Mathematics professors from BMCC and New York City Public School 34 math teachers and educators under the BMCC Fulbright-Hays Grants spent four weeks in China this Summer 2004.
During the four weeks in China, the Fulbright participants visited more than twenty historical sights, museums, libraries, and famous mathematicians’ special collections. They had the privilege and honor to meet with two of the most distinguished scholars of Chinese mathematics history alive today, Professors Shen Kangshen, primary author of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematics Art, and Professor Li Di author/co-author of over fifty books on the history of Chinese Mathematics.
The Fulbright participants will share their impressive and unforgettable experience with the audience. The presenters will go into detail on the classroom observations they made in Chinese schools and their dialogs with Chinese teachers. Their presentation will focus on two major areas: History of Chinese Mathematics and Mathematics Education in China
Professor Annie Han will give a brief introduction on the BMCC Fulbright project.
Professor Claire Wladis will use today’s modern technology & computer animation to demonstrate the ancient Traditional Chinese Methods of Proofs.
The Principal of New York City Public School 34, Joyce Stallings-Harte, Assistant Principal Rosemarie Gonzalez , and math teacher Dong Bush will give a presentation on class observations.
Professor Sandra Boer’s will present “A Photojournalistic Survey of BMCC’s Fulbright Scholars Academic Odyssey in China”.
Annie Han received her Doctoral degree in Mathematics Education with emphasis in Bilingual/Multicultural Education from Teachers College , Columbia University. In the Spring 1998 she joined BMCC’s mathematics department. Currently, Dr. Annie Yi Han is an associate professor of mathematics at BMCC/CUNY. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University . She has been an Empire State Fellow (1988-1989), a Title VII Fellow (1991-1994) and a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays grant . (2003). This most recent Fulbright-Hays grant supported 12 mathematics professors and NYC public school math educators to study abroad for 4 weeks.
Dr. Han’s research interests are Mathematics and Language; mathematics teacher education; history of mathematics and mathematics education; and, the use of technology in the mathematics classroom.
Dr. Han is the founder and director of the BlueSky Asian-American Research Foundation. She has served as a volunteer principal for the BlueSky Chinese School for these past 7 years.
Claire Wladis is Professor of Mathematics at Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY. Prof. Wladis works in both mathematics and education research. Her mathematics research is in geometric group theory, where she uses diagrams or other visual representations of groups to look for fundamental properties or interesting behavior in certain classes of groups (the Thompson groups specificallly). Her education research is focused on issues of student success and retention, particularly in mathematics, particularly in online courses, remedial courses, and STEM gateway mathematics courses such as intermediate algebra. She has been teaching online for almost a decade, and is very interested in exploring how technology and collaborative learning can be used to enhance student conceptual understanding in abstract and applied mathematics.
