Mathematics Education

Faculty

Steve Dunbar is interested in issues of mathematical education at the high school and collegiate level. He is the Director of the American Mathematics Competitions program of the Mathematical Association of America which sponsors middle school and high school mathematical competitions leading to the selection and training of the USA delegation to the annual International Mathematical Olympiad. In addition, he has interests in documenting trends in collegiate mathematics course enrollments and using mathematical software to teach and learn mathematics. He also has research interests in nonlinear differential equations, and applied dynamical systems, particularly those which arise in mathematical biology. In conjunction with his work with differential equation models and systems of mathematical biology, he is also interested in stochastic processes, the numerical and computer-aided solution of differential equations, and mathematical modeling.

Jim Lewis is interested in mathematics education at the K-12 and collegiate level with special interest in the mathematical education of teachers. He is the lead PI for for the $5,000,000 NSF grant, Math in the Middle, and is Director of the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Computer Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Previously he was a co-PI for the Nebraska Math and Science Initiative and for Math Matters, a NSF grant to revise the mathematics education of future elementary school teachers at UNL. Nationally, he is a member of the National Research Council's MSEB (Mathematical Sciences Education Board) and chair of the MAA's Coordinating Council on Education. Lewis was chair of the Steering Committee that produced the CBMS report, The Mathematical Education of Teachers, co-chair of the NRC Committee that produced Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium, and a member of the AMS Task Force that produced Towards Excellence: Leading a Doctoral Mathematics Department in the 21st Century.