By Jason Douma and Benjamin Galluzzo
In July 2018, the SIAM Conference on Applied Mathematics Education (ED18) hosted the official launch of a new mathematics community. The Math Modeling Hub (MMHub), a joint venture of SIAM, the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), is a website designed to support the growing community of math modeling educators across all educational levels. The site is being designed to serve as a nexus of resources and information for people seeking to incorporate meaningful mathematical modeling experiences in their teaching. By “living” on the QUBES platform, the MMHub is taking advantage of an NSF-funded framework created for sharing resources and engaging in collaboration.
As a community of practitioners, the MMHub serves as a gathering place for a network of colleagues eager to share ideas, support professional development, and advance opportunities for students at all levels to engage in rich modeling experiences. Members of the MMHub may participate in forums for discussion and crowdsourcing of new ideas, mentoring networks, and project spaces where they may collaborate on creating, revising, sharing, and testing modeling projects and lessons.
Features of the Math Modeling Hub:
- A repository of K-16 lessons and resources about math modeling
- A network of colleagues eager to share ideas, support professional development, and advance opportunities for students at all levels to engage in rich modeling experiences
- A project space where educators can collaborate on creating, revising, publishing, and testing modeling lessons and research projects
- Forums for discussion among groups and collaborators
Everyone is welcome to join the MMHub, regardless of their level of experience in mathematical modeling or math modeling education. Membership in the community can be accessed here, and is open to anyone who has created a free account at QUBES. This new site—currently in its nascent beta testing phase—will grow as users join the community and share their questions, ideas, and resources. Please consider joining today and contact Ben Galluzzo with any questions!
Jason Douma is Assistant Vice President for Institutional Research and a professor of mathematics at the University of Sioux Falls. Benjamin Galluzzo is an associate professor of mathematics at Clarkson University.