March Events, 2006
Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison
Workshops
E-Merging Learning Workshop
Mark Morton, Instructional Program Manager at the Centre
for Learning and Teaching Through Technology
Coaching Session A Mon, March 6 11:30-1:30 in the FLEX Lab
Coaching Session B Mon, March 20 11:30-1:30 in the FLEX Lab
The E-Merging Learning Workshop is a professional development
program that guides instructors toward designing learning
activities that will effectively engage students in an online
environment.
The E-Merging Learning Workshop does not focus on the hardcore
"technical" aspects of UW-ACE (the University of Waterloo.s online
course environment); those technical aspects are best covered
through workshops offered by the University's Information Systems &
Technology department.
Instead, the E-Merging Learning Workshop helps instructors identify
and develop broad online teaching strategies, and specific online
learning activities, that can enhance the educational experience
and performance of their students.
Info and registration
http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/programs/ELW/elw.html#
Preparing Students for Global Citizenship
A Workshop for UW Faculty Members
Friday, March 10, 2006 MC 5158 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Panelists: Kate Willink, Drama and Speech Communication
Paul Eagles, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Yulia Gel, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Moderator: Gail Cuthbert Brandt, Associate Vice-President, Academic
There is much talk these days about the need to internationalize
our classrooms. But what exactly does this mean and how can it be
done? This panel of faculty members will discuss how they are
working to "bring the world into their classrooms" in order to
prepare their students for global citizenship. Examples of how this
can be done in diverse disciplines will be presented and
participants will leave with concrete ideas about how to
incorporate teaching strategies and materials to enable students to
become knowledgeable global citizens.
The workshop is open to all UW faculty members. Snacks will be
provided. To register for this workshop, link to the TRACE website
at Registration: http://www.trace.uwaterloo.ca.
Please register by noon, Tuesday, March 7, 2006 for the workshop.
If you have any questions, please contact TRACE at ext. 3132 or
trace@admmail.
Student Business Conference
The Driving Force: From Science to Business
Date: Saturday, March 11
Time: 8:30 a.m. . 5 p.m.
Location: Davis Centre
This full-day conference is designed to provide insight into what's
up and coming in science, technology and business innovation. It
includes great speakers, an industry exhibition, innovation
challenge and networking opportunities. There is no cost for attend
but registration is required.
http://www.scrubs.uwaterloo.ca/Conference
http://scrubs.uwaterloo.ca/Register.html
Motivation and Enthusiasm
Tuesday, March 21, 2006, Friday, March 24, 2006
Time: 12 - 1:30 p.m. Location: MC 5158
Registration open two weeks before workshop.
TRACE info: x3132.
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infotrac/workhp.html
http://www.trace.uwaterloo.ca.
First Robotics Regional Competition
Dates: Thursday, March 23 - Saturday March 25
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Location: Physical Activities Complex (PAC), UW
Some of Ontario's brightest high school students will once again
converge on Waterloo.s campus for the FIRST (For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Waterloo Regional
Competition. The competition involves short games played by
remote-controlled robots, which are designed and built out of a
common set of basic parts by a team of students and
engineer-mentors. The competition is open to the public and free to
attend.
Find out more information on how to volunteer at or sponsor the event.
http://www.firstrobotics.uwaterloo.ca/
http://www.usfirst.org/
Talks
Emerging Learning Technologies: The 2006 Horizon Report.
An ELI Web Seminar by Larry Johnson, CEO of New Media Consortium
(NMC).
Monday, March 06, 2006, 1pm-2:30pm NH 3001 (please note new venue)
From LT3:
The annual Horizon Report is a collaborative effort between the NMC
and the ELI. Each year, the report identifies and describes six
areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on
teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education
within a year or less; two to three years; and four to five years.
The areas of emerging technology cited for 2006 are:
* Social computing
* Personal broadcasting
* Cell-phone-accessible educational content and services
* Educational gaming
* Augmented reality and enhanced visualization
* Context-aware environments and devices
In this seminar, Johnson will discuss the trends identified in the
2006 report and what they may mean for your institution's efforts
to use technology to support effective learning. He will also
describe the process behind the report's development, NMC's Horizon
Project.
To register for this event, please go to:
http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events/
Background:
ELI, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, supports new collegiate
learning environments that use IT to improve the quality of
teaching and learning, contain or reduce rising costs, and provide
greater access to higher education. Site:
http://www.educause.edu/eli.
EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance
higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information
technology. Site: http://www.educause.edu/.
NMC: New Media Consortium is a group with wide membership among
universities. Its interest is in technology to support learning
and creative expression. See http://nmc.org/about/more.shtml.
NMC's Horizon report (32 p) is at
http://nmc.org/horizon/index.shtml.
Creating Killer Applications.
Larry Smith, Economics.
2006-03-06, 4:45 PM, Physics 145
http://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/
A Hybrid Course in English Literature and Online Composition.
Dr. John North, English Language & Literature, UW.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006, 12 pm-1 pm
Location: FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329
This course is designed to be of useful interest to undergraduates
in all faculties. It provides the stimulation of internationally
renowned literature, including fiction and poetry, discussing
popular topics in the social sciences, pure sciences, applied
sciences, mathematics, engineering and the humanities. Prof. North
is in the process of developing online self-test procedures for the
class, the results of which are readily accessible only to the
student and the instructor.
Composition and grammar, so commonly tedious and time-consuming for
both professor and student, are presented in a sophisticated online
course currently functioning in Canadian and US contexts.
This online instruction is entirely presented, examined, pre- and
post-tested by machine, yet tailored to the needs of each student.
Each may proceed at that student's own pace, with additional
exercises only as needed by that student.
This presentation will summarize the failures, limitations and
successes of this inexpensive research project. The goal is to
provide large classes with the benefits of a demonstratively
first-rate instructor, but without the exhausting tedium of grading
composition and grammar, nor the boredom of students who have to
sit through class presentations, half of which they already have
under control.
John North is a member of the Teaching Based Research Group, and
this is a T-BRG presentation.
Dangerous Tunes: Lessons from the Sony CD DRM Episode
2006 Mar 09, 2:30pm. Cryptography Group Seminar
J. Alex Halderman, Princeton University, Department of Computer
Science, Center for Information Technology Policy
In the fall of 2005, problems discovered in two Sony-BMG compact
disc copy protection systems triggered a public uproar that
ultimately led to class-action litigation and the recall of
millions of discs. The defective systems---XCP and MediaMax---are
surprisingly complex and suffer from a diverse array of flaws that
weaken their content protection and expose users to serious
security and privacy risks. Their complexity, and their failure,
make them an interesting case study of digital rights management.
In this talk I will present a detailed analysis of the systems'
vulnerabilities and draw lessons for the computer security and IT
policy communities.
The chaotic evolution of Newton's universe
Don Saari, Perimeter Institute
Date: Thursday March 9, 2006, 4:00 PM
Abstract: In this expository talk, I describe how "chaotic
behavior" not only was discovered in the study of the Newtonian
N-body problem, but also is responsible for several strange
appearing motions. Then, a mathematical outline of the general
evolution of the universe, under Newton's laws, is provided. No
prior background in dynamics or the mathematics of the N-body
problem is needed to follow this lecture
http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/activities/scientific/seminarseries/index.php
31 Caroline St. N
Open Classroom Series - Winter 2006.
Professors "Open their Classrooms" to Colleagues to show
how they engage students in large lectures.
The first lecture and discussion by Professor Lyndon Jones
in January was excellent, both informative and lively.
Pre- and post-observation times to be determined.
Register by emailing Verna Keller at vkeller@admmail.uwaterloo.ca.
Also, see the write up on page 6 in the January 2006 issue of the
TRACE Newsletter.
Course: ENV S 178 - Introduction to Environmental Research Methods
Professor Jean Andrey, Geography Department
Monday, March 20, 2006
1:30-2:30 pm
Course: OPT 155 - External Eye Disease
Professor Lyndon Jones, School of Optometry
Thursday, January 19, 2006
9:30-10:20 am
Course: HIST 220 - The Vietnam War and American Society
Professor Andrew Hunt, History Department
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
1:30-2:50 pm
MINIX 3: A Reliable and Secure Operating System
2006 Mar 28, 16:30 . Distinguished Lecture Series
Andrew Tanenbaum, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/odyssey/web/event/93
Operating systems are getting bigger and less reliable every year.
Studies have shown the number of bugs per line of code to be around
6-16 bugs per 1000 lines of code, so with Linux over 2.5 million
lines of code, the kernel probably contains at least 15,000 bugs,
and Windows has far more. Most of these bugs are in the device
drivers. As long as we maintain the current structure of the
operating system as a huge single monolithic program running in
kernel mode, the situation will only get worse.
In an attempt to improve this situation, we have created a new
multiserver operating system with only 4000 lines in kernel and the
rest of the operating system split up into small rigidly controlled
pieces, each running as a user-mode process. The talk will discuss
the architecture of this system, called MINIX 3, and its
reliability and security properties.
New Ideas in Informal Learning Spaces
Dr. Liwana Bringelson, Director, Centre for Learning and Teaching
Through Technology, and faculty member of Systems Design Engineering.
Friday, March 31, 2006, 11 am-12 pm
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329
Registration: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events/
Where do students learn? How do we support learning outside of the
classrooms at UW? This presentation will explore these ideas as
well as present concepts that students have developed regarding
"informal learning spaces" at UW. Dr. Liwana Bringelson will lead
the presentation and interactive discussion. She believes that one
more way for the University of Waterloo to become a "learning
intensive university" is to seriously consider the learning that
happens in all of our spaces.
The Science of Music,The Music of Science
Wednesday, April 5, 2006, 7:00 pm
Stuart Isacoff, Writer, Pianist & Composer
Tickets available Monday, March 20 at 9:00am
https://perimeterinstitute.ca/members/index.php?p=tickets
This lecture/recital is based on Mr. Isacoff.s critically acclaimed
book, Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great
Minds of Western Civilization (Knopf and Vintage), described by The
Economist as "immensely entertaining, original and informative,"
and by National Review as "a whirlwind tour through the history of
Western culture, told with flair and grace". The New York Times
Book Review declared: "Isacoff untangles the complexities. with
the aplomb of a virtuoso pianist playing scales".
UW-ACE Courses
Using the Action Editor in UW-ACE
Tue, March 7 9:30 am - 11:30 am MC1050
Instructor: Sean Warren
Using the Action Editor in UW-ACE - Part 2
Thu, March 9 9:30 am - 11:30 am MC1050
Instructor: Sean Warren
Using Gradebook in UW-ACE
Thu, March 16 9:30 am - 11:30 am MC1050
Instructor: Jan Willwerth
Registration: https://ist.uwaterloo.ca/course_registration/registration.php
If you would like to book a different time to learn more about
the quiz system, gradebook, teams building and collaboration
or other features please contact Paul Kates pkates@uwaterloo.ca.
UW Open House Days
Waterloo Engineering Hosts Graduate Studies Open House
Four engineering departments - chemical engineering, management
sciences, mechanical engineering, and systems design engineering -
are hosting a one-day open house for undergraduate students to
explore research areas and graduate studies opportunities on March
9.
http://www.engineering.uwaterloo.ca/news/notices/GradStudies_OpenHouse.pdf
Explorations is an annual Engineering event held by the Faculty and
EngSoc hosting over a thousand students from grades 6, 7 and 8 to
show what Engineering's all about.
Date: Monday, March 13, 2006.
Time: either 4:30-6:30 or 6:15-8:15
Sign up online at http://engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/explore/
UW Campus Day
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Campus Day is geared specifically toward students who have applied
or been admitted to UW.
During this action-packed day, you'll have the opportunity to get
detailed information about the program(s) you're interested in;
drop by and tour our residences; visit the University colleges;
attend co-op, financing, and student life sessions; take a campus
tour; and talk to UW professors, students, and staff.
Schedule: http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus/campusday.htm
Pre-register today to let us know you plan to attend!
http://www.findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus/campusday_register.php
Links About Teaching and Learning
A TEACHER'S DOZEN. Fourteen General, Research-Based Principles for Improving Higher Learning in Our Classrooms by Thomas Anthony Angelo.
Transforming Course Management Systems into Effective Learning Environments by Colleen Carmean and Jeremy Haefner.
Conferences
Maple Conference 2006 takes place July 23-26 at Wilfred Laurier University. The preliminary call for papers deadline is February 28th, with full paper due March 17th.
Keynote speakers include
Dr. Frangois Cellier, President, Society for Computer Simulation
Dr. Carl Cowan, President, Mathematical Association of America
Dr. Richard Bartels, UW CS professor (now retired),
Renowned authority on Computer Graphics
3rd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, June 30-July 5, 2006.
Submission information:
Notification of acceptance of abstracts: By March 15, 2006
Abstracts are between 300 and 500 words, in plain text.
Deadline for full paper submission: April 1, 2006
Paper Review Decisions: May 15, 2006
Conference themes for presentations:
* Educational Research: Results of current (unpublished) research in
mathematics education, and assessment of student learning.
* Technology/ Technology based Educational Systems: Effective integration
of computer technology (Calculators, Computer Algebra Systems,
WWW resources) into the undergraduate curriculum.
* Innovative Teaching Formats: Innovative ways of teaching undergraduate
mathematics courses: cooperative and collaborative teaching and
learning styles.
* Distance Learning: Distance Learning Technologies for teaching and
learning mathematics. Current software/hardware delivery media.
Visions for the future.
* Specific Courses: Reform efforts in specific mathematics courses and
assessment results.
* Other Disciplines: The effects of changes in the teaching of mathematics
courses in other disciplines (needs of client disciplines;
interdisciplinary courses).
Maple
An Innovative Approach to Post-Calculus Classical Applied Math
Robert J. Lopez
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (retired), Maplesoft (Note: To
view the paper you may be asked to register at Maplesoft.com. If
you wish, I can send a copy of the paper instead. Please send your
request to pkates@uwaterloo.ca.)
From the introduction of the paper:
Post-calculus classical applied math is scattered through courses
in differential equations, boundary value problems, vector
calculus, matrix algebra, complex variables, and numerical methods.
Most of this material can be found in texts entitled Advanced
Engineering Mathematics. The mathematics in such texts is truly
classical, having been available in its present format for many
years, if not centuries. The apprenticeship for working in the
field of classical applied mathematics is long and arduous because
the apprentice must master material from so many different
disciplines.
Twenty-first century software allows this apprenticeship to be both
shorter and more effective. Modern computer algebra systems can be
the tool of first-recourse for teaching, learning, and doing such
applicable mathematics. Software tools such as Maple, Mathematica,
MuPAD, and Macsyma implement nearly all the manipulations of the
undergraduate program in applied and engineering mathematics. The
time has come to use these twenty-first century tools for teaching
eighteenth and nineteenth century mathematics.
A complete post-calculus applied math curriculum in which a
computer algebra system is the primary working tool appears in [1].
In this text the software is not just an add-on to a traditional
by-hands pedagogy. Instead, the software is used as an active
partner in the student.s participation in applied mathematics.
We give two examples taken from [1], examples that show how use of
a computer algebra system enhances pedagogy. The purpose is not to
tout a particular book, but instead, to call attention to the
concept that a computer algebra system can, and should, be the
working tool for teaching, learning, and doing classical applied
math. So, rather than talk about this approach, we give two
examples and let readers judge for themselves the viability of a
curriculum predicated on the ubiquitous use of modern software
tools.
Maplesoft.com has many online seminars available.
An Introduction to Maple 10 (42 min)
Introduction to the Maplet Builder (7 min)
Advanced Engineering Applications with Maple (50 min)
Clickable Calculus (54 min)
Click Here to Download the Associated Maple Worksheet for
this Seminar
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Instructors (24 min)
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Students (13 min)
Maple T.A. for Blackboard. Software Demo (8 min)
Syntax-Free Computations in Maple 10 (65 min)
Control System Development Using System Identification (43 min)
Technical Solution Deployment Using MapleNet 10 (34 min)
Introduction To Global Optimization Toolbox For Maple (61 min)
Maple in the High School Classroom (10 min)
Modeling Multi-body Mechanical Systems With DynaFlex Pro (65 min)
Implementing Technology in the Modern Math Curriculum (60 min)
Many mathematics lessons are also available using Maple.
Algebra (44) Calculus I (102)
Calculus II (59) Calculus III (23)
Case Studies (4) Complex Analysis (67)
DE's (89) Economics (20)
Elementary School (9) Engineering (68)
Geometry (32) Linear Algebra (22)
Maple TA (5) MapleNet (2)
Maplets (4) Numerical Analysis (15)
Operations Research (1) Physics (88)
Precalculus (42) Quantum Mechanics (19)
Real Analysis (20) Statistics (36)
Trigonometry (4) Vector Calculus (99)
MapleTA is an online assignment and quiz system backed by the Maple
mathematics engine that allows questions to be graded using Maple
to match and evaluate student answers.
Many different question types are available including questions
generated by formula for random assignment to students (students
don't see the same questions, but the form is the same). Questions
can make use of physical units and error bounds. Maple graphs can
be included in questions for display or for interaction with the
student e.g. selecting an area of the graph or plotting points on
a curve. See http://maplesoft.com/products/mapleta/types.aspx.
MapleTA is available at UW on a trial basis. Please contact me if
you wish more information about using MapleTA at UW.
Past Events
| February, 2006 events | |
| January, 2006 | |
| December, 2005 | July, 2005 |
| November, 2005 | July, 2005 |
| October, 2005 | June, 2005 |
| September, 2005 | May, 2005 |
| August, 2005 | April, 2005 |
Liaison Information
Please contact me if you would like further information. Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison, pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x7047
This page is located at www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/LT3/events.
More information about the services of the Centre for Learning and Teaching through Technology - LT3 is available at lt3.uwaterloo.ca/.
(1) More information about learning and teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, plus a description of the services I provide as Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison is available here.