| |
|
|
| . |
| Website Launch, Math Weblog
Grand Opening |
This website and blog will explore the issues involving
mathematics as it is taught, can be taught, and should be
taught. By examining the interface and interaction between the
wonderful world of mathematics and real live human beings -
perhaps we can discover something worthwhile together. |
| |
| Scope |
| From everyday
mathematics to advanced mathematics, from the history of
mathematics to applied mathematics, to online courseware, no
topic is verboten. Though the focus often returns to education
(and who isn't learning new things about math and statistics
on almost a daily basis, willingly or not) the anecdotes from
30 years on the front lines will keep us all entertained. |
| |
| Jeff's Math Publications |
| Jeff has a number of
publications that teach math from a different viewpoint...
The Calculus
An Opinion
|
| |
| Jeff's Other Publications |
| A number of novels have been
written by Jeff |
|
|
| Jess Martin
retires after teaching mathematics for 30 years at The
University of New Mexico. He is offered the job of meeting
airplanes bringing marijuana into the U.S. and this leads to
Jess ending up with of lot of cocaine and money. The original
owners chase Jess to get it back and there is an eventual
showdown.
Offered by
Amazon,
Abebooks,
AllBookStores and other fine booksellers. |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mathematics Questions
| Many questions
will be discussed and ruminated over - from everyday issues to
... well, you name it. |
|
|
 |
Does the
square root of two really exist? And what does it mean
that we teach our students that it does? |
| |
|
|
|
How does the grant-driven
higher education system impact the stated goal of
educating our students? How has the system fared these
last two decades of increasing focus on research and
grants over teaching? |
| |
|
|
|
And other questions as they
may arise |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
Favorite Publications |
|
Favorite math and teaching and
whatever other kinds of books will be listed here |
| |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
Professor Jeff Davis
|
From the bio from the novel "The Golden Years
of Jess Martin":
Jeff Davis was born on the 22nd of
June, 1935, at the age of 40. Being an Army brat he attended
numerous primary and secondary schools before graduating from
Washington and Lee High School in Arlington, VA. His next stop
in the educational process was Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute where he picked up a wife, his first son, a
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master's
Degree in Mathematics. From RPI he went to Washington
University in St. Louis. He left St. Louis with a daughter,
another son and a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He then went to The
University of California at Berkeley as an Instructor for two
exciting years, 1963 and 1964. The next thirty years were
spent at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque as a
member of The Department of Mathematics and Statistics. This
thirty years started with sex, drugs and rock and roll and
ended with another daughter who is now in High School. The
middle of this thirty years he occupied himself building
flattrack racing motorcycles, vain attempts at mastering the
guitar and banjo, writing, producing and directing video plays
for the local Community Cable Channel and writing books on
calculus, crime, Jesus and children's adventures that no
publisher saw fit to accept. The calculus book was far enough
out of the mainstream that he understood why the publishing
community passed it by. On the other hand, he thinks it is a
great calculus book. The seemingly pointless activity was all
used in the pursuit of his first love...teaching. His goal was
to find a way to put the mathematics that was in his head into
the heads of his students. I questioned how, say, writing
plays was pertinent to the teaching mathematics but I will not
recite his hours of response here. He has had four marriages
and as many divorces. The three children of his first marriage
all have jobs and the daughter of his forth marriage is a
sweetheart and has a lead in a school play. He now lives alone
in a one room cabin in the Datil Mountains of New Mexico. When
told that he lives in the 'middle of nowhere' he replies, "No.
I live in heaven on earth." |
| |
|
|
