Let’s get rolling. I am always hopeful at the start of Spring term. One gets the opportunity to let go of a semester’s worth of disappointments and begin again. (I am a perfectionist at heart, and never really meet all of my goals. By midterm it starts to weigh on me.) I am no less happy to meet this new term, now.
This term I have traded in credit for two completed MA theses supervised for a course release, and so I have only two preps.
- Math 3600/5600 Euclidean Geometry
- Math 3630/5630 Differential Geometry
Both courses will have graduates enrolled, so those shadow numbers are real this time. I am busy working on getting those prepared—I am really excited about the differential geometry course, as I haven’t taught it in four years. Students can find course pages for those by clicking on the teaching link above.
I will also continue to mentor my undergraduate research student and my MA graduate student. Those mentoring projects are what will allow me to continue doing research in knot theory (a branch of topology).
I have a lot of service commitments to work on this term, as many initiatives across the University and in my Department have ‘get this done immediately’-style deadlines and will require my attention.
My other projects this term are:
- Continuing to mentor the participants from the AIBL workshop this past summer in Los Angeles,
- Preparing for the next such workshop I will help with, to be held in Minnesota this coming summer,
- Continuing up duties as the new Senior Editor of Journal of Inquiry Based Learning in Mathematics for modules,
- Chairing an ad-hoc UNI Mathematics Curriculum Revision Committee,
- Helping rebuild the evaluation criteria and procedures for all of the faculty in my department, (Thanks, Iowa Government!)
- First-year and transfer advising for math,
- and work on various other committees (Undergraduate Research, Recruitment and Retention, Student Outcomes Assessment, Competitions, etc)