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I forward the February newsletter from ICMI.<br>
I note that of the 11 "events of interest" in 5., two are in
Canada:<br>
An International Symposium on Mathematics and its Connections to the Arts
and Sciences held in <br>
Moncton in May, and the Bridges Banff - Mathematics, Music, Art,
Architecture, Culture meeting in July.<br>
best, <br>
Peter<br><br>
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:52:59 +0000<br>
From: J Carvalho e Silva <jaimecs@mat.uc.pt><br>
Subject: [ICMI-News] ICMI News 8: February 2009<br>
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Original-recipient: rfc822;peter.taylor@queensu.ca<br><br>
<br>
ICMI News 8: February 2009<br><br>
A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the ICMI-International Commission on
Mathematical Instruction<br>
Editor: Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Dep. Matematica, Universidade de Coimbra,
Portugal<br><br>
CONTENTS<br>
1. Editorial: Resources and technology throughout the history of
ICMI<br>
2. The ICME-12 International Programme Committee<br>
3. A new contract for the NISS series<br>
4. Special Issue on the History of ICMI published by IJHME<br>
5. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community<br>
6. Historical vignettes: Greenhill, the first vice-president of ICMI<br>
7. Subscribing to ICMI News<br><br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
1. Editorial: Resources and technology throughout the history of
ICMI<br><br>
Besides the ICMI studies which have been presented in a former issues of
the Newsletter, from time to time publications appear as milestones in
the history of ICMI.<br>
In the second half of 2008 two rich volumes have been published:<br>
- The proceedings of ICME10 (Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004),<br>
- The proceedings of the Symposium on the occasion of the 100th
anniversary of ICMI.<br><br>
They have been already mentioned in this Newsletter. The former in ICMI
News 5; the latter in ICMI News 6.<br><br>
As happens more and more often today, both volumes are accompanied by
rich websites, that are exceptional tools for researchers and can be
accessed free from everywhere. Yet, for my generation, the emotion of
flipping the pages of a paper book is still worthy.<br><br>
I shall focus this short note on one particular theme only, well
represented in both volumes: resources and technology in mathematics
education.<br>
In the proceedings of Symposium, one of the working groups was devoted to
this issue. In the historical reconstruction, what emerged clearly was
that the emphasis on active involvement of students in laboratory
activities was one of the leading forces towards the constitution of
ICMI. The first president of ICMI, Felix Klein, can be credited with
being a pioneer in proposing the use of technology in school. At the time
of Klein, 'ancient' technology were the sole available (e. g. mechanical
calculating machines and curve drawing devices, and, even, squared paper
to plot experimental data). Today it is more common to refer to
Information and Communication Technologies. In the working group,
however, both voices were represented, in nearly equal
relationship.<br><br>
In the proceedings of ICME10 (and obviously in the forthcoming ICMI Study
17 on Mathematics Education and Technology-Rethinking the Terrain) the
latter voice (ICT) plays the major or the sole role. In both cases what
appeared clearly is that no resource or technology, by itself, can make
students learn mathematics, as a cultural product of mankind, without the
irreplaceable guide of a well prepared teacher. As always, hence, the
professional education of teachers of mathematics comes in the
foreground.<br><br>
Main references:<br><br>
Niss. M. & Emborg E. (eds.), (2008), Proceedings of the 10th
International Congress on Mathematical Education, Roskilde (Dk):
IMFUFA.<br>
An electronic version is dowloadable from:
<a href="http://www.icme10.dk/proceedings/pages/side01main.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.icme10.dk/proceedings/pages/side01main.htm</a>.<br>
The printed version (together with a CDrom with all the regular lectures)
costs 50 euros (including shipment). The ordering form is available at
the same address.<br><br>
Menghini M., Furinghetti F., Giacardi L., Arzarello F. (eds.), (2008),
The First Century of the International Commission on Mathematical
Instruction (1908-2008): Reflecting and Shaping the World of Mathematics
Education, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.<br>
The book costs 60 euros (reduced price for ICMI people 40 euros,
including shipment). The ordering form is available at
<a href="http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/</a>.<br>
The rich website with the History of ICMI is at
<a href="http://www.icmihistory.unito.it/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.icmihistory.unito.it/</a>.<br><br>
Mariolina Bartolini Bussi, Member-at-large EC ICMI,
mariagiuseppina.bartolini@unimore.it<br><br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
2. The ICME-12 International Programme Committee<br><br>
The Executive Committee of ICMI is pleased to announce that it has now
completed the appointment of the International Programme Committee (IPC)
for ICME-12.<br><br>
The Committee is composed as follows:<br><br>
Michèle ARTIGUE (France), ex officio, President of ICMI<br>
Évelyne BARBIN (France)<br>
Morten BLOMHOEJ (Denmark)<br>
Gail BURRILL (USA),<br>
Sung Je CHO (Korea), Chair of the IPC<br>
Johann ENGELBRECHT (South Africa)<br>
Bernard R. HODGSON (Canada), ex officio, Secretary-General of
ICMI<br>
Gabriele KAISER (Germany)<br>
Mercy KAZIMA (Malawi)<br>
Petar KENDEROV (Bulgaria)<br>
Masataka KOYAMA (Japan)<br>
Oh Nam KWON (Korea)<br>
Frederick Koon-shing LEUNG (Hong Kong SAR)<br>
Hee-chan LEW (Korea)<br>
Shiqi LI (China)<br>
Cheryl PRAEGER (Australia)<br>
Marcela SANTILLÁN (México)<br>
Hyun Yong SHIN (Korea), Chair of the Local Organising
Committee<br>
Ravi SUBRAMANIAN (India)<br>
Yuriko YAMAMOTO BALDIN (Brasil)<br>
The ICME-12 IPC will have its first meeting on June 14-17 of this year.
Any comment or suggestion about the format of the programme of ICME-12 or
its content is most welcome and should be sent to the Chair of the IPC,
Sung Je Cho (sungjcho@snu.ac.kr), no later than May 15.<br><br>
The ICME-12 congress will be held in Seoul, Korea, on July 8-15,
2012.<br>
Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca<br><br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
3. A new contract for the NISS series<br><br>
The Executive Committee of ICMI is pleased to announce that it has
recently signed a new contract with Springer for the publication of the
ICMI Study volumes in the "New ICMI Study Series" (NISS). <br>
A major improvement of the new contract, which has been the object of
intense negotiations with Springer for a number of years, is that ICMI is
now entitled to post on its website a pre-publication open access version
of the Study volumes, three years after they have appeared as books in
the NISS series. This clause applies both to volumes already published in
the NISS series and to future books. We hope to see in a near
future some concrete outcome of this new clause on the ICMI
website.<br><br>
ICMI has been able to keep some major clauses of the previous contracts,
including the fact that the copyright on the Study volumes for any other
language than English belongs to ICMI --- the only restriction being that
an edition in another language should not appear until one year after the
publication of the original book. Members of the ICMI community
interested in preparing a translation of (parts of) any book in the NISS
series should contact me at their earliest convenience.<br><br>
Moreover the 60% discount for individual orders of the NISS volumes is
still valid --- see ICMI News 7 (December 2008) for instructions on how
to order the NISS volumes with the ICMI discount.<br><br>
Also some free copies of each book in the NISS series are made available
to ICMI for various purposes (including providing copies to the editors
and main authors of the books).<br><br>
Just as I had received for the ICMI archives, very recently, the final
copy of the new NISS contract duly signed by all parties, it was
announced that Marie M. Sheldon, Senior Editor for the Social Sciences
with Springer and in charge of the NISS series, was moving to another
position in the publication world. I wish to use this opportunity
to thank Marie for her superb collaboration over the years and to express
her my very best wishes in her new responsibilities.<br><br>
Information on the books published in the NISS series is available on the
Springer website, through the series homepage:<br>
<a href="http://www.springeronline.com/series/6351" eudora="autourl">
http://www.springeronline.com/series/6351<br><br>
</a>Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca<br><br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
4. Special Issue on the History of ICMI published by IJHME<br><br>
IJHME, the International Journal for the History of Mathematics
Education, published as its issue vol. 3 (2008), no. 2, a special issue
on the History of IMUK and ICMI. In March 2008, ICMI, the International
Commission on Mathematics Instruction, organized a Symposium to
commemorate the Centennial of the founding of IMUK, of this first body to
establish international cooperation in mathematics education, in Rome-the
very same site where that founding had occurred.<br>
In the wake of the Centennial, IJHME had already published several papers
about the reform movements around 1908 in an earlier issue-vol. 2, no. 2
(2007). In this new issue, those contributions to this Congress are
presented, which highlight its historical dimension in particular.<br>
In fact, the ICMI Centennial had two major aims: firstly, studying the
history of this first international body itself, and secondly to
investigate how key and perennial issues of mathematics education have
developed during the existence of ICMI as shaped and/or reflected by ICMI
activities. This was accomplished by plenary lectures, special talks, and
by the working groups, which were dedicated specifically to such key
issues. The Proceedings of the Centennial, which are published by now,
contain reports about the working groups by their co-chairs, and abridged
versions of the plenaries and special talks.<br>
Regarding the historical dimension, the special issue of IJHME publishes
three papers: the complete version of one of the plenary lectures, by
Gert Schubring, who gave the first thorough analysis of the history of
IMUK under the presidency of Felix Klein; the complete version of one of
the special talks, by Eileen Donoghue, who details D. E. Smith's role in
creating this institution; and the paper by Fulvia Furinghetti, whose
focus is on the development after the re-founding in 1952 as ICMI and the
role of international communication, be it by journals, or by other
international organizations.<br>
Among the perennial issues, a major concern has always been modernization
of syllabi and of teacher training, and this is represented in the issue
by three papers: Luciana Zuccheri and Verena Zudini study the approach,
implemented in the (then) Austrian region of Trieste, to introduce the
elements of the calculus in the upper grades of secondary schools, a key
issue of Felix Klein's reform agenda not implemented, however, in Italy.
Arlete de Jesus Brito's paper is devoted to the role of international
agencies in implementing the "modern mathematics" or the
"New Math" in a particularly industrialized region of Brazil.
And Kirstín Bjarnadottir gives a long-term view of reforms in Iceland,
which kept pace with the international developments.<br>
The transformation of mathematics education and its emergence as a
scientific discipline since the 1960s/70s is discussed by Rolf Biehler
and Andrea Peter-Koop. The use of teaching aids-in modern terms,
"the use of technology"-has been a primordial concern for all
reformers since the early twentieth century and is studied by Kenneth
Ruthven. The use of history of mathematics in its teaching is a
long-standing issue of reform initiatives, too, and Michael Fried
discusses here the status of this issue and its perspectives, especially
as promoted by international organizations like ICMI.<br>
The website of the journal is
<a href="http://www.comap.com/historyjournal/index.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.comap.com/historyjournal/index.html<br>
</a>and the special issue is to be found at:<br>
<u>
<a href="http://www.comap.com/historyjournal/journals/vol3no2.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.comap.com/historyjournal/journals/vol3no2.html<br>
</a></u>Gert Schubring, Bielefeld University, Germany,
gert.schubring@uni-bielefeld.de<br><br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
5. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community<br><br>
3rd International Symposium on Mathematics and its Connections to the
Arts and Sciences<br>
Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, 21st-23rd of May, 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.umoncton.ca/freimanv/macas3/index.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.umoncton.ca/freimanv/macas3/index.htm<br><br>
</a>The 3rd International Symposium on the History and Pedagogy of
Mathematics in China<br>
Beijing Normal University , Beijing, China, May 22-25, 2009<br>
Xichi Wang, College of Mathematics & Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal
University<br>
19 Xinjeikouwai St., Beijing, 100875., P. R. of China,
xiciwang@mail.bnu.edu.cn<br>
<a href="http://www.shuxueshi.cn/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.shuxueshi.cn<br><br>
</a>5th Asian Mathematical Conference<br>
Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 22 - 26, 2009<br>
<a href="http://math.usm.my/amc2009/" eudora="autourl">
http://math.usm.my/amc2009/<br><br>
</a>ICTMT-9 - 9th Int Conf on Technology in Mathematics Teaching<br>
Metz, France, July 6-9, 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.ictmt9.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ictmt9.org<br><br>
</a>PME33 - 33rd Annual Meeting of the International Group for the
Psychology of Mathematics Education<br>
Thessaloniki, Greece, July 19-24, 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.pme33.eu/" eudora="autourl">http://www.pme33.eu<br>
<br>
</a>Bridges Banff - Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture<br>
The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Canada, July 26-29, 2009<br>
<u><a href="http://bridgesmathart.org/bridges-2009/" eudora="autourl">
http://bridgesmathart.org/bridges-2009/<br><br>
</a></u>CIEAEM61 - Commission internationale pour l'étude et
l'amélioration de l'enseignement des mathématiques<br>
Université de MONTRÉAL, Montréal, Québec, Canada, July 26-31, 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.cieaem.net/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cieaem.net/<br><br>
</a>ICTMA 14 - 14th International Conference on the Teaching of
Mathematical Modelling and Applications<br>
University of Hamburg, Germany, July 27-31, 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.ictma14.de/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.ictma14.de/<br><br>
</a>SEMT '09 - 10th bi-annual conference on Elementary Mathematics
Teaching,<br>
"The development of mathematical understanding"<br>
Prague, August 23-28, 2009<br>
<a href="http://kmdm.pedf.cuni.cz/" eudora="autourl">
http://kmdm.pedf.cuni.cz<br><br>
</a>"Models in Developing Mathematics Education"<br>
The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project<br>
Dresden, Saxony, Germany, September 11-17, 2009<br>
<a href="mailto:arogerson@inetia.pl">alan@rogerson.pol.pl</a><br><br>
SRD'09 - Southern Right Delta'09<br>
7th Southern Hemisphere Conference on the Teaching<br>
and Learning of Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics<br>
Gordons Bay, South Africa, 29 November-4 December 2009<br>
<a href="http://www.delta2009.co.za/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.delta2009.co.za<br><br>
</a>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
6. Historical vignettes: Greenhill, the first vice-president of
ICMI<br><br>
Alfred George Greenhill (1847-1927) was born in London on 29 November
1847. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge in 1866, graduating as
second wrangler in 1870. He taught briefly at the Royal Indian
Engineering College at Cowper's Hill, before returning to Cambridge in
1873 as a fellow and lecturer at Emmanuel College. Finally in 1876, he
was appointed professor of mathematics at the Artillery College in
Woolwich, where he stayed for over thirty years.<br>
The majority of Greenhill's research was concerned with elliptic
functions, or, more specifically, their applications in applied
mathematics. To this end, he investigated the uses of elliptic functions
in dynamics, hydrodynamics, electrostatics and elasticity theory, using
them to treat problems such as the motion of a symmetrical top, various
kinds of fluid motion, and the distortion of a circular wire under
pressure.<br>
In the theory of elasticity, Greenhill's most important work was probably
a paper from 1883 concerning the maximum length possible for an upright
cylinder before it is bent under its own weight. Once he had solved the
problem, Greenhill applied it to the computation of the greatest height
to which a tree can grow, collecting data on the heights of particular
trees to evaluate his result.<br>
In his later years, Greenhill's style of applied mathematics became
increasingly unfashionable when compared to the new rigorous approach to
pure mathematics, as practiced by such early 20th-century British
mathematicians as Hardy and Littlewood, which he disparagingly referred
to as "the morbid pathology of the mathematical function". His
old-fashioned views were accentuated by such a high admiration of
Newton's Principia, that, he said, "I should prefer to see the whole
three books prescribed in the Cambridge course, to be studied in the
original Latin". However, it is thought that "in making such
assertions he was not more than half serious".<br>
But despite his unconventionality, Greenhill was apparently a successful
and highly respected teacher. Indeed, as one of his former students
reports, "Greenhill was loved by his old pupils to a degree which
few Professors can have enjoyed".<br>
Throughout his long scientific career, Greenhill received many honours.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a member of the London
Mathematical Society, a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences
and an honorary foreign member of the Academia dei Lincei. Finally, when
he retired from his Woolwich professorship in 1908, he was knighted by
King Edward VII.<br>
In his retirement Greenhill devoted his mathematical activities more
explicitly to matters concerning pedagogy. At the 1908 International
Congress of Mathematicians in Rome, he was appointed one of the three
members of the founding committee of ICMI, the other two being Felix
Klein and Henri Fehr. He served as vice-president of the Commission until
1920.<br>
He continued to work on mathematics during his retirement, but his health
gradually declined throughout the 1920s, and he died on 10 February
1927.<br>
References<br>
A. E. H. Love, George Greenhill, Journal of the London Mathematical
Society, 3, 1928, 27-32.<br>
J. W. Nicholson, George Greenhill, The Mathematical Gazette, 14, 1928-29,
417-420.<br>
Adrian Rice, Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, USA, arice4@rmc.edu<br>
------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
7. SUBSCRIBING TO ICMI News<br><br>
There are two ways of subscribing to ICMI News:<br><br>
1. Click on
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http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/Mailinglist</a> with a Web browser<br>
and go to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to ICMI News
online.<br><br>
2. Send an e-mail to icmi-news-request@mathunion.org with the
Subject-line:<br>
Subject: subscribe<br><br>
In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription so<br>
that misuse will be minimized. ICMI will not use the list of ICMI
News<br>
addresses for any purpose other than sending ICMI News, and will not<br>
make it available to others.<br><br>
Previous issues can be seen at:<br>
<a href="http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news" eudora="autourl">
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Peter Taylor<br>
Professor<br>
Dept Math&Stats<br>
Queen's University<br>
Kingston ON K7L 3N6<br>
613 533-2434<br>
<a href="http://www.mast.queensu.ca/~peter/" eudora="autourl">
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