2018 DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
DEPARTMENT CHAIR’S WELCOME
I am excited to revive the department of mathematics newsletter, sharing updates and success stories with our current students, faculty, staff and administrators, as well as the broader mathematics community including our family of alumni, former and retired faculty and staff, collaborators, supporters and friends of the EWU mathematics department. I was honored to be given the opportunity last fall to return to the department as department chair after serving six years as associate dean for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CSTEM). This year marks my 26th year of serving EWU as a faculty member and combined 10th year as the department chair; I am truly grateful the opportunity to be part of this great institution for over a quarter of a century. My first year back as department chair was indeed a very busy, but also productive, year and together with my colleagues we celebrate many accomplishments which we wish to share with you in this issue. This includes several curriculum changes, proposed new programs and the streamlining of our math pathways aimed at improving student success across all disciplines. Our faculty are active in the mathematics community and I applaud my colleagues who made significant scholarly contributions during the past year and helped secure competitive grants to support mathematics scholarship and education. I am wishing everyone in our broad internal and external family of constituents a wonderful holiday season and an exciting remaining 2018/19 academic year. Christian K. Hansen, PhD Department Chair | chansen@ewu.edu
ewu.edu/math
FACULTY RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT Educational Research on Middle and Elementary Students’ Spatial and Numerical Reasoning with Geometric Measurement Assistant professor of mathematics education, Michael Winer, PhD, recently had the opportunity to present a research report at the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education or PME-NA in Indianapolis, Indiana. PME-NA is an organization whose goal is to gain a deeper and better understanding of the psychological aspects of teaching and learning of mathematics. Winer comes to Eastern from Ohio State University with research interests in student cognition with geometric reasoning and proof as well as developing learning progressions/trajectories for K-12 mathematics teachers. Winer along with two colleagues from Ohio State, Michael Battista, PhD, and Leah Frazee, PhD, presented a research paper in Oct. 2017 at PMENA Conference entitled “How Spatial Reasoning and Numerical Reasoning are Related in Geometric Measurement.” In this research report, they investigated the connection between spatial ability and mathematical ability in student mathematical reasoning. In particular, they examine upper elementary and middle school students’ work in spatial situations that require numerical operations in order to gain insight into the well-documented, yet not well-understood, connection between spatial ability and mathematical ability. See Research, continued on page 2