The MAA Committee on Contributed Paper Sessions solicits
contributed papers pertinent to the sessions listed below.
Contributed paper session organizers generally limit presentations
to 15 minutes with a five-minute break between talks; in the
general session talks are limited to 10 minutes with a five-minute
break. Each session room contains a computer projector, an
overhead projector, and a screen. Please note that the dates
and times scheduled for these sessions remain tentative.
Assessment of Student Learning in Undergraduate Mathematics,
Wednesday afternoon, William O. Martin, North
Dakota State University, and Bernard L. Madison,
University of Arkansas. Assessment continues to be an important
issue for the mathematical sciences, with increasing faculty
involvement in assessment activities. Departments are expected
to document assessment activities focusing on student learning
in general education, the major, and graduate programs for
program review and institutional accreditation. We encourage
faculty to disseminate information about their experiences
by inviting contributed papers that (a) describe assessment
projects in undergraduate mathematics programs, including
the areas of quantitative literacy, general education, and
the major; (b) report findings of those projects; and (c)
describe faculty and departmental responses to those findings.
Papers are solicited from any individuals or groups actively
involved in assessment.
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Building Diversity in Advanced Mathematics: Models that
Work, Monday afternoon, Patricia L. Hale,
California State Polytechnic University Pomona, and Abbe
Herzig, University at Albany. Papers presented at
this session give models of programs that have been successful
at supporting diverse groups of people (women of all races,
African Americans, Latinos and Chicanos, and Native Americans,
people of all economic groups, people with disabilities) in
their pursuit of advanced mathematics study and careers. Presentations
will span the educational pathway, since issues of diversity
need to be addressed at every educational and professional
juncture. Proposals are sought that describe successful programs
for post-doctoral (faculty), graduate, undergraduate or pre-college
students. We interpret success broadly, and are looking for
ideas that should be shared with others in the mathematics
community as models for promoting diversity across the educational
spectrum. These might be academic or extracurricular programs,
which have targeted any group of people traditionally underrepresented
in the mathematical sciences. Historical perspectives are
also welcome.
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College Algebra: Focusing on Conceptual Understanding,
Real-World Data, and Mathematical Modeling, Thursday
morning, Florence S. Gordon, New York Institute
of Technology; Laurette B. Foster, Prairie
View A&M University; Yajun Yang, Farmingdale
State College; and Ray E. Collings, Georgia
Perimeter College. The MAA, under the leadership of CRAFTY,
is conducting a national initiative to refocus the courses
below calculus to better serve the majority of students taking
these courses. The goal is to encourage courses that place
much greater emphasis on conceptual understanding and realistic
applications compared to traditional courses that too often
are designed to develop algebraic skills needed for calculus.
We seek talks addressing all the college level courses below
calculus, particularly college algebra and precalculus, that
focus on conceptual understanding, the use of real-world data,
and mathematical modeling. We seek presentations that present
new visions for such courses; discuss experiences teaching
such courses; discussimplementation issues (such as faculty
training, placement, introduction of alternative tracks for
different groups of students, transferability issues, etc);
present results of studies on student performance and tracking
data in both traditional and new versions of these courses
and in follow-up courses; discuss the needs of other disciplines
and the workplace from courses at this level; and/or discuss
connections to the changing high school curricula and implications
for teacher education. The session is cosponsored by CRAFTY
and the Committee on Two-Year Colleges.
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Cryptology for Undergraduates, Monday afternoon,
Chris Christensen, Northern Kentucky University,
and Robert E. Lewand, Goucher College. In
increasing numbers cryptology courses are being developed
to serve the needs of undergraduate mathematics and computer
science majors. For mathematics majors cryptology fits into
the undergraduate curriculum in much the same way that number
theory does. In addition cryptology is appearing as a topic
in mathematics courses for nonmajors, as it is a hook to interest
these students in mathematics. This session solicits presentations
that address topics appropriate for undergraduate cryptology
courses for mathematics or computer science majors, or presentations
of cryptological topics that could interest and motivate nonmathematics
majors.
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Demos and Strategies with Technology that Enhance Teaching
and Learning Mathematics, Tuesday morning and afternoon.
David R. Hill, Temple University; Scott
Greenleaf, University of New England; Mary
L. Platt, Salem State College; and Lila F.
Roberts, Georgia College & State University.
Mathematics instructors use an ever expanding variety of instructional
strategies to teach mathematical concepts. As new technologies
emerge, instructors employ them in interesting ways as a means
to boost creativity and flexibility in lesson design. Tools
an instructor utilizes may include specialized computer applications,
animations (possibly with audio), and other multimedia tools
on standard delivery platforms or handheld devices. This session
will focus on novel demos, projects, or labs that mathematics
instructors have successfully used in their classrooms that
support conceptual understanding. Presenters are encouraged
to illustrate their approach with the technology, if time
and equipment allow, and to discuss how it is employed in
the classroom. Proposals should describe how the presentation
with technology fits into a course, the effect it has had
on student attitudes toward mathematics, and include a summary
of any assessment techniques employed. The session is endorsed
by CTiME (Committee on Technology in Mathematics Education).
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Developmental Mathematics Education: Helping Under-Prepared
Students Transition to College-Level Mathematics, Thursday
morning, J. Winston Crawley and Kimberly
Presser, Shippensburg University. Many students are
arriving at college today under-prepared for college-level
mathematics courses. In order to help these students to be
successful, we need to undertake new strategies for support
services, courses offered, and perhaps even in our programs
themselves. This session invites papers on all aspects of
developmental mathematics education. In particular what classroom
practices are effective with such students and how does research
in student learning inform these practices? For students interested
in math-intensive majors such as the sciences, how can we
best prepare these students for several subsequent mathematics
courses? How can we best coordinate support services with
the courses offered in our mathematics departments?
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Environmental Mathematics, Monday afternoon, Karen
Bolinger, Clarion University, and Ben A.
Fusaro, Florida State University. We invite presentations
that apply undergraduate mathematics to solve environmental
problems. We also invite presentations on expositional and
pedagogical aspects of environmental mathematics. This session
is sponsored by the SIGMAA Environmental Mathematics.
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Guided Discovery in Mathematics Education, Thursday
afternoon, Jerome S. Epstein, Polytechnic
University. Following on a good session on the topic for JMM-2008,
we are again soliciting contributions for 2009 on a topic
which we believe to be of central importance for the further
development of quality programs in mathematics education at
all levels. We seek papers on: (1) programs with more than
anecdotal evidence of efficacy, or the lack thereof; (2) means
of assessment used to determine efficacy of discovery-based
programs; (3) well thought out papers on the operational meaning
of terms such as Guided Discovery, and thus on what specific
aspects of programs actually are responsible for any observed
differences in outcomes; and/or (4) differences in outcomes
in later mathematics courses for those in discovery-based
programs vs. traditional lecture-based. The session is sponsored
by SIGMAA on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
(SIGMAA on RUME).
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Innovative and Effective Ways to Teach Linear Algebra,
Tuesday morning and afternoon, David M. Strong,
Pepperdine University; Gil Strang, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; and David C. Lay, University of Maryland.
Linear algebra is one of the most interesting and useful areas
of mathematics, because of its beautiful and multifaceted
theory, as well as the enormous importance it plays in understanding
and solving many real world problems. Consequently, many valuable
and creative ways to teach its rich theory and its many applications
are continually being developed and refined. This session
will serve as a forum in which to share and discuss new or
improved teaching ideas and approaches. These innovative and
effective ways to teach linear algebra include, but are not
necessarily limited to (1) hands-on, in-class demos; (2) effective
use of technology, such as Matlab, Maple, Mathematica, Java
Applets or Flash; (3) interesting and enlightening connections
between ideas that arise in linear algebra and ideas in other
mathematical branches; (4) interesting and compelling examples
and problems involving particular ideas being taught; (5)
comparing and contrasting visual (geometric) and more abstract
(algebraic) explanations of specific ideas; and (6) other
novel and useful approaches or pedagogical tools.
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Mathematics and the Arts, Thursday morning and afternoon,
Douglas E. Norton, Villanova University.
This session invites presentations of results on the connections
between mathematics and the arts: mathematical aspects of
arts, music, and architecture, as well as artistic representations
of mathematical objects, ideas, and theorems. We invite explorations
of connections old and new: tilings, architecture, quilting,
cross-stitch, painting, sculpture, musical composition and
analysis, mathematical properties of or themes in poetry and
literature, and new technological explorations. The math-arts
connection is not just about Escher and the golden mean any
more! (These topics are not excluded, of course.) The sharing
of experiences and ideas for incorporation into course design
and classroom activities is also encouraged. The session is
sponsored by the SIGMAA on Mathematics and the Arts.
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Mathematics of Chemistry, Monday afternoon, George
T. Rublein, College of William and Mary, and Thomas
R. Hagedorn, The College of New Jersey. Mathematics
makes its appearance early on in college-level chemistry courses.
Physical chemistry, which is heavily laced with mathematical
models, has a reputation as the most difficult course in the
undergraduate chemistry curriculum. The treatment of mathematics
in chemistry textbooks often bears little resemblance to the
approaches that students see in mathematics courses. This
session solicits contributions that show examples of models
drawn from chemistry that might comfortably appear in the
calculus, differential equations or linear algebra courses
in which chemistry students are commonly enrolled. Chemical
thermodynamics, stoichiometry, and chemical kinetics are good
sources for such models.
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Mathematics Experiences in Business, Industry, and Government,
Wednesday morning, Philip Gustafson, Mesa
State College, and Michael Monticino, University
of North Texas. This session will provide a forum for mathematicians
with experience in business, industry, and government (BIG)
to present papers or discuss projects involving the application
of mathematics to BIG problems. BIG mathematicians as well
as faculty and students in academia who are interested in
learning more about BIG practitioners, projects, and issues,
will find this session of interest. This session is sponsored
by the MAA Business, Industry and Government Special Interest
Group (BIG SIGMAA).
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Mathematics of Games and Puzzles, Tuesday morning,
Laura A. Taalman, James Madison University.
With the recent popularity of Sudoku, the mathematics of games
and puzzles is enjoying a renaissance. In addition to those
doing mathematical research about the game of Sudoku, people
are continuing to research other games and puzzles such as
Nim, SET, Rubiks Cube, the 15- puzzle, knight tours, origami,
Mancala, cake division, and Japanese pencil puzzles such as
Slitherlink, Nurikabe, Heyawake, and Masyu. These puzzles
are related to a surprisingly wide variety of mathematical
topics, from graph theory, game theory, and NP-completeness
to number theory, topology, and integer programming. The mathematical
research of games and puzzles is also a fertile ground for
undergraduate research projects and for popularizing mathematics.
This session invites talks about mathematical research, classroom
use, and possible undergraduate research projects that relate
to games and puzzles. Handouts of puzzles are encouraged.
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Mathematics and Sports, Tuesday morning, Howard
L. Penn, U. S. Naval Academy. Sports provide a host
of applications of mathematics. Examples exist that use concepts
taught in calculus, differential equations, probability, statistics,
and combinatorics. In this session, we will showcase interesting
applications of mathematics in various sports. The application
should be suitable for use in the classroom. The mathematics
may be at any level from freshman to senior. Talks may be
expository or may highlight undergraduate research.
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Mathlets for Teaching and Learning Mathematics,
Wednesday morning and afternoon, Thomas E. Leathrum,
Jacksonville State University, David M. Strong,
Pepperdine University, and Joe Yanik, Emporia
University. This session seeks to provide a forum in which
presenters may demonstrate mathlets and related materials
that they have created or further developed. Mathlets are
small computer-based (but ideally platform-independent) interactive
tools for teaching math, frequently developed as World Wide
Web materials such as scripts or Java applets, but there may
be many other innovative variations. Mathlets allow students
to experiment with and visualize a variety of mathematical
concepts, and they can be easily shared by mathematics instructors
around the world. This session is sponsored by the MAA Committee
on Technology in Mathematics Education (CTiME).
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Operations Research in the Undergraduate Classroom,
Monday afternoon, Gerald Kobylski and Josh
Helms,U. S. Military Academy, and William
Fox, Naval Post Graduate School. This session solicits
submissions highlighting innovative instructional strategies
and assessment methods in the introductory undergraduate operations
research courses or sequence. Suggested topics include, but
are not limited to, course content, course projects, case
studies, technology demonstrations, cooperative learning activities,
and writing assignments. Course projects or case studies presented
can be from mathematics courses other than operations research
but should highlight operations research topics. Talks may
focus on original teaching materials or the creative use of
previously existing ones, but all talks should provide specific
learning objectives addressed by the use of such materials.
Each submission must focus on operations research topics at
the undergraduate level, including those in the introductory
undergraduate operations research sequence or undergraduate
courses in stochastic processes, statistical modeling, simulation
modeling, queuing theory, networks, linear optimization, nonlinear
optimization, etc., and should be accompanied by a course
syllabus.
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Performing Mathematics, Monday afternoon, Timothy
P. Chartier, Davidson College, and Karl Schaffer,
De Anza College. Performing arts such as juggling, dance,
magic, and drama can enrich the mathematics classroom, and
reveal intriguing connections between mathematics and the
performing arts. Beyond entertaining students and the general
public, such demonstrations can offer new and novel perspectives
on mathematical content and engage a class in a fun, educational,
and interactive activity. This session seeks to provide a
forum in which presenters may demonstrate and discuss creative
ways of teaching and presenting mathematics using techniques
generally associated with entertainment and the performing
arts. Proposals should clearly delineate the mathematical
subject that will be covered. When a short performance or
portion of a performance is included, a presenter might also
incorporate a clear discussion of how a presenters methods
can be adapted for general classroom use. Descriptions of
classroom activities that are suitable for use by teachers
and professors without a performance background are also strongly
encouraged.
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Productive Roles for Math Faculty in the Professional
Development of K12 Teachers, Wednesday morning, Dale
R. Oliver, Humboldt State University, and Elizabeth
Burroughs, Montana State University. This session
is a forum for faculty whose involvement in professional development
for teachers might be described as productive. The word productive
here implies that the professional development produced some
observable improvement in what teachers understand about mathematics,
in how they think about and do mathematics, or in their pedagogical
practices in teaching mathematics. The faculty who present
in this session will highlight the key features of the professional
development they delivered, including the structure, content,
and pedagogy of the work they did with teachers. Of particular
interest to the organizers will be descriptions of partnerships
between math faculty and lead K12 teachers to design and deliver
the professional development. This session is sponsored by
the MAA Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers
(COMET).
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Promoting Deep Learning for Mathematics Majors through
Experiential Learning, Writing, and Reflection, Thursday
morning and afternoon, Murphy Waggoner, Simpson
College, and Chuck Straley, Wheaton College.
Active and engaged learning helps our students gain genuine
ownership of concepts and to become independent thinkers with
truly transferable skills. This session is intended to give
those who are currently helping students move from surface
learning to deep learning to share their ideas with others.
We invite presentations that describe ways to promote deep
learning within the curriculum for mathematics majors, such
as effective internship programs, service learning projects,
or other experiential experiences that allow students to apply
mathematical skills in real situations; courses that use a
discovery method to teach mathematical concepts; innovative
teaching techniques that are proven to make concepts stick;
or the use of writing as a way to help students deepen their
understanding of mathematics. Presentations should describe
how the learning experiences were developed and how a deeper
and lasting understanding of mathematics was demonstrated.
Of special interest are presentations that show how to include
written and/or oral reflection as a method of strengthening
the learning experience.
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Quantitative Literacy Across the Curriculum, Wednesday
morning, Kimberly M. Vincent, Washington
State University, and Cinnamon Hillyard,
University of Washington, Bothell. There are a growing number
of colleges and universities with programs that embed QL in
various disciplines. We would encourage dissemination of this
important work by soliciting papers from any individuals or
groups actively involved in quantitative literacy across the
curriculum. The need to interpret and make inferences from
quantitative data arises in all disciplines. Individuals and
teams, who have embedded QL in various disciplines or institution
wide, are welcome to submit contributed papers. Papers should
provide examples from various disciplines that authentically
embed QL in mathematics and/or other curriculum. Preference
will be given to abstracts that provide evidence on the impact
of the program or projects on student learning. If you have
been working with faculty from other disciplines we encourage
you to bring these faculty to JMM to present with you. The
session is sponsored by SIGMAA-QL.
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Research on the Teaching and Learning of Undergraduate
Mathematics, Tuesday afternoon, Keith H. Weber,
Rutgers University; Michelle J. Zandieh,
Arizona State University; and Karen A. Marrongelle,
Portland State University. As part of its ongoing activities
to foster research in undergraduate mathematics education
and the dissemination of such research, the Special Interest
Group of the Mathematical Association of America on Research
in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (SIGMAA on RUME) solicits
reports of research on the learning and teaching of undergraduate
mathematics for its contributed paper session. We solicit
proposals for research reports presenting results from completed
research studies on undergraduate mathematics education that
address one or more of the following themes: (1) results of
current research; (2) contemporary theoretical perspectives
and research paradigms, and (3) innovative methodologies and
analytical approaches as they pertain to the study of undergraduate
mathematics education. We also welcome preliminary reports
on research projects in early stages of development or execution.
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Statistics in K12 Education: How Will It Affect Statistics
at the College Level?, Wednesday morning, Patricia
B. Humphrey, Georgia Southern University, and Robin
H. Lock, St. Lawrence University. Teaching statistics
in K12 has exploded in the past few years, due both to a change
in curriculum in new state standards and the growth of AP
Statistics (over 100,000 exams in 2007). Unfortunately, most
math teachers at this level are ill-equipped to teach the
subject. We seek presentations that illustrate how we can
support these teachers (both current and future) via successful
pre- and in-service programs and interaction as a mentor.
What preparation should K12 teachers have? How will/has this
explosion impact teaching introductory statistics at the college
level? Has your intro course been expanded/modified to (hopefully)
adapt to students better prepared for our subject? The session
is sponsored by the SIGMAA on Statistics Education and the
ASA-MAA Joint Committee on Statistics Education. In order
to be considered for this session applicants should submit
a one-page summary of the presentation to Pat Humphrey at
phumphre@georgiasouthern.edu along with the abstract via the
JMM website. Presenters in the session will be considered
for the SIGMAA on Statistics Educations Best Contributed Presentation
Award.
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Statistics Resources on the Web, Wednesday afternoon,
Dorothy W. Anway, University of Wisconsin,
Superior; Patricia B. Humphrey, Georgia Southern
University; Christopher J. Lacke, Rowan University.
This session seeks to provide a forum in which presenters
may demonstrate web-based applets, mathlets, data sets, activities
and related materials they have successfully used in statistics
classes. With the proliferation of such resources (try a Google
search on statistical applets; there are 941,000 results!),
endeavoring to find worthwhile resources can be time-consuming
and difficult. No one has the time available to do a thorough
search and examination when looking for a particular item
on any given topic. We invite submissions that detail the
following about one or more items found on the Web: what it
was, any resources required, how it was used, the time involved
(in and out of class), the success and/or failure in terms
of pedagogical intent, suggestions for improvement, and the
Web address where the resource was found. The intent is that
attendees will take away a bag of handy tricks that can be
used without reinventing the wheel. The session is sponsored
by the SIGMAA on Statistics Education. In order to be considered
for this session, applicants should submit a one-page summary
of the presentation to Dorothy Anway at danway@uwsuper.edu
in addition to the abstract submitted through the JMM website.
Presenters in the session will be considered for the SIGMAA
on Statistics Educations Best Contributed Presentation Award.
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Teaching Calculus in High School: Ideas that Work,
Tuesday morning, Dan Teague, North Carolina
School of Science and Mathematics, and John F. Mahoney,
Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. Today, most STEM majors
had their introductory calculus course while in high school.
SIGMAA TAHSM is committed to assisting teachers in making
the mathematical experiences of their students as challenging
and exciting as possible. This session will serve as a forum
in which to share activities and approaches to teaching calculus
that work well with high school students. Of particular interest
are projects and investigations, activities, demonstrations,
teaching strategies, and techniques that bring the class and
the mathematics to life for the students, and illustrate the
nature and utility of mathematics. University faculty interested
in or concerned about what happens in high school calculus
classrooms are encouraged to participate and attend the sessions.
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Undergraduate Mathematical Biology, Tuesday, morning
and afternoon, Timothy D. Comar, BenedictineUniversity,
Raina Robeva, Sweet Briar College, and Eric
S. Marland, Appalachian State University. Reports
including BIO 2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for
Future Research Biologists (National Research Council, 2003)
and Math and BIO 2010: Linking Undergraduate Disciplines (L.
A. Steen, ed., MAA, 2005) emphasize that aspects of biological
research are becoming more quantitative and that life science
students should be introduced to a greater array of mathematical
and computational techniques and to the integration of mathematics
andbiological content at the undergraduate level. Since these
reports, many successful programs and materials have been
designed to address these issues. This session is designed
to highlight available and successful, print, electronic,
or online materials which are available for implementation
in the classroom. This session would also like to highlight
programs and workshops which have helped train faculty in
the pedagogy of undergraduate mathematical biology. The session
is particularly interested in presenters who have created
materials after participating in workshops offered by the
MAA or other professional organizations. We encourage presenters
to provide handouts or electronic copies of materials that
can readily be used in the classroom. This session is sponsored
by the BIO SIGMAA.
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Wavelets in Undergraduate Education, Tuesday afternoon,
organized by Catherine Beneteau, University of South
Florida; Caroline Haddad, SUNY Geneseo; David Ruch,
Metropolitan State College of Denver; and Patrick Van Fleet,
University of St. Thomas. Potential speakers are invited to
submit abstracts for inclusion in this session that innovatively
incorporate wavelets as a course or as a topic in some other
course using, but not limited to, hands-on demonstrations,
labs, and projects that utilize technology such as Matlab,
Mathematica, Maple or Java Applets. Each presentation will
be listed in the meeting program and run about 15 minutes
with time for a few questions.
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General Session, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday mornings and afternoons; Sarah
L. Mabrouk, Framingham State College. Papers may
be presented on any mathematical topic. Papers that fit into
one of the other sessions should be sent to that organizer,
not to this session. Note the restriction below that you may
give only one talk in this session.
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Submission
Procedures for MAA Contributed Papers
Send your abstract directly to the meeting website (abstracts
should not be sent to the organizer(s) who will automatically
receive a copy). Please read the session descriptions thoroughly
as some organizers require an additional summary of your proposal
be sent to them directly. Participants may speak in at most
two MAA contributed paper sessions. If your paper cannot be
accommodated in the session for which it was submitted, it
will be automatically considered for the general session.
Speakers in the general session will be limited to one talk
because of time constraints. Abstracts must be submitted by
Tuesday, September 16, 2008.
All accepted abstracts will be published in a book available
at the meeting to all registered participants. Abstracts must
be submitted electronically. While no knowledge of LaTEX is
necessary for submission, LaTEX andAMS-LaTEX are the only
typesetting systems that can be used if mathematics or any
text markup (e.g., accent marks) is included. The abstracts
submissions page is at http://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/abstracts/abstract.pl.
Simply select the Washington, D.C. meeting, fill in the number
of authors, and proceed with the step-by-step instructions.
Submitters will be able to view their abstracts before final
submission. Upon completion of your submission, your unique
abstract number will immediately be sent to you. All questions
concerning the submission of abstracts should be addressed
to abs-coord@ams.org.
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