Keeping members of the OR/MS community informed of innovation in education
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As we approach the 2007 Annual INFORMS Meeting beginning on November 4 in Seattle, I’m writing to encourage you to attend the INFORM-ED Business Meeting on Sunday, November 4 from 6:15 until 7:15 pm (local time) to learn more about our ongoing activities and the new initiatives that we are pursuing this year. This annual event also provides the membership of INFORM-ED with a wonderful opportunity to socialize in an informal session as well as to exchange ideas and experiences for enhancing the teaching of operations research/management science in a wide variety of settings. I also would like to call your attention to the outstanding cluster of education sessions that Professor Jill Hardin of Virginia Commonwealth University has organized for the upcoming Annual Meeting in Seattle. In particular, Jill has worked diligently with our INFORM-ED colleagues to formulate a program that includes sessions which will be of interest and value to faculty in both engineering and business programs, trainers and practitioners in corporate environments, educators in governmental organizations, high school teachers, and many others. Please be sure to review the detailed schedule of settings provided in this newsletter. At our annual Business Meeting on November 4, we will hold elections for a number of positions that are critical to the effective functioning of our organization. While some of our elected officers have indicated their willingness to continue their service over the next two-year period, it is now clear that we will need some new volunteers to get involved in the leadership of our forum in 2008. Therefore, I encourage those of you would like to get more involved in INFORM-ED to contact me (zappe@bucknell.edu) prior to our annual meeting in Seattle. As always, my fellow INFORM-ED officers and I urge you to share your suggestions for enhancing our programs and activities in the coming year. If you would like to speak with me over the phone about your specific thoughts in this area, I would welcome your call. I can be reached at my Bucknell office (570-577-3292). I truly want to hear your suggestions for how we can better serve your needs and interests. After all, this organization exists to benefit each of you! Best wishes, Chris
Zappe |
President:
Chris Zappe (zappe@bucknell.edu)
Treasurer/Secretary:
Mary Beth Kurz (mkurz@clemson.edu)
Vice President - Programs:
Jill Hardin (jrhardin@vcu.edu)
Vice President - Projects:
Mike Racer (mracer@memphis.edu)
Vice
President - Publications:
John Kros (krosj@mail.ecu.edu)
"Issues in Education" Column in OR/MS Today:
Joel
Sokol (jsokol@isye.gatech.edu)
INFORM-ED Website:
Pinar Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu)
INFORM-ED Newsletter:
Matt Drake (drake987@duq.edu)
Case Competition Chair:
Chris
Zappe (zappe@bucknell.edu)
INFORM-ED is pleased to continue its co-sponsorship of the Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition this fall. This year’s competition, as in the past seven years, is jointly sponsored by INFORMS Education Committee, INFORMS Case and Teaching Materials Initiative, and INFORM-ED. It is designed to encourage the creation, dissemination, and use of new, unpublished cases in operations research and the management sciences. All submissions and supporting documentation were due to the coordinator of the competition by September 3, 2007.
Each of the selected finalists will give thirty-minute presentations of their entries at special open sessions of the 2007 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle. Note that these sessions are scheduled for 8:00-9:30 am and 10:00-11:30 am on Sunday, November 4. The panel of judges will select the winning entry from the finalists based on these presentations. The winner will be announced at the INFORM-ED Business meeting on Sunday, November 4 beginning at 6:15 pm.
To learn more about the guidelines for submitting a case to this annual competition in the future, please visit http://education.forum.informs.org/ccomp07.htm or contact Chris Zappe, interim coordinator of the Case Competition at zappe@bucknell.edu. We look forward to seeing you in Seattle.
The time draws near for the Fall INFORMS meeting
in Seattle. I hope to see many of you there.
Just a reminder of the changes and improvements in the publications area. If you haven't yet, go out to the INFORM-ED website and take a look. The website is: http://education.forum.informs.org/ Please send your comments or any ideas for the website to Pinar Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu).
OR/MS Today publishes the Issues in Education column in every issue. This column is sponsored by INFORM-ED and Joel Sokol is the editor of the column. Contact Joel Sokol contribute an article to this series.
We are all looking forward to another successful case competition. Please contact Chris Zappe (zappe@bucknell.edu) for questions regarding the competition.
See y'all in Seattle!
John F. Kros (krosj@ecu.edu)
INFORM-ED @ INFORMS 2007, Seattle – Jill Hardin
We have a very exciting cluster planned for this year’s annual meeting in Seattle. Our track consists of sixteen sessions, three of which are co-sponsored with the INFORMS Computing Society. The Seattle cluster includes a wide array of topics, with something for everyone—from novices to experts, from liberal arts educators to engineering educators. A complete listing of this year’s sessions can be found in our flyer.
Some of the highlights include
• a tutorial session by
Robert Freund on designing and delivering a better management science course
for MBA students
• a series of workshop on pedagogical research, concluding with a panel discussion,
organized by Donna Llewellyn
• presentations by authors with publications accepted by the INFORMS Transactions
on Education special issue on educational games, organized by guest editor
Paul Griffin.
My sincerest thanks go to all session chairs and presenters for their hard work in organizing such an excellent cluster. We hope to see you in Seattle!
All
the best,
Jill Hardin
VP/Programs
INFORM-ED International – Jim Cochran
In the Fall 2006 Newsletter we introduced INFORMS International Education Initiative; the first workshop in this series was held in Montevideo, Uruguay in November 2006 (see the Spring 2007 Newsletter for more details), and the second workshop was recently held in Cape Town, South Africa. Details on the progress of this initiative follow.
1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education
The second workshop in a series organized by INFORMS International Education Initiative - the 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education (http://www.orssaorpa2007.org.za/) - took place on September 10-11, 2007, in conjunction with the 2007 Operations Research Practice in Africa (ORPA)/Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) Conference (http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/eventos/claio06/eng/) in Cape Town, South Africa. This workshop was a joint education-oriented initiative of ORPA, ORSSA (http://www.orssa.org.za/), INFORMS, the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS: www.ifors.org/), and the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO: http://www.euro-online.org/).
The 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on O.R. Education was comprised of demonstrations and presentations on effective methods for quantitative education that were organized and given by members of ORSSA, EURO, and INFORMS. Featured presenters included:
o Neil Manson (Monash
University, South Africa) on "Free/Open Source Software Tools for O.R.
Education"
o Paul Kruger (University of Pretoria, South Africa) on "Spreading Knowledge
Using Spreadsheets"
o Leanne Scott (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Mario Marais (Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa) on "Using Action
Research Projects as a Medium to Teach OR in Development"
o Jeffrey D. Camm (University of Cincinnati, USA) on "Modeling for Insights"
o Bryton S. Masiye (University of South Africa, South Africa) on "Multiple
Objective Optimisation through Computational Intelligence Means: Theory and
Practice"
o Alexis Tsoukiàs (Université Paris Dauphine, France) on "Public
Policy Evaluation"
o M. K. Luhandjula (University of South Africa, South Africa) on "Uncertainty
Modeling and Applications to Optimization"
o Graham K. Rand (Lancaster University Management School, United Kingdom)
on " Teaching the OR Method"
Plans originally called for Edward M. Lungu (University of Botswana, Botswana) to present "Epidemics in Sub-Sahara Africa: Who should be educated about diseases?" Unfortunately, Professor Lungu was unable to give his session due to an illness in his family. Several 2007 ORPA/ORSSA Conference attendees were disappointed to miss his presentation, and we hope to bring Professor Lungu back to a workshop to speak on this topic very soon. I also gave an education-oriented plenary ("Ennoblization through Mobilization: Establishing a Pre-eminent Societal Position for Operational Research") on education-oriented steps I believe Operations Research should take to claim a more positive position in minds of our students, colleagues, and the public.
The forty-five registered workshop participants representing eighteen universities came from all over the world (Austria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, France, India, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe). Many of the workshop sessions were among the liveliest and best attended sessions, generally drawing 25-40 active participants who participated in very spirited and thoughtful discussions. Participants from ORSSA, INFORMS, and EURO appreciated the opportunity to share ideas across cultures and learn from each other's experiences. The feedback we received was unanimously positive.
The local members of the organizing committee for the 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on O.R. Education - Johan Jobert (University of Pretoria, South Africa), Neil Manson (Monash University, South Africa), and Ozias Ncube (University of South Africa, South Africa) - did a tremendous job as local planners, and I enjoyed working with them very much. Conference Chair Theo Stewart (University of Cape Town) and the rest of the 2007 ORPA/ORSSA Conference Committee also a terrific job planning the conference - the sessions and social activities were great - and were very supportive of our efforts to organize the 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on O.R. Education.
We (the workshop organizers) found the experience of organizing the workshop to be extremely rewarding and gratifying. The workshop was a tremendous enhancement to the very successful 2007 ORPA/ORSSA Conference. This success has led to a preliminary proposal to organize a similar workshop for the 2009 ORPA Conference (to be held in Kenya, Tanzania, or Madagascar). Furthermore, Mr. Manson has created the Network of O.R. Educators for Africa (NOREA). The URL for this group's homepage is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norea/. Mr. Manson has accepted primary responsibility for organizing this initiative and has sent letters to all delegates to the workshop 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on O.R. Education as well as all ORSSA and ORPA members inviting them to join this group. Finally, several attendees have expressed an interest in organizing an education-oriented cluster of sessions for the 2008 IFORS Conference in Sandton, South Africa.
A story on the 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education, coauthored by members of the organizing committee, has been submitted to ORMS Today and will likely appear in the December 2007 issue. I am also working with Barry List (INFORMS Director of Marketing and Public Relations) to publicize this workshop and increase this initiative's visibility among INFORMS members, IFORS members, EURO members, and the general public. Discussions of the workshop and education-oriented plenary will also be featured in the upcoming ORSSA newsletter.
This workshop was a tremendous professional and personal experience for me. I made several new friends with whom I hope to collaborate on future research projects and educational initiatives. Of course, I also learned a great deal about teaching from my African colleagues; I am certainly going to implement some of the things I learned at this workshop (particularly with regard to the use of real projects) in my classes.
As I did during the 1st ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education, I found our cultural differences to be interesting but was far more struck by the similarities of our classroom experiences – more evidence that many of the challenges of working with young adults/ undergraduate students are common to most (all?) cultures.
2nd ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education
The success of the 1st ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education and the 1st ORPA/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education have been very encouraging, and has led to the planning of a similar event for 2008 - the 2nd ALIO/IFORS/EURO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education. This workshop will be held in conjunction with the 2008 Latin-Ibero-American Conference on Operations Research (XIV CLAIO: http://www-2.dc.uba.ar/alio/eventos-en.htm#claio) in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia on September 9-12, 2008. This workshop is a joint effort of the Latin American Ibero Association on Operations Research (ALIO - http://www.dc.uba.ar/alio/index-en.htm), INFORMS, IFORS, and EURO. The Organizing Committee for this event, which will work closely with XIV CLAIO Conference Chair Victor Albornoz (Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María. Chile: victor.albornoz@usm.cl), includes:
o
James J. Cochran (Louisiana Tech University, USA) jcochran@cab.latech.edu;
o Cesar Jaramillo (Universidad Tecnologica de Pereira, Colombia) geio@utp.edu.co
Check this newsletter for more details as planning of this event progresses, or contact me at jcochran@cab.latech.edu or 318-257-3445 with your questions, comments, and suggestions.
Beyond 2007
We have also entered into preliminary discussions with the Association of Asian Pacific Operational Research Societies (APORS: http://www.apors.ms.unimelb.edu.au/) about organizing the 1st APORS/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education in 2009. More details on this workshop will appear in this newsletter as planning for this event progresses (again, please contact me with your questions, comments, and suggestions).
Update on Outreach – Dawn Strickland
We’re looking for volunteers! If you’d like to give a presentation about OR/MS to students in your area, please contact Dawn Strickland at stricklandd@winthrop.edu. For more information, please see the article “INFORMS Needs Your Help” in the August issue of OR/MS Today.
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Potential Special Projects – Mike Racer
Reaching
Out!! - Potential Projects for INFORMed members
We recently out a questionnaire, asking for your ideas on some possible projects
for INFORMed members to undertake:
• K-12 mathematics support
• Isolated academicians
• Quantitative courses in the Business school
• Engineers in INFORMed
We’d like to discuss these more fully at the Seattle meeting. If you haven’t
yet had a chance to respond (or perhaps misplaced the questionnaire), I’ll
be resending it shortly.
I look forward to hearing your responses, and determine how INFORMed might
become a major player in our community as well as within academia.
Thanks for your support.
Mike
Racer, VP – Special Projects
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High School OR Update – Ken Chelst
North Carolina State, Wayne State University, and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte Awarded $3 Million NSF Grant to Develop and Implement a New High School Course in Applied Mathematics
Kenneth Chelst, Ph.D., Wayne State University, IME Departmental Chairman
There is a growing trend toward requiring four years of high school mathematics, both in state school requirements and in university admissions. The State of Michigan, for example, is slowly phasing in a four-year math requirement for all students. North Carolina already requires a fourth year of mathematics (with an Algebra II prerequisite) for admission into any school in the University of North Carolina school system, and the state is rapidly phasing in a four-year standard mathematics requirement for all high school graduates.
The United States has a well-documented deficiency in mathematics education. That national deficiency leaves students performing poorly on multi-step problems and in interpreting results. In 2003, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assessed how prepared young adults across the globe were to solve problems they would encounter later in life. In particular, OECD was concerned with problems requiring students to think flexibly and creatively in unfamiliar situations, rather than merely requiring students to recognize and solve a routine problem using mathematics. The test was given to tens of thousands of students in forty countries. The United States ranked 29th out of 40. Multi-step problem solving and interpretation of results are the heart and soul of operations research techniques, and the development of those key skills will be built into the real-world contexts of our operations research problems.
Project
In
September 2007, the National Science Foundation awarded a five-year grant
for $3 million to a joint effort by faculty at North Carolina State University,
Wayne State University, and University of North Carolina-Charlotte. The project,
Mathematics Instruction using Decision Science and Engineering Tools (MINDSET),
will show students how to use mathematics to solve problems they encounter
in their daily lives. The curriculum to be developed during the project will
teach standard mathematics concepts using engineering and management decision-making
tools taken from Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. MINDSET has
two major goals: 1) enhance students' mathematical ability, particularly their
ability to formulate and solve multi-step problems and interpret results,
while simultaneously improving their attitudes toward mathematics, thereby
motivating them to further study mathematics, and 2) have the curriculum developed
by the project adopted in North Carolina and Michigan.
Wayne State faculty members Kenneth Chelst (IME) and Thomas Edwards (Education)
will lead the effort to develop the course and the textbook, while North Carolina
State faculty members Robert Young and Karen Norwood and University of North
Carolina-Charlotte faculty member David Royster will have primary responsibility
for high school teacher education and support services.
It will take two years to develop a new one-year high school curriculum and textbook in mathematics, using mathematics-based decision-making tools to teach standard content The draft course and textbook will be available for testing in at least five high schools in Michigan and North Carolina in fall 2009.
To get a head start on the project, Thomas Edwards and Kenneth Chelst recently delivered a four-day workshop for twenty-five high school teachers from southeastern Michigan.
The Detroit Public Schools will be among the first to implement the new curriculum and help improve it. Dr. Irene Nordé, Supervisor of Secondary Mathematics in DPS, will also serve on the MINDSET Advisory Board.
In the final year of the grant, a total of fifty high schools with over fifteen hundred students will participate in a multi-state, multi-school district assessment. An infrastructure will be developed to effectively train and support teachers who will teach the curriculum; a critical part of the grant involves the development of that infrastructure and demonstration that the infrastructure is sustainable.
The MINDSET project grew out of collaboration between Kenneth Chelst and Thomas Edwards. That collaboration has led to the publication by Key Curriculum Press of the supplementary high school mathematics text, Does This Line Ever Move? Everyday Applications of Operations Research.