Participation in Scholarly and Professional Meetings

Selected Conferences Attended

The following are selected conferences I have attended since 2011. I also give a brief description of each conference as well as my involvement at that conference. My presentations at these conferences are described in the "Scholarly Presentations and Invited Lectures" section of this website. 

• Cryptology History Symposium

Virtual                                                                                                                                               May, 2022

NSA's Center for Cryptologic History (CCH) and the National Cryptologic Foundation (NCF) co-host the Cryptologic History Symposium. Since 1990, the Cryptologic History Symposium has served as an opportunity to present historical scholarship found in unclassified and declassified cryptologic records and engage in discussion about their significance to history. The event is an occasion for historians and those interested in history to gather for reflection and debate on relevant and important topics from the cryptologic past.

After I taught an experimental course in cryptography in spring 2022, I become active in a group involving other faculty, authors (some whose book I have read), and cryptography enthusiasts. Each month, there is a lecture series concerning either a historical topic (usually something related to WWII) or a topic that can be taught at the undergraduate level. I have attended these talks and obtained fabulous resources I hope the next time I teach a course in cryptography. It is exciting when some of the attendees of these lecture series comprise authors of books I have read and used as materials for the course I taught. It is through these monthly meetings that I learned of this symposium. 

• SIMIODE Expo International Online Conference

Virtual                                                                                                                                       February, 2022

The SCUDEM challenge within SIMIODE comprises undergraduate student teams of up to three students to create and justify a mathematical model for a given situation. The students are given three problems to choose from (one each from biology, physics, and the social sciences). They have one week to create their model and type a two-page summary including an elementary analysis of their model and a description of its limitations. After the week is over, each team presents their work in a conference style at a local site.

This was the first time the SIMIODE organization hosted a virtual conference solely about the SCUDEM differential equations modeling challenge. A former student of mine, Anthony Stefan, helped to host this event and continues to be heavily involved within this organization. At this event, the organizers talked about the event and several changes that were made since the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the window for student teams to create their model was extended from one to three weeks.

• Conference on Mastery Grading

Virtual                                                                                                                                              June, 2022

Virtual                                                                                                                                              June, 2021

Virtual                                                                                                                                              June, 2020

This is the only conference I know of that is solely on "alternative grading" schemes, such as ungrading and specifications grading (I describe my use of specifications grading in the "Academic Standards" section). In the first two years of this conference, I was asked to be a panelist for one of their sessions. I describe these panels in the "Scholarly Presentations and Invited Lectures" section of this website. This is another conference where authors of books I have read have attended (like Linda Nilson).

• MAA MathFest

Tampa, FL                                                                                                                                    August, 2023

Denver, CO                                                                                                                                  August, 2018

The MAA MathFest presents the latest in mathematical research and education to diverse audiences across the nation.

At the 2023 conference, I was invited to be on a panel (see the "Scholarly Presentations and Invited Lectures" section of this website). I also gave a talk, both in 2023 and in 2018, on my implementation of specifications grading at the special session on alternative assessment.

It was at this conference in 2018 that I saw multiple faculty speak about their experiences using alternative grading successfully in their elementary statistics course. After this conference, I decided to attempt the use of specifications grading in all of my classes, including elementary statistics. I have been doing so ever since. I also met with Drew Lewis as we were collaborating on an article describing our experience implementing standards-based grading (published in 2019).

• POGIL Writer’s Retreat

Virtual                                                                                                                                               July, 2020

• POGIL South Central Regional Workshop

Dallas, TX                                                                                                                                         July, 2018

One of my pedagogical research projects is authoring a series of POGIL activities for calculus 2. Currently, there are only published POGIL activities for calculus 1. 

The Writer's Retreat is a workshop for advanced practitioners of POGIL. I attended this writer's retreat to learn about authoring POGIL activities as well as the process of getting activities peer reviewed for publication as part of the POGIL organization. Through that retreat, I met with other faculty to discuss possible topics that would be included in a set of calculus 2 POGIL activities. Unfortunately, we have yet to get started with this project--one reason being the rarity of teaching calculus 2, which is a requirement to authoring and publishing POGIL activities. 

The South Central workshop was the first POGIL conference I attended, and is a workshop "for beginners". I had already been using POGIL activities in my calculus 1 courses, and was interested in using them in calculus 2. I joined this conference to attend sessions on authoring POGIL materials, as none existed for calculus 2. Among the authoring of materials, this conference also focused on the learning-theoretic approach that underlies each activity as well as the facilitation of the student groups. Below is a note I received in the mail from one of the workshop hosts.

• Conference on Teaching and Learning (CoTL)

Virtual                                                                                                                                               May, 2022

Virtual                                                                                                                                               May, 2021

Mobile, AL                                                                                                                                        May, 2018

Mobile, AL                                                                                                                                        May, 2017

The theme of the Conference on Teaching and Learning (CoTL), hosted by the University of South Alabama (USA), encourages us to think about the ways in which we design, build, and sustain communities of learners. How do we create and maintain a sense of belonging? This factor has been shown in the research on student retention to be a powerful indicator of student progression towards a degree. 

I have given many talks at this conference over the years about my implementation of stands-based and specifications grading, as outlined in the "Scholarly Presentations and Invited Lectures" section of this website. This conference, and the networking with others using similar grading to mine, was very helpful during the first few years in which I was developing my grad system. I was also collaborating with Drew Lewis and Steven Clontz in sharing our implementations and ideas. Drew and Steven are faculty in the math department at USA and at the time I was a faculty at Spring Hill College, which is close to USA. 

• Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM)

Baltimore, MD                                                                                                                             January, 2019

Atlanta, GA                                                                                                                                  January, 2017

Baltimore, MD                                                                                                                             January, 2014

Boston, MA                                                                                                                                  January, 2012

New Orleans, LA                                                                                                                      January, 2011

The annual Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) is the largest conference in mathematics. Whenever I attended, I typically give two talks based on my current research in math and in pedagogy. I have given many talks at the JMM over the years, as outlined in the "Scholarly Presentations and Invited Lectures" section. I have also taken students to the JMM in January, 2019, as outlined in the "Collaborative Work with Students" section.