HIRiSE Team at NCTM 2018 Research and Annual Conference

All members of the HIRiSE team were able to attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Conference in Washington D.C. this April. NCTM has two back to back conferences. The NCTM Research Conference was held April 23 – 25, 2018 and the NCTM Annual Conference followed on April 25 – 28, 2018. The Research conference gives attendees a chance to network with fellow mathematics educators as well as attend sessions addressing current research in the field of mathematics education. The Annual meeting gives mathematics educators a chance to engage in professional development, network with others around the country, and celebrate another year of educating students in mathematics.

From left to right HIRiSE members Heather Barker, Hollylynne Lee, Asli Mutlu, Gemma Mojica, Emily Elrod, Taylor Harrison and Ruijie He enjoying dinner together.

HIRiSE members celebrating with other NCSU PhD students.

Members of the HIRiSE team presented at both the Research and Annual conferences. Below is a summary of the presentations presented by HIRiSE members (bolded below).

• Factors that influence high school mathematics teachers’ uses of technology. This research presentation was led by Allison McCulloch (UNC Charlotte) with co-speakers Taylor Harrison (NCSU), Karen Hollebrands (NCSU), Hollylynne Lee (NCSU) and Asli Mutlu (NCSU). To understand the decisions teachers make when incorporating technology into their mathematics lessons the research team interviewed 21 secondary mathematics teachers. Findings related to why teachers say they use technology, what technologies they use, and factors they consider in choosing technologies were presented. (NCTM Research Conference)
• Investigating real-world data with online visualization tools: Building future data scientists. This technology focused session was led by Hollylynne Lee, Gemma Mojica (NCSU), and Christina Azmy (NCSU). The focus of this session was to show teachers how they can make the teaching of statistics and probability topics interesting and engaging for students by using real world investigations and tackling “larger and messier” data sets. Participants brought their own laptops and tablets to use the free online dynamic statistics tool CODAP during the session to see how easy it can be to get students hooked in to being data scientists. (NCTM Annual Conference)
• Teaching mathematics with technology: Activities and ideas for your classroom. This technology focused session was led by Karen Hollebrands, Gemma Mojica, and Brooke Kott (NCSU). In this presentation, technology-based mathematical tasks were presented that utilize freely accessible tools (e.g., Desmos, GeoGebra). Different ways teachers can evaluate technology-based mathematical tasks were shared, and strategies for implementing tasks to support students’ learning were discussed. (NCTM Annual Conference)

Hollylynne Lee, Gemma Mojica, and Christina Azmy having some fun after their presentation.

Attending conferences is always a great way for us to stay current on research and teaching practices in the field of mathematics education. Being able to present at conferences such as this one also give us a valuable opportunity to continue to contribute to the field of statistics education.