Fall 2004

Contents:

What did you do on your summer vacation

I spent one week at Indiana University and another week at Brigham Young University meeting with three colleagues – we have an ongoing collaboration and enjoy our “mini-conferences” over the summer to focus on our research.
-Walter Parry

I spent the summer on a sort of "busman's holiday." After mulling over several new ideas about revamping a few of my courses, I decided to try to have the new ideas ready to use for the fall term. So it became a ten-week project over the summer to do the reworking and getting the new set-ups and their materials ready by September 1. So far [mid-October], the jury (i.e., my students) is still out, but the defendant (me) is hoping that all the effort involved turns out to have been worth it!
-John Ginther

I spent part of the summer visiting relatives in New Smyrna Beach, Florida – just south of Daytona Beach. We visited between the hurricanes!
-Paul Howard

I spent a week in Pensacola Florida with my family at the national dance competition. After an intense year of dance competitions for both my daughter and son, it was nice to combine a vacation with our last competition for the year. We continue to be exceedingly proud of our children's accomplishments.
-David Folk

I attended MathFest, the summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), in Providence, RI August 12-14.
-Bette Warren

I became a grandma!
-Jill Nugent

 

 

 

 

I went to South Africa this summer for two weeks. South Africa was beautiful. The food was great, the land was magnificent, and the people were friendly! I truly enjoyed my two weeks in South Africa, I recommend anyone that gets the opportunity to visit this country to do so! I sure hope I can go again.
-Mary Jo St Louis
In June, I went to the Yucatan Peninsula for a one-week workshop on Mayan math. We measured rooms in the Mayan Ruins. Most interestingly, we measured the doors and found that for many the ratio of the length to width was either the golden ratio, phi, or the square root of a small number (2,3,4,5,6). I learned a lot that I can use in my history of math class.
-Tim Carrol
I vacationed with my family for 3 weeks in Alaska. We saw many kinds of animals--a grizzly bear and cubs fishing for salmon; a school of dolphins that surrounded our boat--as well as some magnificent scenery. It was an amazing trip.
-Chris Gardiner
I committed to building a house in Ypsilanti Township and we are watching it take shape. We should be able to move in next spring.
-Bette Warren

We worked on our house – replaced the deck and front porch and remodeled our bathroom. In November, I’m going to my mother’s retirement party. She’s 72 years old and has taught microbiology and genetics for 38 years!
-Barbara Leapard

I had a leisure time working on my next book while visiting Romania.
-Ovidiu Calin

I adopted Emma! Scamp and Emma are getting along great.
-Joan Jones