Dr. Therese Shelton Associate Professor Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Southwestern University Georgetown, TX

Email shelton@southwestern.edu .

Course Info

Six SU students and I participated in the 92nd Annual Texas Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America in Dallas April 12-14, 2012. Yvette Niyomugaba and Van (Zoe) Pham presented "A Mathematical Model of Pollution", resulting from an Independent Study me. Yvette and Zoe joined other SU students in competing in a Calculus Bowl at the meeting: David Vaden, Sara Watson, Nina Baccam, and Yasmin Leon. I also attended the Texas Association of Academic Administrators in the Mathematical Sciences and was selected for a Nominating Committee of the Texas MAA.

The following students presented at SU's 13th annual Student Works Symposium, For Every Voice:
Yvette Niyomugaba and Zoe Van Pham presented their Spring Independent Study project,
Nina Freeman presented her Fall capstone project, and
Caitlin Sargent gave a poster of her Fall capstone project.

At the 2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings
in Boston, I co-chaired an MAA Contributed Paper Session with M. E. (Murphy) Waggoner from Simpson College.
Effective Use of Dynamic Mathematical Software in the Classroom
See information and materials from the presentations.
Description: Although using dynamic mathematical software programs, such as GeoGebra or Fathom, can be very effective as a teaching tool, it often difficult to find the time to develop the files needed for a classroom experience. The purpose of this session is to provide a jump start to using software in the classroom. We are looking for talks that present one specific mathematics lesson using some dynamic software. The presentation will describe how the software was used in the classroom, and the files used in the lesson will be made available on-line. As a result, the audience will have a ready-made lesson to use. The lesson could be for any mathematical course and use any third-party software including GeoGebra, Fathom, Geometer's Sketchpad, calculator simulators, spreadsheets or a computer algebra system. It is preferred that the lesson include hands-on use of the software by students and not simply a classroom demonstration. Preference will be given to uses of widely used software such as those listed above or freeware.

The following students gave their capstone presentations at Southwestern on Dec 2, 2011:

• Sarah Ayers "Hold your Breath! A Mathematical Model of Optimal Distance in Underwater Swimming."
• Nina Freeman's "BSA the Easy Way" dealt with math models of body surface area.
• Eric Godat's "Wind Power Forecasting" combined his two majors of math and physics.
• Maria Pollifrone presented "Feeling Hip? A Volumetric Model of Wear Patterns in Hip Replacements."
• Lesley McCoy spoke about "Mathematics of the Silver Screen," and
• Caitlin Sargent presented "Is it Worth it? The Cost of Electric and Gas Powered Cars."

Seven students gave six presentations at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference 2011 at the University of Texas at Tyler Oct 21-22.
Zoe Van Pham and Yvette Niyomugaba presented "Markov Chains in Volleyball" based on an Independent Study. The other talks were based on the mathematics capstone projects listed above.
Sarah Ayers presented her capstone project to the class since she had a swim meet during the TUMC.
It has been my honor to be the faculty advisor for each.

I presented "Writing Math from Intro Stat to Capstone" at a contributed paper session for MathFest '11 in Lexington, KY.

Some Flash animations of parametric plots, each with several examples and the ability to define your own: paramFull with component plots; optional comments and connectors to emphasize the relationship between the plots, paramSpeedArc with plots of arclength and speed and calculated comments , paramVec with position and velocity vectors .

My contact info and professional interests

My Volunteer Activities, include Georgetown public schools, St. Helen's Catholic Church, and the Catholic Student Association at SU.