FYMSiC News
Announcements
FYMSiC !!! 🙂
YAY for another thrilling academic year! 🙂
FYMSiC Online Teaching Meetup call to host, present, or suggest a topic
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Do you have a discussion topic or a theme you would like to see be entertained at a meetup?
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Do you want to present something cool that you have done and need Canada and beyond to know?
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Do you want to have the virtual mic and run a meetup yourself? Of course, we will be there to support you.
If the answer is ‘yes’ to either question, please fill out the below Google form and we will try to make the magic happen.
Google form: https://forms.gle/tFku4k3Z7n6XMNou9
We will have a FYMSiC Online Meetup on Thursday, August 21st, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT, to do a ‘Show n’ Tell’ of something that you have learnt at a conference, workshop, research project, paper, anything related to the teaching and learning of mathematics.
And then . . . We have the Fall 2026 FYMSiC Online Teaching Meetup schedule in order.
♦ Thursday, September 25th, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (EDT)
♦ Thursday, October 23rd, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (EDT)
♦ Thursday, November 13th, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. (EST)
Not to worry. We will send out the Zoom link and passcode one week before a scheduled meetup.
Great stuff, FYMSiC! 🙂
Iorana FYMSiC! 🙂
Passing along a message to contribute! Check it out!
Dear Colleagues,
We are looking for presenters for a CMS session on joy in mathematics that we are planning at the 2025 December CMS Meeting in Toronto. In this session we want to learn from instructors who have run activities in university classes that have brought their students joy, and experience some fun ourselves.
If you have ever run an activity for your students in a university classroom that was fun and joyful, we would love for you to present it in our session. The focus of the presentation is on the doing of the activity that brings joy—not on creating a polished presentation or takeaway message—and presentation slots are flexible (5, 10 or 15 min). Powerpoints are requested to be kept to a minimum (e.g., a single slide for instructions or discussion only), and you are encouraged to bring props, handouts, manipulatives, etc. We hope that this interactive and flexible mode of presentation will be appealing to mathematicians, math educators, and math instructors from all career stages. If you are a novice instructor, a PhD student, CMS first-time-attendee, or someone who does not typically present at CMS Math Ed meetings, we would be especially grateful if you reached out to us.
If you’re interested or if you have any questions or want more info, please don’t hesitate to reach out! If you are interested in presenting, it would be great if you could contact us by August 22nd.
Thanks,
Peter Harrington- peter.harrington@yale.edu
Matt Coles- colesmp@math.ubc.ca
Kelly Paton- kmpaton@math.ubc.ca
Share your sparkle, FYMSiC! 🙂
Hello FYMSiC! 🙂
Passing along another great job opportunity thanks to our FYMSiC friend, Chantal Buteau (Brock University). Check it out!
The Faculty of Mathematics and Science invites applicants for a 12-month Instructional Limited Term Appointment (ILTA) in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the rank of Assistant Professor, with an anticipated start date of August 1, 2025.
Please see the job ad: Assistant Professor, Mathematics – Instructional Limited Term Appointment
Happy applying! 🙂
Hello FYMSiC! 🙂
Get involved by this opportunity! See below.
Dear Colleagues,
We hope this email finds you well. We are excited to invite you to an upcoming conference focused on innovative approaches to teaching mathematics, which will take place on December 10, 2025, at the Fields Institute (online). This event aims to bring together educators, mathematicians, and researchers who are passionate about advancing the ways mathematics is taught and learned.
The conference will feature a series of insightful talks on topics such as integrating technology into math education and interdisciplinary teaching methods. Given your interest and expertise in the field, we believe your participation would be greatly valued. Additionally, we kindly ask if you could forward this invitation to any colleagues, fellow educators, or mathematicians who share a passion for enhancing math education. We aim to create a collaborative environment that encourages the exchange of ideas and best practices.
Please find attached the poster and information on registration/submitting abstracts.
http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/activities/25-26/ada-lovelace-conference
We would be honored to have you join us for this important discussion.
Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to the possibility of welcoming you to the conference. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at s.kirusheva@utoronto.ca.
Warm regards,
Snezhana Kirusheva, UTM
Marina Tvalavadze, UTM
Dan Wolczuk, WU
Participate, FYMSiC! 🙂
Congratulations
Awards
Karyn McLellan (Assistant Professor, Mount Saint Vincent University) received the 2025 Early Career Teaching Award at Mount Saint Vincent University. Press release: https://www.msvu.ca/three-msvu-professors-celebrated-for-teaching-excellence-2025/
Barbara Forrest and Brian Forrest (Professors, University of Waterloo) received the 2025 Canadian Mathematical Society Adrien Pouliot Award. Press release: https://cms.math.ca/news-item/prof-barbara-forrest-and-dr-brian-forrest-to-receive-the-2025-adrien-pouliot-award/
Darja Barr (Senior Instructor, University of Manitoba) received the 2025 Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Education Prize. Press release: https://www.pims.math.ca/news/2025/04/darja-barr-awarded-2025-pims-education-prize
Jennifer Hyndman (Professor, University of Northern British Columbia) received the 2025 Robert W. Tait Implementing Teaching Excellence Award at University of Northern British Columbia. Press release: https://www.unbc.ca/our-stories/story/reflecting-questions-shape-teaching-and-learning
Congratulations & Thank you
First-Year Math & Stats in Canada (FYMSiC) would like to take a moment to extend a heartfelt congratulations to Veselin Jungić on his retirement.
This milestone is incredibly well-deserved, recognizing his countless and impactful contributions to the advancement in the teaching and learning of mathematics. As a co-founder of FYMSiC, Veselin created a vibrant community of practice built on knowledge-sharing, inspiration, and support.
Your energy and passion will be missed, but you will always have FYMSiC that truly values and appreciates your dedication and efforts. Thank you, Veso. 🙂
Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication
to mathematics and statistics education!
For past FYMSiC News, please visit the Past News.
FYMSiC Online Teaching Meetups
Online Teaching Meetups are a great virtual space to have a conversation about math and stats teaching and learning with students and educators. Each meetup has a specific theme such as ‘How to teach ‘em math proofs in first-year and beyond?’ or ‘What is CEGEP?’ or ‘Transitioning to university: high school teachers’ experiences and views’, which may be accompanied by a couple of presentations – but for sure, a healthy, therapeutic and cathartic dialogue is always there about teaching and learning!
Upcoming meetup …
♦ Thursday, August 21st, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT
Zoom: https://queensu.zoom.us/j/96053358406?pwd=PaW1bGHHb8GODWA2J0kdXlPpfLceLr.1
No passcode.
Title: Show N’ Tell around the water cooler
Abstract:
Share with the FYMSiC community something new that you have learnt lately about the teaching and learning of mathematics from a colleague, collaboration, book, movie, paper, workshop, conference, training, program, whatever source that has changed your view! Also, do share your dreams and hopes of the new academic year! 🙂
Most recent meetup …
♦ Thursday, March 20th, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT
Presentation Slides: Universal Design
Title: Universal design for large classes: Works?
Presenter: Nicholas Kevlahan (McMaster University)
Abstract:
Over the past 25 years the proportion of accommodated students has increased steadily from a few percent to as much as 20% (and growing!). Appropriately implementing accommodations is one the main sources of increased workload and stress for both instructors and students. The problem is compounded by the fact that class sizes have also been growing rapidly over the same period. The result is that today most instructors teach classes with dozens of students requiring a wide range of accommodations. In this talk I will present the results of implementing a suite of universal design principles in an 800-student second-year engineering math class, with the goal of automatically handling the vast majority of accommodations. I will also talk about my experiences advocating for universal design and pushing to make it accepted and widely available to all instructors.
Biography:
Nicholas Kevlahan did his BSc in physics at UBC and his PhD at the University of Cambridge before continuing to a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McMaster University since 1998 and was President of the McMaster University Faculty Association in 2021-2022.
Save the date …
♦ Thursday, September 25th, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT
♦ Thursday, October 23rd, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EDT
♦ Thursday, November 13th, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. EST
For past FYMSiC Online Teaching Meetups & Events and Resources mentioned and discussed, please visit the Meetups page.
Other Math & Stats Education Events
♦ 2025 Weekly Spring/Summer [Online]: Computer Programming for math learners (and educators!)
♦ August 18th — 21st, 2025 [Online]: 2025 MACAS (Mathematics and its Connections to the Arts and Sciences), University of Moncton, Moncton Campus, New Brunswick
♦ November 28th & 29th, 2025 [Online]: 2025 Canadian Mathematical Society MathEd (Online) Meeting
♦ December 5th — 8th, 2025 [In Person]: 2025 Canadian Mathematical Society Winter Meeting, Toronto, Ontario
♦ May 7th — 10th, 2026 [In Person]: 2026 FYMSiC Conference, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Fields Institute Mathematics Education Forum
Meeting Information: http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/centres/centre-mathematics-education
The Fields Institute Mathematics Education Forum promotes discussion of issues in mathematics education at all levels, with special emphasis on education in the Province of Ontario. The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences serves as the host of the Forum, but does not determine the agenda or the conclusions of the Forum. It is the goal of the Forum to consider objectively new ideas and diverse views in mathematics education, to facilitate consensus and to promote the enhancement of mathematics education in Ontario and Canada.
The Forum’s mandate is to foster the development of new ideas, methodologies and materials with respect to possible changes that could improve education in mathematics, and to work for the implementation of such changes.
University of Waterloo Mathematics Teaching Seminar
The Mathematics Teaching Seminar at the University of Waterloo is a biweekly meeting featuring discussions on undergraduate mathematics teaching. Participants in the seminar include lecturers, research faculty, and graduate students from all four of Waterloo’s mathematics departments and the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, as well as faculty members and teaching enthusiasts from around the world. Those who would like to attend are encouraged to reach out to the organizers, Burcu Tuncer Karabina and Chelsea Uggenti.
FYMSiC Newsletter
Current issue …
Issue 17 – July 21st, 2025
Our eighteenth issue is coming out in January 2026. If you wish to contribute to our Newsletter, please visit the Newsletter page.
Please send your contributions in Microsoft Word or LaTex (source) formats to: newsletter@firstyearmath.ca
For the eighteenth newsletter issue, the contribution deadline is on Friday, January 30th, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. (PST).
FYMSiC Latest Share ….
From David Martin (Red Deer Polytechnic) fun game from an online teaching meetup (Jan 28th):
Read the instructions and have fun with NUMBERS.
See how high you can count in the game, FYMSiC! 🙂
FYMSiC Recent Publications
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