INTERIM REPORT-REQUEST FOR GRANT EXTENSION THE SIGMAA ON RUME REPORT The past year for the Special Interest Group of the MAA on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (SIGMAA on RUME) has been very successful. Our dues-paying membership has climbed from 330 in 2001 to 458; counting complimentary trial two-year memberships, we have 1000+ members of record. Our sessions at the joint meetings in San Diego in January of 2002 were well attended. In addition to our paper sessions and plenary talk, we co-organized a Research-to-Practice session with the MER (Mathematicians and Education Reform) forum. This session generated a substantial amount of interest in issues related to the dissemination of RUME research and has resulted in the MER forum devoting a special issue of their newsletter to this topic. We recently completed our first Research Presession to MAA's 2002 MathFest and are currently beginning the planning for our 2003 research conference. (Our September conference in 2001 was canceled at the last minute due to the 9-11 tragedy.) Our organization has also recently assumed the responsibility of overseeing the editorial procedures and policies of the Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education (RCME) publication. The RCME volumes are now being printed about once per year and are producing high quality research articles from members of the RUME community. As evidenced by the increase in membership and publications, the SIGMAA on RUME infrastructure, including our annual research conferences, mentoring program and listserve, are playing an important role in developing many new researchers in our profession and in fostering continued growth of established researchers in our field. The SIGMAA on RUME committees continue to be very active in working toward the goal to encourage quality research in undergraduate mathematics education and its application in teaching practices. The number of SIGMAA on RUME committees has increased to ten, with the recent addition of the Publication Committee. The Publication Committee has the charge to oversee the editorial policies of Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education (RCME) and to advise the RCME editors at their request. This committee is also charged with proposing a Research-to-Practice outlet. It will establish the procedures and policies of this publication and oversee the initial publication. Recent accomplishments of our committees include:
The finances of SIGMAA on RUME are currently in good shape. Our annual research conference is supported by the registration fees of the participants. The organizational work for our conferences is done on a volunteer basis by the Local Organizing Committee and the Conference Program Committee. However, we will continue to incur expenses for travel for our plenary speakers and officers, our mentoring program and general operation. We anticipate continued expenses as we look for ways to enhance the quality of our research in undergraduate mathematics education (RUME) and its application in teaching practices. We anticipate some committee expenses in producing our first newsletter, our first Research-to-Practice publication and in disseminating our Guidelines Document. Our Literature Committee is also seeking support to expand its work on the annotated database of RUME. In addition, we would like to continue our successful mentoring mini-grant program. We believe our organization's focus on mentoring young faculty has been extremely valuable, resulting in successful publications for our young researchers and the dissemination of valuable information to the community of mathematicians and mathematics educators. For this reason, we want to continue our research conference and mentoring mini-grant program. SIGMAA on RUME Extension Request We request an extension for spending the $15,210 in ExxonMobil funds that were allocated to us in 2001 and 2002. We also request permission to spend any money left over from the $27,000 we have been allocated for year three. We request that the deadline for spending these funds of $42,210 be extended until May 31, 2004. We also ask that we be permitted to reallocate funds between the lines of our budget as is necessary to meet the needs of our organization. We project $30,000 in expenditures from the ExxonMobil grant in 2003. Our projected expenditures are:
We also note that The ARUME Charter as a SIGMAA calls for annual dues, currently set at $10, to be collected by the MAA with its annual dues. This amount should cover routine day-to-day expenses and the copy editing for the next issue of the Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education (RCME) publication. The continued support of ExxonMobil is crucial for our future work to generate high quality research products and valuable knowledge for informing teaching practice. We look forward to our continued partnership with ExxonMobil in achieving these important goals.
Respectfully submitted |