arts students in exploring ideas of calculus. We provide excerpts from our inquiry-based…

The last few months have brought changes in the leadership of public education in Massachusetts. The new secretary of education and chair of the Board of Higher Education both have deep expertise in education reform and accountability, and broad experiences in business. This new leadership could bring momentum for a "systems approach" to…

Clickers and classroom voting are used across a number of disciplines in a variety of institutions. There are several papers that describe the use of clickers in mathematics classrooms such as precalculus, calculus, statistics, and even differential equations. This paper describes a method of incorporating clickers and classroom voting in a…

The advancement of computer technology used for research is creating the need to change the way classes are taught in higher education. "Bringing Research Tools into the Classroom" has become a major focus of the work of the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (OEIT) for the Dean of Undergraduate Education (DUE) at the…

States are increasingly focusing the mission of their elementary and secondary education systems on preparing all students for success in postsecondary education and 21st century careers. As standards have increased, so too have graduation requirements. Today, 20 states and the District of Columbia have adopted such high school graduation…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

This article describes a learning community for early-career faculty in the sciences aimed at course redesign and active-learning. Through findings from surveys, interviews, and observations, program outcomes regarding faculty teaching skills and confidence, understanding of how students learn, and use of assessment are explored. Finally, the…