Spring 2026 Schedule

Title: Kicking Off the Semester - Concerns, Celebrations & Brainstorming

Description: Conversation and Planning

Title: Debriefing MATH 1100

Description: In Fall 2025, we tried a few new things in Math 1100.  First, we implemented a new assessment framework that added multiple-choice skills tests that students could have one retest on, reduced midterm exams, and added "practice synthesis questions" completed during lab.  Also, we rethought some of the review material at the beginning of the semester, adding a trigonometry day and an emphasis on "problem starting".  I'll discuss the details, and the data we were able to gather.  

POSTPONED DUE TO TRAVEL COMPLICATIONS

Title: Students playing professor: A paradigm for open-AI assessments

Description: During the Fall 2025 semester, I conducted open-AI quizzes in my Data Structures and Algorithms course. The framework: Students were asked to design exam-level problems (subject to certain parameters) using prompt engineering and critical parsing of AI outputs. This talk will explore how the semester unfolded, including discussions of my initial motivations and concerns, how I taught prompt engineering, student learning outcomes, and what I learned along the way. 

Description: Jill Mastrocola will be leading a discussion on student note-taking, including ways to scaffold and support the process. She will pay attention to techniques such as skeleton notes, but the discussion is open to any methods or ideas people have tried or want to troubleshoot. 

Description: In the fall, BC will be piloting a precalculus course as an alterante route for students who are not prepared to enter Calculus I.  Erika Ward will lead a discussion about what that lack of preparedness looks like, and some potential textbooks & resources.

Description: Math 1100 and 1000 are considering changing homework systems for the fall.  Here we discuss with other calculus instructors.

Title:  Using Topological Data Analysis as a Entry Subject to Undergraduate Math Research

Abstract:   In this talk, I will introduce the background on the Science Research Initiative, a program at the University of Utah aimed at getting students involved in undergraduate research from year one.  In particular, I will talk about the work done in my research group on Topological Data Analysis (TDA).  Our research group has 16 students, and we work on projects in the theory and applications of TDA.  I will talk about how the research group is run, how we develop a welcoming and inclusive community, different aspects of collaboration and mentorship, and some of the particular ongoing research projects.  I hope to engage anyone who comes to the talk in discussion on how undergraduate math research can be performed in order to welcome everyone into the mathematics discipline, and how doing research with math and non-math majors can empower students to see mathematics as a tool in their own lives.

Description: In the Fall semester, instructors were asked to add questions about student AI use to the student evaluations.  Juliana Belding, Thomas Hameister, Erika Ward and Mira Wattal have been analyzing the data, and will report preliminary results and invite discussion of them.  Everyone is encouraged to add the same questions to their spring evaluations!