May 3, 2024 at the Des Plaines Elks Club
Zalman Usiskin
The Mathematics of Genealogy
Zalman Usiskin is a professor emeritus of education at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1969 through 2007. In 1983 he helped initiate the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) and served as its overall director from 1987 until 2019. Zal began his career as a high school mathematics teacher at Niles West and during his decades
at the University of Chicago he taught at the U. of C. Laboratory School, Addison Trail, Proviso West, Rich South, and Glenbrook South, with classes at these schools serving as development sites for textbooks he was writing. Over the decades, he helped break the ground for the current use of transformations in geometry, calculator and CAS technology in the teaching of algebra, and applications throughout the curriculum. He is author or co-author of over 150 articles and other papers, dozens of books, including textbooks and teachers’ editions for middle and high school and a college-level textbook for mathematics teachers. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from NCTM, NCSM, ICTM, and ISDDE (the International Society for Design and Development in Education). More information can be found on his website: www.zalmanusiskin.com.
Zal received a Lifetime Achievement Award from MMC in 1982 (he was very young to receive such an award!), and since that year he has been invited to speak at MMC’s May meeting every even-numbered year. Those of you who have attended many of his talks know that he has on occasion given talks where the mathematics is interspersed with relevant songs. This May’s talk involves another of his lifetime interests, genealogy.
About this talk, Zal writes: The mathematics of genealogy involves a variety of mathematical topics and processes found from grades 4 through 12, and genealogy can provide a setting for data collection activities for students in any of those grades. This talk may be of interest to anyone who is involved in the genealogy of their family, or genealogy more generally, even if not a teacher of mathematics.
Registration for this dinner meeting here by Monday April 29!
Please help us continue to provide quality professional development and consider making a donation to MMC using our Zelle address: zelle4mmc@gmail.com