“There have been some other nice things that have happened along the way but this is a very important one for deeply personal and professional reasons,” she said from her home in Kingston, where she is Professor Emerita at the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University.

“Other nice things” could refer to any number of the awards, honours and professional distinctions Dr. Colgan has accrued over her career. The list is as long as it is varied, but they all take root in her mission to make math more intuitive for children by “seeing and doing through the eyes of a child” and by engaging parents in “Family Math” activities that can reshape negative attitudes. 

“Dr. Lynda Colgan has devoted her career in education to designing projects and outreach activities, changing the way people see the relevance of mathematics, and making this once-intimidating subject into a field of wonder. She is ensuring Canada knows that mathematics is important, accessible and available to all learners — young and old — and fun!” the committee wrote.

She was also singled out for the success of her outreach work, which the committee tied to her close and empathetic association with students and teachers at many different levels. This quality gives her an unusual capacity to judge what is important and what is apt to be effective.

Teaching is a calling and there is no doubt that Dr. Colgan was born to teach. What distinguishes her among educators is her equal passion for the subject matter. She is as much a mathematician as she is a teacher, a “double calling” of sorts that has inspired her to branch out from the classroom and find as many different avenues to share her life’s work.

These avenues have included everything from collaborating on core mathematics curriculum for the province to newspaper columns, television shows, interactive apps, books and papers in noted journals, and countless community efforts to engage parents and students. Two of the shows she helped create, “Prime Radicals” and “Mathxplosion” aired on TVO and she wrote an award-winning children’s book, “Mathemagic!”, that sits in many classrooms. 

More recently, Dr. Colgan has taken the helm as the Executive Director, Education and Development at Science Rendezvous, a non-for-profit dedicated to bringing research and STEM experiences to the public in engaging and interactive ways.

Dr. Colgan acknowledges that her “extra-curricular” activities were not always understood in academic circles, another reason receiving the Margaret Sinclair Award is particularly special. “To know that those efforts in bringing creativity and accessibility to mathematics was valued by my peers is incredibly validating,” she said. “That was part of my joy when I got news of the award – that finally someone understood that this work had value and has a place in the total spectrum of what we do as mathematician and as math educators.”

Dr. Colgan will deliver the 2023 Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award Lecture at the September 2023 MathEd Forum.

Photo credit: Garrett Elliott