This panel focuses on

• Promoting Mathematical Understanding: The Case of Numeracy Courses

• Promoting Mathematical Communication: The Case of Calculus Courses

• Promoting “Authenticity”: The Case of Service Courses

Panelists (all attend in person)

Andie Burazin (University of Toronto Mississauga)

Rebecca Carter (Queen’s University)

Bernardo Galvao-Sousa (University of Toronto)

Taras Gula (George Brown College)

Sarah Mayes-Tang (University of Toronto)

Peter Taylor (Queen’s University)

Moderator

Miroslav Lovric (McMaster University)

Bios

Andie Burazin is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy and the Department of the Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She teaches several first-year and second-year undergraduate mathematics courses and the numeracy course, ISP130H Numeracy for University and Beyond. She is one of the leaders for the First-Year Math and Stats in Canada, a member of the Canadian Mathematical Society Education Committee, and a board member of the National Numeracy Network in the US. She has several peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed manuscripts in mathematics education and conference proceedings in numeracy education. Andie wants her students to excel and be confident in working with quantitative information in any context, academically and in real-life.

Becca Carter is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen’s University working under the supervision of Professor Peter Taylor and Professor Ram Murty. Her research interests are in graph theory and authentic mathematics in grades 7-12. In addition to her research, she also spends time on course development and teaching.

Bernardo Galvao-Sousa is an associate professor (teaching stream) at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto. He is interested in updating the way Mathematics is taught and how to leverage technology to help in the process. In the past few years, Bernardo has been working on transitioning from being an instructor to becoming a mentor who guides students to discover Mathematics and learn it more deeply. He is also interested in training graduate students and other faculty to be able to do the same. All this is in the context of very (very) large undergraduate courses.

Taras Gula teaches math, statistics and research methods to health science students at George Brown College. He has contributed to research in conceptualizing numeracy and its aboutness and continues to work on developing online practice and assessment tools. Currently, he is working on the development and validation of a numeracy task rubric and on building a community of research in math education in Ontario Community Colleges through his work as co-chair of the Ontario Colleges Math Council (OCMC).

Miroslav Lovric is a professor of mathematics at McMaster University. His research interests include Riemannian geometry, mathematics and medicine, and mathematics education. Miroslav has taught mathematics to a wide variety of students from almost every program. He created a much-needed numeracy course and has been collaborating on creating learning modules for improving health numeracy among healthcare professionals.

Sarah Mayes-Tang earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She developed and taught innovative courses in both traditional and non-traditional areas in the faculty of Quest University in Canada before she joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto. Her recent work focused on transforming the university’s largest-enrolment calculus sequence and redesigning upper-year courses for mathematics majors. Her current projects include critically examining mathematics through a feminist lens, designing curricula to improve the experiences of diverse learners, measuring conceptual learning in courses, and developing lifetime communication skills within mathematics courses.

Peter Taylor is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen’s University, cross-appointed to the Department of Biology and the Faculty of Education. His long-term area of research is in evolutionary ecology but for the past few years he has spent most of his time developing curriculum for 7-12 mathematics. His heroes are Whitehead, Dewey, Papert and the many teachers he has been lucky enough to work with.