
Russell Blyth received his B.Sc. (Hons.) from
Massey University in New Zealand and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the latter in group theory. He has been a faculty
member at Saint Louis University since 1987. Dr. Blyth has developed and used
Maple in linear algebra courses since 1998. Maple worksheets for linear algebra
developed by his copresenter Michael May and by Dr. Blyth are posted on the Maple
Powertools web site. He has also used GAP software in teaching abstract algebra
since 1996 and has presented workshops on using GAP in teaching abstract algebra
to three national groups and one regional group of Project NExT fellows. He
copresented (with Dr. Julianne Rainbolt) PREP workshops on using GAP in teaching
abstract algebra in the summers of 2003 and 2004.
Mike May, S.J. received his
BA from Saint Louis University and his Ph.D. in ring theory from the University of
California, Berkeley. He has been a faculty member at Saint Louis University since
1993. Dr. May has done extensive work on using technology as a tool in teaching
mathematics. He has used Maple in a variety of classes since 1995. He is a
co-author of "Getting Started with Maple," a 200 page manual that is published by
Wiley press and is in its second edition. He has given two mini-courses on using
Maple at the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics
(ICTCM) and has an article "Designing Courseware with Maple " that has been
electronically published at the ICTCM website. Dr. May has produced powertools
(collections of worksheets for use in teaching a course) in multivariable calculus,
linear algebra, cryptography, and abstract algebra. The powertools are available
from Maple's www.mapleapps.com website. He has made presentations on teaching
with Maple at MAA and AMS national and regional meetings. Dr May also works on
non-Maple technology in teaching. He has written a number of applets for teaching
calculus and has made presentations on using those applets at professional meetings.
This PREP workshop is made possible by the NSF grant DUE: 0341481