Thursday Opening Session
On Behalf of Our Students: Building a New Science of Instruction

Thursday, November 12, 3:00 pm
Grand Ballroom A/B

Uri Treisman

Philip “Uri” Treisman returns to the opening session of the 35th Annual AMATYC Conference to enlighten us about the powerful advances that have been made in our core understanding of how people learn and the forces that shape why people choose to learn. His presentation sets out an agenda for melding
this new knowledge of learning with effective practices on behalf of our students. He will challenge us to examine our own courses as he reviews past reforming of key introductory mathematics and statistics courses and then sketches important advances in social and developmental psychology, behavioral economics, and the learning sciences with a focus on what they suggest for the next round of course reform and improvement.

Treisman received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles and completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a professor of mathematics and of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and is the founder and executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center, an organized research unit in the University’s College of Natural Sciences. His research and professional interests include education policy, mathematics and science education, and community service and volunteerism. Professor Treisman has received numerous honors and awards for his efforts to strengthen American education. For his work on nurturing minority student high achievement in mathematics, he was named a MacArthur Fellow 1992-1997. In December 1999, he was named one of the outstanding leaders of higher education in the 20th century by the magazine Black Issues in Higher Education. In February 2006 he was named “2006 Scientist of the Year” by the Harvard Foundation of Harvard University for his outstanding contributions to mathematics. Uri is an active member of several advisory boards and working groups concerned with increasing the rigor of secondary mathematics and science education. He serves on the advisory board of a new partnership of Achieve, the National Governors Association, and the Council of Chief State School Officers focused on ensuring that states are benchmarking their education policies and practices against best practices globally.

Saturday Awards Breakfast Session
What a Coincidence!

Saturday, November 14, 8:30-10:00 am
Grand Ballroom A/B/C/D

Deborah Nolan

We all have had students who feel that the laws of probability apply to everyone but them! Thinking about chance is counterintuitive for many people. The world is both surprisingly
predictable and yet full of surprises. During this breakfast session, Deborah Nolan explores some typical pitfalls in probabilistic reasoning, ponders patterns in randomness, and sets the story straight with many fun and famous problems in probability. She hopes to uncover some of the basic misconceptions students have when learning probability, and to offer strategies for addressing these misconceptions. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to become an active learner as Nolan’s talk will include a series of problems that will be presented (with visual aids), worked out, and generalized to basic teaching strategies in probability.

Deborah Nolan is Associate Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been recognized at Berkeley for excellence in teaching and student advising and is noted for working with and encouraging all students in their understanding of statistics. Professor Nolan is the author of Stat Labs with Terry Speed and Teaching Statistics with Andrew Gelman. Deborah is an organizer of a multi-campus summer program in statistics for undergraduates. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from Yale University, and her research has involved the empirical process, high-dimensional modeling, and technology in education.