Dear Colleagues,

We continue our Colloquium at the Math Department.

Betsy Darken  
Department of Mathematics
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Tuesday, October 3, EMCS 238, 3:05 pm.

Mathematical Ignorance:
Do We Brag About It or Can We Do Something About It?

Abstract. These days, everyone from the President of the United States to
the Chancellor of UTC is concerned about the need to improve mathematics
education in this country. Yet this is also a country where many citizens
complacently remark that "I can't do math." Can our own UTC students do
mathematics? In this presentation, I will discuss the results of a study
investigating how well UTC students can answer elementary mathematical
questions such as the following.  What fraction is equivalent to
$33\,1/2\%?$  How much time has elapsed between $10:47$ am and $6:19$ pm?
Why is it impossible to divide by $0?$  I will also compare the performance
of future teachers to other students and discuss what UTC can do to help
break the pandemic of mathematical ignorance in this country.  Perhaps some
day our citizens will be no more likely to brag that "I can't do math" than
they will say that "I can't read."  

All are welcome to attend this talk, especially those who want their
children to be able to do mathematics better than their parents.   

**************************

Boris P Belinskiy
Department of Mathematics, Dept. 6956
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
Ph. (423) 425-4748
Fax (423) 425-4586

* UTCSTAFF home page:  http://raven.utc.edu/archives/utcstaff.html *
* unsubscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]  *
*   subscribe:  mailto:[log in to unmask]    *