Table of Contents
MEETING DATES FOR 2023-2024
THURSDAY, September 7, 2023
Facilitator: Janica Edmonds
Session Title: Problem-Solving Competition
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2023
Facilitator: Kourtney Peters
Session Title: Base Counting and Modular Arithmetic Games
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2023
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: Hyperbinary Numbers
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024
Facilitator: Dr. Harold Brooks, Senior Scientist, Forecast Research and Development Division, National Severe Storms Laboratory
Session Title: Different Approaches to Solving Problems
THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2024
Facilitator: Amy Schachle, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: Stable Matching
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2024
Facilitator: Dr. Richard Redner, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: What’s Knot to Love?
MEETING DATES FOR 2019-2020
THURSDAY, September 9, 2019
Facilitator: Melissa Stirling
Session Title: Clubs, Competition & Circles
Attendance: 35
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Dinner catered by Mazzio’s
Handouts or Material Covered:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
Facilitator: Janica Edmonds, The University of Tulsa
Sponsor(s): Tulsa Engineering Foundation (TEF), The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Dinner donated by Olive Garden
Handouts or Material Covered:
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019
Facilitator: Amy Schachle, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: Farrior-style Bingo
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered:
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020
Facilitator: Susan Peyton, Jason Schrepel
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department. >
MEETING DATES FOR 2018-2019
THURSDAY, September 6, 2018
Facilitator: Edmund Harriss, Mathematics Professor at the University of Arkansas
Session Title: Do Shapes Fill Space?
Attendance: 23 attendees present at the meeting.
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Dinner catered by Panera
Handouts or Material Covered:
Abstract: Can you make a collection of shapes cover the floor of a room, or not? What if the shapes are quite complicated?
Short Bio: Edmund Harriss is a Mathematician, Teacher, Artist and Maker at the University of Arkansas. His work runs from the mathematics of discrete geometry through robot control to mathematical art, including two coloring books of mathematical images, and mathematical toys.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2018
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams
Session Title:“It’s Not Lock Boxes, but Thinking Outside the Box”
Attendance: 23 attendees present at the meeting
Sponsor(s): Tulsa Engineering Foundation (TEF), The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Dinner catered by Elote with a 25% discount
Handouts or Material Covered:
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2018
Facilitator: Donna Farrior
Session Title: “Win a Thousand Bucks”
Attendance: 28 attendees present at the meeting
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department. Dinner catered by Mazzio’s.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019
Facilitator: Bill Coberly
Session Title: Fibonacci and Exploding Roman Numerals
Attendance: 17 attendees present at the meeting
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Dinner donated by Olive Garden.
Handouts or Material Covered:
“Interleaved exploding Dots And the Roman Numerals” by Kiran Ananthpur Bacche
THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2019
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams
Session Title: Mondrian Art Puzzles
Attendance: 24 attendees present at the meeting
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Meal donated by RibCrib
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
Facilitator: Roger Howe
Session Title: Algebra Word Problems
Attendance: 30 attendees present at the meeting
Sponsor(s): Tulsa Engineering Foundation, The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Meal catered by Panera Bread
Short Bio for Roger Howe:
Roger Howe taught and did mathematics research at Yale University for over 40 years, until his retirement in 2016. He is now the William Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics from Yale. Upon retirement from Yale, he accepted the position of Curtis D. Roberts Professor of Mathematics Education in the College of Education at Texas A&M University.
Dr. Howe served on a multitude of committees studying mathematics education, including several that produced major reports on mathematics education since 2000. He has reviewed texts and instructional materials for several publishers and curriculum developers. He served on the Committee of Education for the American Mathematical Society, the Steering Committee for the Park City/IAS Mathematics Institute, the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (2006 – 2016), and on the Executive Committee of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction (ICMI) (2010-2016). In 1997-98, Dr. Howe served as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and received their Award for Distinguished Public Service in 2006.
Dr. Howe’s mathematical research investigates symmetry and its applications. His work in mathematics education is directed towards clarifying the conceptual development of mathematical ideas through the K-12 curriculum. He has focused especially on place value, the role of word problems, and productive
MEETING DATES FOR 2017-2018
THURSDAY, September 7, 2017
Facilitators: Donna Farrior
Session Title: “Uber Math”
Attendance: 32 Attendeess
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2017
Facilitator: Dave Auckly
Session Title: Triangle Groups (link to pictures taken during the session)
ABSTRACT – There are many cool things one can do with triangles, ranging from mathematically-inspired artistic constructions, to surprising relations between paths and sequences of letters with symmetry and rigid motion. We will discuss some of these demonstrating tasks suitable for students in all grades K – 12.
Attendance: 28 Attendees
Sponsor(s): Tulsa Engineering Foundation (TEF), The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered: Smaller Triangle, Mirror Rooms and Wallpaper
BIO: Dave Auckly earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and then held a postdoctoral position at UT Austin followed by an NSF postdoc at UC Berkeley. He then moved to Kansas State University before taking the Associate Director position at MSRI from 2009 – 2012. His research interests cover a broad range of geometry/topology and overlap with PDE, mathematical physics and algebraic geometry.He has been very involved in many special educational programs. For example, he helped incorporate mathematics into a residential college at the University of Michigan, and created a unique `Brainstorming and Barnstorming’ program and a center for the integration of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral research at KSU. He organizes the upper level Math Circle at K-State, and is co-founder and executive director of the Navajo Nation Math Circle. He lights up like the Vegas strip when he talks about mathematics. Dave has directed around 30 undergraduate and graduate level research projects and he has been recognized with the Lester R. Ford Award from the Mathematical Association of America, and several teaching awards.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2017
Facilitator: Marilyn Howard
Session Title: Magic, Latin, and Sudoku Squares
Attendance: 33 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department, catered by Elote.
Handouts or Material Covered: Magic Matrix and Magic squares problems , 7×7 Latin Square template, Latin Squares in Experimental Design, Sudoku-a draft by Fleron, et al. 2015, Mystical Magic Squares – NCTM Math Teaching in the Middle School.
THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams
Session Title: The Perfect Shuffle
Attendance: 31 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
Facilitator: Marilyn Howard
Session Title: Spot It!
Attendance: 18 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
MEETING DATES FOR 2016-2017
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016
Facilitators: Joshua Smith
Session Title: “Games Night”
Attendance: 40 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered: What Do I Do On My Turn Again – Best Family Holiday Board Games
List of games brought to meeting:
Tsuro
Love Letter
Ticket to Ride
Machi Koro
Forbidden Island
Forbidden Desert
Pirate Den
Dead Drop
King of Tokyo
Codenames (no demo)
Joshua Smith is a board game enthusiast and contributing writer for the Tulsa metro-based website Indiecardboard.com. He was introduced to board gaming culture nearly five years ago and has been involved in reviewing board games for three years. His writing and speaking engagements center around the benefits of board game playing in a digital culture.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016
Facilitator: Marilyn Howard, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: Count Me In
Attendance: 38 Attendees
Sponsor(s): Tulsa Engineering Foundation (TEF), The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered: Count Me In Probelm Set
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016
Facilitator: Donna Farrior and Kimberly Adams
Session Title: “Partner Puzzles with Pizzazz”
Attendance: 28 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered: Partner Puzzle
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2017
Facilitator: Tatiana Shubin, San Jose State University and San Jose MTC
Session Title: Navajo Math Circle (link to the trailer)
Attendance: 200 at Circle Cinema
Sponsor(s): Circle Cinema, The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Free Screening:
“Navajo Math Circles” – Circle Cinema – Monday, February 6, 2017 | 6:30 p.m.
Co-sponsored by Circle Cinema, Tulsa Math Girls’ Circle and Tulsa Math Teacher’s Circle
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017
Facilitator: Rich Redner, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: “Can you Kenken?”
Attendance: 29 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
Handouts or Material Covered: “Can you KenKen?” – complete
Bio: Rich Redner earned a bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Guilford College in 1974. He was awarded a master’s in 1976 and a Ph.D. degree in 1977, both from the University of Houston. After completing his degree, Rich Redner spent two years at the Johnson Space Center as a National Research Council Associate performing research in pattern recognition applied to remote sensing.
Dr. Redner has been at The University of Tulsa since 1980 and is currently Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. He notes that the job of Associate Dean is a great job. He gets to admit master’s and doctoral students and graduate them. He also gets to award research funding and with teaching and research assistantships. The assistantships help fund their graduate degrees and give them experience in their field.
He enjoys reading science fiction, fantasy and a good vampire story from time to time. He fought his first judo match at the age of 35 and played judo for 15 years. He retired with the rank of Yondan, which is a fourth degree black belt. Now he enjoys walking and has a daily goal of walking 10,000 steps a day. He lives with his wife of 45 years in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams
Session Title: “Breakout Boxes”
Attendance: 30 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department.
MEETING DATES FOR 2015-2016
September 3, 2015
Facilitator: Janica Edmonds, The University of Tulsa
Session Title: Lunes, Moons and Balloons
Attendance: 25 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department
We looked at geometry on a sphere by using balloons for the spheres. This Non-Euclidean Geometry presentation was a good introduction to geometry on a sphere. We used markers to draw lunes on the balloons and then found their surface areas based on the surface area of a sphere. The balloons really helped to make it more visual.
Handouts or Material Covered: Copy of Loons, Moons and Balloons and Warm Up Exercises
October 1, 2015
Facilitator: Kimberly Adams, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: Prime Climb
Attendance: 24 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department
We played the new board game “Prime Climb”, by Dan Finkel and Katherine Cook of Math for Love. Kimberly did a great job of checking in with us to guide us and to answer questions, but basically she let us work on our own to figure out the patterns. We had time to figure out which strategies worked and which ones did not.
November 5, 2015
Facilitator: Levi Patrick, Secondary Mathematics Director for the State Department of Education
Session Title: “Saving Time”
Attendance: 29 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department
Levi used the ideas from the book “5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions” to facilitate this problem solving session. How nice it was to see the practices from the book put to excellent use by Levi as he visited each group and then called on certain ones in a in a pre-determined order. It was a great way to model these excellent practices.
February 4, 2016
Facilitator: Jane Long, Stephen F. Austin State University and East Texas MTC
Session Title: “Parents, Children, and Pascal’s Triangle”
Attendance: 29 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences, The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department, and Rib Crib.
We had fun coloring the first 15 rows of Pascal’s Triangle according to certain rules, and then trying to figure out the probability of throwing a dart at the Triangle and landing on an even number. This was a challenging problem and so much fun.
Handouts or Material Covered: “Parents, Children, and Pascal’s Triangle”
March 3, 2016
Facilitator: James Tanton, Ambassador to the Mathematical Association of America, currently serving as their Mathematician-at-Large.
Session Title: “Exploding Dots”
Handouts or Material Covered: All the Exploding Dots work – and more – can be found at www.gdaymath.com. (Click on “Exploding Dots”!)
April 14, 2016
Our Problem solving session will be in the form of a Math Auction. Join us and be prepared to utilize your very best problem solving skills! We will have lots of fun!!!
• A Mathematical auction is one of the most engaging math contests with rules that are easy to grasp. There is never a dull moment in the game because the problems are auctioned and re-auctioned when teams think they have a better solution. Teams may even re-bid if they come up with a new solution. The bid goes to the team with the most complete solution or the best solution for the problem. We will have judges to help decide the best solutions.
• Mathematical auction problems are not traditional math problems that can be either solved or not solved. Rather, they are open-ended problems with intermediate solutions that can be further improved. The intermediate solutions are easy to find; therefore, the students are always able to find a solution to an auction problem. The trick is to improve your answer to make an even better solution!
Facilitators: Kimberly Adams and Marilyn Howard
Session Title: “Math Auction”
Handouts or Material Covered:
MEETING DATES FOR 2014-2015
September 4, 2014
Facilitator: Marilyn Howard, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: Pathways Puzzle Problem from Summer/Autumn 2014 MTCircular
Attendance: 28 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the American Institute of Mathematics, Math for America Seed Grant
Handouts or Material Covered: Copy of Pathway Puzzle Problem . We also used Pascal’s Triangle to help count the number of paths for grids without missing links.
This was the Math Circle contest puzzle from AIM. Our circle submitted the most entries and won five AIM mugs. Two members also won individual mugs for their unique entries: Spencer Pearson (link to puzzle) and Marilyn Howard (link to puzzle).
October 2, 2014
Facilitator: Mark Brown, MidAmerica Nazarene University and Heartland MTC
Session Title: Intersection Math with ideas from James Tanton
Attendance: 24 Attendees
Sponsor(s):The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the American Institute of Mathematics, Math for America Seed Grant.
Handouts or Material Covered: Copy of PowerPoint Presentation | PDF version .
We performed weird multiplication using intersection math, rectangle math, and party math, all of which turned out to be identical! They were all found by the ordinary multiplication of triangle numbers!
November 6, 2014
Facilitator: Bill Coberly, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa Math Teachers’ Circle
Session Title: Numbers: Some Surprising, Some Mysterious, Some Lucky
Attendance: 22 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the American Institute of Mathematics, Math for America Seed Grant.
Number theory is one of the fundamental fields in mathematics. Properties of particular natural numbers and sequences of numbers have attracted the curiosity of mathematicians and the general public. In this session we explored surprising properties of some numbers noting the centennial of the birth of the late Martin Gardner, a Tulsa native, whose Scientific American monthly feature “Mathematical Games” and other writings popularized mathematics for over 50 years.
Handouts or Material Covered: Lucky Number 2187
Lucky Number 2187
At our November meeting we celebrated the life of Martin Gardner, a native Oklahoman and puzzle master extraordinaire, during the 100th anniversary of the year of his birth. Gardner was featured monthly in the Mathematical Games column of Scientific American. We found out that Martin Gardner lived at 2187 S. Owasso Ave, Tulsa, OK and that 2187 turns out to be 37, a lucky number, a Friedman number, and 10000000 in base 3. How cool is that?
February 5, 2015
Facilitator: Donna Farrior, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa Math Teachers’ Circle
Session Title:“A Potpourri of Logic Problems”
Attendance: 26 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the American Institute of Mathematics, Math for America Seed Grant, and Rib Crib
We spent the evening grappling with different types of logic problems, each requiring a different method for organizing given information. The puzzles we looked at were:
- Matrix puzzles in which one must describe entities by selecting items from various categories. A resource for these puzzles is www.Printable-Puzzles.com.
- A puzzle from Games World of Puzzles magazine which resembled a matrix puzzle but used a tree diagram showing relations to solve easily.
- The “Zebra Puzzle”, a well-known logic puzzle originally published in Life International magazine in 1962. (https://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/spring06/cps102/notes/zebra.pdf) Here we changed tactics and used a process of elimination method to solve the puzzle.
- A sampling of exercises from What is the Name of this Book? by Raymond Smullyan including problems with Knights, Liars, and the Island of the Zombies.
- Circle members were referred to “The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever” so named by philosopher George Boolos (http://www.thebigquestions.com/boolos.pdf) . Members were encouraged to try their hand at this puzzle given the experience they now had with logic puzzles.
April 2, 2015
Facilitator: Paul Zeitz, The University of San Francisco, AIM Board of Directors, and Founder of the San Francisco Math Circle
Session Title: Mathematical Magic for Muggles
Attendance: 32 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Natural Sciences and The Charles and Lynn Schustermann Family Foundation
Description: We learned how to do several dazzling magic tricks that required NO skill. These tricks with cards all used very simple mathematical principles, applied cleverly.
Handouts or Material Covered: Mathematical Magic for Muggles
MEETING DATES FOR 2013-2014
October 3, 2013
Facilitator: Judith Covington, LSU Shreveport and North Louisiana MTC<
Session Title: SET
Attendance: 35 Attendees
Sponsor(s): The University of Tulsa Mathematics Department and the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Handouts or Material Covered: SET (Powerpoint) | SET (PDF)
November 7, 2013
Facilitator: Christian Constanda, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: The Stories Numbers Can Tell
Attendance: 26 Attendees
Sponsor(s): MSRI seed grant
Handouts or Material Covered: The Stories Numbers Can Tell
February 6, 2014
Facilitator: Bill Coberly, The University of Tulsa and Tulsa MTC
Session Title: Grid Luck1
Attendance: 20 Attendees
Sponsor(s): MSRI seed grant
Handouts or Material Covered:Grid Luck1
April 6, 2014
Facilitator: Frank Wang, Director of Oklahoma School of Science and Math
Session Title: A Mathematical Road Trip, Revisiting the Familiar and Exploring the New
Attendance: 21 Attendees
Sponsor(s): MSRI seed grant