BOLIVAR, Mo. – Southwest Baptist University’s Dr. Bob Glasgow, professor of mathematics,
recently presented at two math conferences – the annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day and the
Missouri Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) Fall Conference.
Glasgow, who received the Leroy Sachs Award for lifetime achievement (or contribution) last fall, presented “Visualizing Statistics” at the annual Sonia Kovalevsky Day on Nov. 13 at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
Sonia Kovalevsky was the first female to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics. Each year, UCM holds a Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day (SK Day).
“On this day, high school girls (and their teachers) who are sophomores and juniors at Kansas City high schools and area rural high schools, are invited to campus for a day of mathematics enrichment activities,” Glasgow said. “These activities include workshops, a team problem-solving competition and a career panel discussion. Women who have careers that involve mathematics are invited to participate in the career panel discussion.”
Glasgow’s presentation was a two-and-a-half-hour workshop with 15-20 teachers. The workshop presented methods of teaching the statistical concepts in middle and high school classrooms using hands-on, visual tools.
At the MCTM Fall Conference on Dec. 6-7 in Columbia, Glasgow first presented “Tell a Story with Math,” and outlined practical ways to incorporate storytelling into mathematics teaching and learning. The session provided resources for historical mathematical stories, as well as ideas for developing contextual settings for mathematical problems based on the lives of the members of the classroom community.
Glasgow’s second presentation at the MCTM conference was “You can’t get M.A.D. without getting Mean!” The session presented visual, hands-on representations to use in the middle school classroom to help students understand the concepts of mean and mean absolute deviation (M.A.D.)
For more information about SBU’s Department of Mathematics, visit SBUniv.edu/mathematics or call (417) 328-1659.
*Published: 12-17-19