Mathematical Association of America (MAA)

By Monica Morales-Hernandez As a Mexican woman of color teaching entry-level math courses at a liberal arts institution, I can attest to how vital it is to address math anxiety in students and counteract it by fostering a compassionate learning environment. Math anxiety is a well-documented phenomenon that affects cognitive functioning, often leading to lower performance and less engagement.

The summer following my first year, I took my qualifying exams in algebra and analysis and was not successful in crossing those milestones. Grad school was already an uphill battle, and failing both of my exams early on felt like hitting a wall. I was already grappling with deep insecurities about whether I belonged, and this experience only made those feelings worse. For a while, I wanted to give up.

In fact, that story was my first ever math piece (on any topic) in a national newspaper, and it’s what launched me onto a second career as “science writer”. My article was quickly picked up by other media outlets, and BBC Television reached out to me that very day for help doing a piece on their regular children’s news program John Craven’s Newsround (I always thought a children’s news program was a great idea) and later another segment for their popular tv series Record Breakers.

I can’t lie (no, really, I can’t. I’m very expressive. I will never sit at a poker table), and I have to fess up that I was incredibly nervous to be around Real Mathematicians. I considered myself to just be a nerdy voracious ingester of all things math. August crept up on me, I went to Tampa, and whaddya know, I found myself in conversations with some very fine folks -  and they took me in. They nerded out with me. They drank wine with me.

By Kira Hamman Well, it’s that time again, when the imaginary structure we’ve imposed on the Earth’s rotation around the sun calls on us to observe certain rituals: fireworks, champagne, songs nobody understands. A giant ball dropping in New York City, and various other things dropping in other parts of the country. Maybe a new calendar. And maybe that simultaneously reviled and revered tradition: the New Year’s Resolution. Maybe you love them. Maybe you hate them.

By Tim Chartier & Jenna Carpenter Earlier this year, frequent Math Values contributor Tim Chartier sat down with MAA President-Elect Jenna Carpenter to discuss her work increasing the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM and her tips for creating more inclusive and welcoming institutions, departments, and classrooms. TC: You are noted nationally for your work in broadening participation in STEM. Can you describe your work in this area?

By Dave Kung During the September Presidential debate, Kamala Harris pulled a surprising judo move. She invited the audience to attend one of her opponent’s rallies. In addition to the people leaving early, clearly a sore spot for her opponent, what I saw at those rallies was a large group of people unquestioningly believing what someone on the stage was telling them. They were followers of an authoritarian leader.

By Erin Moss STEM majors who are placed into college algebra frequently experience the course as an obstacle to success and timely degree completion. Since research has demonstrated that inquiry-oriented instruction leads to increased learning and persistence in STEM degrees, developing faculty who are able to implement that pedagogy in college algebra is a worthy goal.

I like Hankel’s 1870 definition of continuity in terms of oscillations (see Bressoud, 2008, p. 43). The oscillation of a function over an interval I is the least upper bound of the function over that interval minus the greatest lower bound—think of it as the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the function over that interval. The oscillation at a is the greatest lower bound of the set of all oscillations over all open intervals that contain a.

By Daniel Tedeschi “Grad school is a marathon, not a sprint.” I have heard this metaphor a thousand times over, but I must say, as a graduate student currently navigating the space, I find it wanting. I find describing grad school as a long walk to be more accurate. The exciting kind, where you trek through mountains and throw a magical ring into a volcano at the end, but a walk nonetheless. Grad school is slow and arduous, but flecked with moments of triumph that make it all feel worth it.