Will You Be Teaching Your Great-Grandmother's Algebra?

Zalman Usiskin
University of Chicago

Zalman was scheduled to speak on the topic “Are You Still Teaching Your Grandma’s Geometry?”, but the recent (March 2008) report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel of the U.S. Department of Education has him wondering whether, if you follow the panel’s advice, you will be teaching your great-grandmother’s algebra.  So he has changed his topic and will give a scientifically-based (to use the language of evidence considered valid by the panel) critique of the report.

Zalman Usiskin is professor emeritus of education at the University of Chicago.  He is the director of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project and one of the principal investigators of the NSF- supported Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum.  Since 2004, he has been directing the development of the third edition of the UCSMP curriculum for grades 6–12.  Zal first spoke to MMC in May
1969 and received the first MMC Distinguished Life Member Award in 1984.  He has served on the Boards of MMC and NCTM.  He received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 from NCTM and the Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from NCSM.

Come see why Zalman Usiskin has been speaking for MMC every even- numbered year since 1982.  This meeting marks the 21st time he has been invited to speak (although it will be his 22nd talk—he once gave a talk on the spur of the moment when the speaker did not show!).  He is sure to entertain and inform.  Come to hear Zalman, meet our scholarship winners (whose dinners and parents’ dinners will be paid for by Texas Instruments), and enjoy some complimentary appetizers courtesy of the Wright Group.

Return to the MMC home page.