MATHEMATICS EDUCATION FORUM

FIELDS MATHEMATICS EDUCATION FORUM
February 26, 2005

Fields Institute Mathematics Education Forum
February 26, 2005
Minutes

Present: Rob Andrews, Anthony Azzopardi, Paul Balog, Lillian Banjevic, Caroline Burgess, Shirley Dalrymple, Yshrand de Bruyn, Gord Doctorow, Wayne Erdman, George Gadanidis, Gila Hanna, Bryn Harris, Rick Jardine, Leo Jonker, John Kezys, Donna Kotsopoulos, Cecilia Kurtas, Anton Lim, Miroslav Lovric, Dragana Martinovic, Len Rak, Iouldouz Raguimov, Tom Salisbury, Riaz Saloojee, Tom Sepp, Margaret Sinclair, Rita Singh, Tony Szeto, Peter Taylor, Walter Whiteley

The meeting convened at 10am

1. Welcome
- OCT Review: Margaret Sinclair handed out copies of the Draft Fields OCT Submission and. There is a meeting directly after the Forum for the committee to review the draft. (Note: a final version was produced shortly following that meeting. See here for the final submission, in PDF format).

- OAME: Shirley Dalrymple reminded people of the upcoming OAME conference at York University May 13 - 14, 2005

- OCMA: John Kezys reminded people about the upcoming OCMA conference at Talisman May 25 - 27, 2005

- George Gadanidis stated that Natalie Sinclair would give a presentation at the Math Teacher Preparation Symposium to be cancelled. He reminded people of the conference on Designing Mathematical Thinking Tools being held at the University of Western Ontario June 10-12, 2005. He gave the web address for the Sharing Success Stories for the CMS Math Education Forum May 5 - 8, 2005 as publish.edu.uwo.ca/cmesq/cmsforumw05.htm and he suggested planning a Math Teacher Preparation Symposium for January/February 2006.

2. Transition from High School to University or College. Walter Whitely introduced the morning's program. Presentations were made by the following individuals:

Shirley Dalrymple (York Region District School Board) spoke about a survey of lead mathematics teachers. Presentation in PDF format

Miroslav Lovric (McMaster) spoke about the McMaster introductory class

Peter Taylor & Leo Jonker (Queen's University) students' readiness for calculus at Queen's: students are younger. There was a really good class last year, and the course was successful. No changes were made to the course for this year but cutoffs dropped, and there was less success this year. Preparation issues are trigonometry, and algebra-geometry links (eg graphs). In the 1st year of the double cohort, new curriculum students were more likely to participate in optional "challenge" problems. Participation dropped significantly this year. Engineering enrolment has dropped. There is a perception that GDM is hard, and Queen's will eliminate it as a requirement. Presentation in PDF format

Wayne Erdman (Eastern Commerce C. I.) presented about a survey of teachers comparing the new and old curricula. Presentation in PDF format

3. YSIMSTE College Mathematics project.
After lunch, Graham Orpwood (York University) and Laurel Schollen (Seneca) gave a presentation about the project.

4. There was no other business.