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Department of Mathematics

Upcoming Events

Branwen Purdy at her stall during OMSI meet-a-scientist day.

Branwen Purdy prepares hands-on activities for kids at the OMSI Meet-A-Scientist Day in Portland, to share hands-on learning experiences about her research in topological data analysis.

Join us for these events hosted by the Department of Mathematics, including colloquia, seminars, graduate student defenses and outreach, or of interest to Mathematicians hosted by other groups on campus.

Access our archive of events

A Comparative Analysis of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching in Ghana’s Objective-Based and Standards-Based SHS Mathematics Curricula

Zoom
M.S. Presentation

Speaker: Philip Danso

Curriculum reform in mathematics education often seeks to improve students’ conceptual understanding, problem-solving abilities, and readiness for real-world application. In Ghana, the transition from the objective-based Senior High School (SHS) mathematics curriculum to the standards-based curriculum represents a significant shift in instructional expectations and learning goals. This study investigates these two curricula through the framework of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) in order to identify the types of teacher knowledge embedded within each and to examine how these have evolved over time. Using qualitative document analysis, the study codes both curriculum documents based on the MKT domains proposed by Ball, Thames, and Phelps (2008). The analysis focuses on key instructional components, including objectives, learning outcomes, and pedagogical guidance, to determine how each curriculum positions the role of the teacher in facilitating mathematical learning.… Read more.

A Stage-Structured Eco-Evolutionary Model with Pulsed Dynamics

Kidder 274
M.S. Presentation

Speaker: Abigail Adjei

Insecticide application is a major method of pest control in agriculture. Motivated by this, we develop a stage-structured mathematical model for population dynamics coupled with genetic evolution, in which the population is divided into developmental stages and the frequency of a resistant allele is tracked within each stage over time. Using this model, we study how repeated insecticide applications influence resistance evolution in pest populations. The baseline model combines continuous population dynamics, describing recruitment, maturation, and mortality, with allele-frequency dynamics for the resistant allele and discrete pulse updates representing repeated insecticide exposure. We establish basic qualitative properties of the model, including existence and uniqueness of solutions, positivity and invariance of the biologically relevant region, and we characterize how pulse events affect resistant-allele frequencies. The model is then extended to incorporate fitness trade-offs… Read more.

Aryabhata and Ptolemy’s Trigonometry Tables – Teaching Trigonometry Using History

Kidder 237
M.S. Presentation

Speaker: Wendy DuFrene

Teaching mathematics through a historical perspective has been recognized as an effective way to engage students and incorporate critical cultural thinking into the math classroom. Thanks to its complex global history, trigonometry is a prime candidate for teaching through a historical lens, and multiple mathematicians have taught it in such a way in the past. In this project, I present a new approach to teaching the sine function in historic-focused way, focusing on the historical approaches and tables of two specific mathematicians who made great contributions to global conceptions of sine; the second-century Greek mathematician Ptolemy and the fifth-century Indian mathematician Aryabhata. This project is unique from similar teaching approaches that preceded it in the specifics of what trigonometry history it teaches, in the way it requires students to use authentic historic artifacts as tools for problem solving, and in the way it asks students to think about how cultural and… Read more.