GeoGebra comes to Maine!

The GeoGebra Workshop, a free professional development workshop for teachers working at the elementary, secondary or terciary level, will be held May 23, 2012, on the University of New England's Biddeford Campus.

UNE Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences James Quinlan, Ph.D., says, "GeoGebra is fairly powerful software for teaching and learning that is easy to use and easy to learn. You can develop cool applets for numerous topics, including areas of algebra, geometry, calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations."

The workshop will bring together the GeoGebra community of teachers, students, graduate students, school administrators and researchers.  The organizers aim to provide a forum to increase the GeoGebra community, offer training for users at all levels, distribute classroom-ready teaching materials, and provide an opportunity for young researchers to present their results.

There are three session tracks:

  1. Beginner Session - those new to GeoGebra and Dynamic Geometry software
  2. Lesson Planning - focusing on classroom-ready teaching materials and/or interactive demonstrations
  3. Advanced Sessions - topics include GeoGebra scripting and presenting results of recent research projects, among others.

Michael Todd Edwards, Ph.D., an associate professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and co-director of the GeoGebra Institute of Ohio, will be the keynote speaker.  Edwards' scholarly interests center around the teaching and learning of mathematics with technology, specifically graphing calculators, computer algebra systems, and dynamic geometry software.

The GeoGebra Institute of Maine located at UNE shares the vision and goals with the International GeoGebra Institute and the growing number of other GeoGebra Institutes.  This includes coordinating and providing professional development opportunities and support for both pre-service and in-service teachers at all levels; developing and sharing workshop resources and classroom materials; and conducting and supporting GeoGebra-related research that focuses on the teaching and learning of mathematics to inform and improve training and development activities, and to promote collaboration between IGI and local GeoGebra Institutes and between international colleagues.

The workshop will take place in Decary Hall Function Room 2 on UNE's Biddeford Campus from 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m..  For information or to register, visit http://www.mainegeogebra.org/conference2012.php.