A recording of the conference (see conference description below) is available on request. The recording is 2 hours in length and the cost is $10, which provides access for 1 month. If you would like to watch the recording please email Jack Cole at jhcole@mgl.ca.

THEME
Artificial Intelligence and the Mathematics Classroom

AI has been impacting the math classroom at increasing rates. In this year’s GVMA virtual conference, we will explore how AI and math education intersect. Our two speakers bring us decades of experience from the classroom and in research. They will explore with us what creative opportunities AI might bring to the mathematics classroom, and present some new thought-provoking perspectives.

The conference will feature two speakers, with some time for questions afterwards.

Dr. Nancy Nelson from Conestoga College will give a talk entitled “AI-Powered Chatbots – From Threat to Tool”. In this talk Dr. Nelson will examine the implications that chatbots (like ChatGPT) have on current educational practices, and explore ways they can assist and enhance the way we teach STEM courses.

Nancy Nelson is an award-winning educator with over 30 years in the Canadian post-secondary system. An engineer by profession, she is currently the Director of Teaching Innovation at Conestoga. Her current research areas include harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom, the educational development of STEM educators, and the effective and efficient use of educational technologies in the classroom. Nancy is nationally recognized for her educational leadership both in and beyond the classroom. She’s been awarded Engineers Canada’s Medal for Distinction in Engineering Education, Colleges and Institutes Canada’s Leadership Excellence Award for Faculty, and most recently a 3M National Teaching Fellowship by the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE).

To learn more about Nancy, please visit www.conestogac.on.ca/bios/nancy-nelson .

Dr. Dan Brown from University of Waterloo, in his talk "AI and Creativity", will explore what creativity has to do with math and AI, whether AI can be truly creative, the future of creativity in an AI world, and the creative opportunities that AI brings to the math classroom.

Dan Brown completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Cornell University in 2000, and is now a professor of Computer Science in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

To learn more about Dan, please visit cs.uwaterloo.ca/about/people/browndg .

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For those of you who have been able to attend our past GVMA Fall Conferences, Thank You.   The number of familiar faces, along with many new first time participants, always impresses us. We can see that Mathematics enthusiasm is thriving in the Grand Valley Mathematics Region!

Speaker Proposal Requests

We intend to be back in person one day! If you would be interested in presenting a topic to grade 7 to 12 math teachers in a time slot of 50 minutes, please complete and submit the GVMA online speaker form (does not work in Chrome) for your proposal.  The program committee meets in the winter and again in the spring to plan the fall conference.  Your proposal will help the committee develop a program for teachers.