Keeping members of the OR/MS community informed of innovation in education
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As many of us complete yet another academic year and commence the summer season, I'm writing to you to ask for your help in establishing new ways of meeting the needs and interests of all members of INFORM-ED. As someone who has taught operations research/management science to undergraduate students at a predominantly liberal arts institution, I'm quite sensitive to the notion that not all of us educate the same types of students within the same kinds of institutions. In fact, many of us focus on teaching operations research to students, whether they are undergraduate or graduate students, in professional engineering programs. Of course, other members of INFORM-ED focus on teaching management science to students enrolled in business administration degree programs. And then there are those members of our organization, like me, who educate students in a liberal arts setting, professional employees in a corporate setting, or students within educational institutions that support the armed forces or the public sector. Regardless of whom you teach and where you perform your teaching, this organization should provide programs and services to support your professional development and ultimately serve to enhance the learning experiences of your students. Please know that my fellow officers and I are committed to revising existing programs or establishing new ones to address the particular interests of our diverse membership. I have heard from a number of longstanding INFORM-ED members whom I respect that we may have historically focused too much of our programming on the needs of those who educate students in schools of business administration. While we certainly want to continue to provide outstanding pedagogical and other forms of support to business school faculty members, we need to ensure that we put forth conference sessions, summer programs, and other initiatives that help those of you who educate other kinds of students. So, please share with us your suggestions for enhancing our offerings 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 zappe@bucknell.edu or at my Bucknell office (570-577-3293). 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! In closing, my fellow officers and I look forward to hearing from you if you have suggestions for future editions of this newsletter. Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude to Matt Drake for his efforts to produce this newsletter. Please feel welcome to submit articles or announcements to Matt for inclusion in the next edition of the newsletter. 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 (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu)
Case Competition Chair:
Tasha
Inniss (tinniss@spelman.edu)
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Seventh
Annual INFORMS Case Competition
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INFORMS is pleased to announce its Seventh Annual Peer-Reviewed Case Competition. This competition 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 are due by August 14, 2006. All cases will be reviewed in August and September of 2006 by a panel of judges familiar with the case method. Up to four finalists will be selected and notified by the Chair of the Case Competition by the beginning of October 2006. Finalists will give thirty-minute presentations of their entries at a special open session of the 2006 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. The panel of judges will select the winning entry from these finalists based on these presentations. The winner will be announced at the INFORM-ED Business meeting at the 2006 INFORMS Conference. Finalists must present their cases at the Fall 2006 INFORMS Meeting in Pittsburgh to be eligible to win. Guidelines
for submitted cases are: A
complete submission package will consist of the following: Prizes
include: For more information, please contact Tasha R. Inniss at TInniss@spelman.edu. |
Since our last newsletter some exciting changes and improvements in the publications
area have occurred. Everyone must go out and take a look at the newly redesigned
INFORM-ED website. Pinar Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu)
has done an outstanding job of redesigning and updating the website. All our
thanks to Pinar.
In addition, the Winter edition of the INFORM-ED newsletter was wonderful and out on time. Thanks to Matt Drake (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu) for his work.
Joel Sokol (jsokol@isye.gatech.edu) is always looking for submission to the Education column in OR/MS Today. Please contact Joel if you have a piece you would like to submit.
If you would like to contribute to the development of these INFORM-ED publications in some way, please do not hesitate to contact these individuals or myself. We welcome your ideas and involvement!
Finally,
in another very important area to INFORM-ED is our annual Case Competition.
Tasha Inniss (TInniss@spelman.edu)
is the contact person and organizer of the INFORM-ED case competition. I am
sure we will have a very successful round of cases at the Fall 2006 meeting
in Pittsburgh. Please email Tasha for details regarding submissions.
Educational games are an effective way to engage students in Management Science
and Operations Research (MS/OR) topics. Games can also be useful for illustrating
complex ideas not easily taught through lectures. Perhaps the most famous
example is the use of the "Beer Game" to demonstrate the bullwhip
effect in supply chains.
The goal of this special issue is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas
concerning the use of games in teaching MS/OR. In particular, papers should
fall into one of four categories: i) new educational games that have been
developed, ii) novel implementation of or experience with existing games,
iii) assessment of the effectiveness of the use of games, or iv) comparative
assessment of two or more different games that have a similar purpose. For
the first two categories, the paper should provide sufficient detail, including
required materials, the length of game, and teaching notes, to allow it to
be used by interested readers.
Paul Griffin
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0205, USA
pgriffin@isye.gatech.edu
404-894-2431
INFORM-ED @ INFORMS 2006, Pittsburgh - Jill Hardin
We have a very exciting cluster planned for this year's annual meeting in Pittsburgh. Our track consists of fifteen sessions, and we are co-sponsoring four additional sessions in other sponsored tracks. We have made a concerted effort to provide a well-rounded group of sessions with something of interest to a broad group of educators-whether in schools of business, engineering, or liberal arts. Some of the highlights include
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 Pittsburgh!
All
the best,
Jill Hardin
VP/Programs
1st ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education - Jim Cochran
An exciting new initiative - The 1st ALIO/INFORMS Workshop on OR Education - will take place on November 27 - 28, 2006, in conjunction with the 2006 Latin-Ibero-American Conference on Operations Research (XIII CLAIO - http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/eventos/claio06/eng/) in Montevideo, Uruguay. This workshop is a joint education-oriented initiative of the Latin American Ibero Association on Operations Research (ALIO - http://www.dc.uba.ar/alio/index-en.htm) and INFORM-ED (the Education Forum of INFORMS - http://education.forum.informs.org/).
The workshop (http://www.fing.edu.uy/inco/eventos/claio06/WED2006/) will be comprised of demonstrations and presentations on effective methods for quantitative education that are organized and given by members of ALIO affiliated organizations and INFORMS. Featured presenters will include:
I will also give an education-oriented plenary ("Confessions of an Optimistic Cynic - Using Active Learning to Increase Comprehension and Retention in the Quantitative Classroom"). For more information contact one of the organizers:
We
greatly appreciate the support provided by IFORS, ALIO, and INFORMS to help
us organize this exiting opportunity to learn and share across cultures, and
we hope to see many of you at the XIII CLAIO! INFORM-ED has held initial discussions
with other OR organizations and federations around the world about similar
initiatives and hopes to jointly organize a similar event in 2007.
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High School OR Update - Ken Chelst
High
School OR - Dramatic New Developments in North Carolina and Georgia
Key Curriculum Press' publication of Does This Line Ever Move? Everyday Applications of Operations Research, a book version of ten high school OR activities, has dramatically raised the profile of OR's potential role in high school mathematics curriculum. This book was designed as a collection of supplementary activities that teachers could use on an ad hoc basis, not as a stand alone course. The project, however, is now moving into a more exciting phase, the development of a full year's high school course in operations research driven by demand from school leaders in mathematics in North Carolina, Georgia and Colorado. Wayne State University, North Carolina State University and Georgia Tech are partnering to refine and implement OR course material in local area high schools in several states.
North
Carolina
Last summer, I was invited to present several activities to 140 chairs of
high school math departments in North Carolina. These represented forty percent
of the state's total. At that time we discovered that North Carolina is leading
the nation with a requirement that all students entering the state university
system in Fall 2006 must have four years of mathematics. The fourth year must
have algebra II as a prerequisite. Out of the meeting came strong interest
for an OR course that would fill this need. As a follow-up, Professor Bob
Young of North Carolina State University's IE department took the lead in
building bridges with state and local leaders in math education. As a first
step this summer, we will deliver a four-day workshop to twenty teachers focusing
on the deterministic activities that we anticipate will form the basis for
the first semester of a high school OR course. Our goal is to have a full
year's course available for formal testing as early as Fall 2008.
Developments
in Georgia
Dave Goldsman of IE at Georgia Tech has been working with CEISMC (Center for
Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing) to bring the concepts
of OR to the Atlanta school system and other school districts. Because of
their immediate priorities, Dave organized a workshop focused on bringing
OR down to junior high school when students are first being introduced to
algebra. As a result the local math leadership is convinced that there is
even a role for OR into junior high math. An important complementary effect
was strong interest in participating in the development, testing and rollout
of more formal OR curriculum materials for high schools in Atlanta and surrounding
counties. Georgia Tech will also host a four day workshop this summer similar
to that scheduled in North Carolina.
Moral
of the story: One local entrepreneurial faculty member with drive and passion
can find the right levers in his or her locale or state to bring the High
School OR project to the attention of key individuals. We have a great story
tell: OR can fill a major need to motivate students to improve their algebraic
and other math skills through real-world high school relevant examples. We
are reaching a critical mass of interest. Our team's next step is to seek
a major multi-year NSF grant to support development and formal testing of
the material as we move forward.
Kenneth Chelst, Chair of IME at Wayne State University
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INFORM-ED Website - Pinar Kaymaz
The INFORM-ED website has been redesigned!
INFORM-ED Web is an extremely important tool for OR/MS education for the sources it includes. It is also an important means for publicizing teaching and education related events and meetings. It gets between 110 and 190 visits monthly according to past year's statistics. It is essential that the page is up-to-date and maintained regularly.
With
the new committee members of the INFORM-ED, our purpose is to provide the
members of INFORMS with an effective and more attractive website. The new
website is now available on the web, and with its new layout, it offers a
more convenient way to locate information through the pages of INFORM-ED Web.
Go take a look at
http://education.forum.informs.org/
to check out the new links.
Please contact me if you have any additions, corrections, and/or comments
regarding the new website or items to post to the website.
Pinar
Kaymaz (kaymapi@auburn.edu)
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Every newsletter, we will recognize recent recipients of teaching awards. If you, or anyone you know, have received a teaching award, please let me know at mdrake@isye.gatech.edu. Let's tout our achievements! In this newsletter we are pleased to recognize...
John
Kros, East Carolina University
Winner of the 2006 College of Business Commerce Club Teaching Excellence Award
at East Carolina
The award is given to one business faculty member each year who has shown outstanding service and instruction in the classroom. ECU's College of Business is AACSB accredited, has 95 faculty in five departments with approximately 500 undergraduate majors, and supports MBA and MSA graduate programs.
Congratulations, John!
Have a great summer!
Until the fall...
Matt (mdrake@isye.gatech.edu)