Welcome to the Mathematics Teachers' Circle of Austin!

This is the official site for the Mathematics Teachers' Circle of Austin. This professional learning community brings together middle and high school math teachers and professional mathematicians to work together and learn from each other.

NEWS:

Fall 2024 MTCA Workshop #3

Rene Cabrera

Beginning with the Basics: Understanding the Natural Numbers

We will revisit an elementary concept that many of you are already familiar with, but this time with a more rigorous approach. We will begin by examining the very foundation of numbers and their properties. While you've been working with numbers for years and know how to manipulate algebraic expressions, we will shift our focus to a more fundamental question: Why do the rules of algebra work?

For instance, why is it true that a(b+c)=ab+ac for any numbers a, b, and c? This isn't just an arbitrary rule—it's a result that can be derived from more basic principles. By exploring these foundational properties, you'll gain insight into how more complex results can be proven starting from simpler properties. Even though certain statements may seem "obvious," you'll find that proving them can be surprisingly challenging. One essential skill that we will use is that of mathematical induction, which is a basic tool used to prove things in many areas of mathematics.

We validate campus parking and provide dinner, and participants earn CPE hours (TEA approved) for this workshop.

Thursday, December 5, 2024
6-8 pm
PMA 12.166

Please visit our Previous Workshops page for information and handouts from previous sessions.

Information and handouts from previous workshops can be found by clicking on the Previous Workshops tab in the sidebar. There you will find links to all previous MTCA workshops. When handouts are available, they will be found as links at the bottom of each post. You can also find links to handouts from our summer workshops by clicking on Workshops, then following the links to the summer workshops.

Registration is free and open to all math teachers/instructional specialists/coordinators in the Austin area. Join us for dinner and problem-solving fun! See calendar below for more details.