My office is Howard Hall 247. Telephone number (732) 571-4451.
| MA 125-03/H2 Calculus I |
Office hours: Monday 1 – 2, Tuesday 3:15 – 4:15, Wednesday 4:30 – 5:30, Thursday noon – 1; or by appointment or chance.
Courses I've previously taught at Monmouth University:
MA 100
Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving
MA 103
Foundations of Elementary Mathematics
MA 105
Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences
MA 109
Precalculus
MA 115
Mathematical Modeling in the Biological Sciences
MA 116
Calculus for Biology
MA 117
Quantitative Analysis for Business I
MA 118
Quantitative Analysis for Business II
MA120
Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning
MA 125
Calculus I
MA 126
Calculus II
MA 203
Foundations of Elementary Mathematics I
MA 211
Differential Equations
MA 221 Linear
Algebra
MA 314
Number Theory
MA 410
Modern Algebra
MA415 Real
Analysis
MA 598
Foundations of Number Systems (SP 03)
MA 598
Discrete Mathematics and Problem Solving (FA 03)
SE 501
Mathematical Foundations of Software Engineering
My principal research interest is philosophy of mathematics, other than logic. I am currently working on editing a book on using the philosophy of mathematics in teaching mathematics. With Roger Simons, I edited a book, Proof and Other Dilemmas: Mathematics and Philosophy, published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) in 2008. It contains sixteen articles, about half by mathematicians and half by philosophers of mathematics, introducing mathematicians to what has been happening in the philosophy of mathematics (other than foundations) in the last thirty years or so. I have published one article on this topic, "What is the Philosophy of Mathematics and What Should It Be?", in the Mathematical Intelligencer, 1995. I have also published a book review of What is Mathematics, Really, by Reuben Hersh, and Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics by Paul Ernest, in the American Mathematical Monthly, April 1999. I have written a second article, which I hope to revise soon, "What is Mathematics: The Question." Professor Joseph Auslander, of the University of Maryland, and I organized a panel for the winter 2001 joint mathematics meetings in New Orleans on "The Philosophy of Mathematics: That Which Is of Interest to Mathematicians". I helped found the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America on the Philosophy of Mathematics (POMSIGMAA), open to all MAA members for a small ($12) addition to the annual dues - e-mail me if you're interested in becoming a member, bgold@monmouth.edu. POMSIGMAA held its first contributed paper session, business meeting and reception at the winter joint AMS-MAA meeting in January 2003 in Baltimore, MD, and has held contributed paper sessions at every winter joint meeting since then except 2009, when we held a contributed paper session jointly with HOMSIGMAA (the SIGMAA for the History of Mathematics) at MathFest. The abstracts of the talks are available. We also have guest lectures (sometimes by philosophers, sometimes by mathematicians interested in philosophy) at both the joint winter meetings and MathFest. At the joint winter meetings in 2012 in Boston, MA, there was an invited paper session at which Jody Azzouni of Tufts University, Juliet Floyd of Boston University, Arthur Jaffe of Harvard, Charles Parsons of Harvard, Agustin Rayo of MIT, and Stephen Yablo of MIT gave talks. A full list of these talks can be found on the POMSIGMAA Activities page.
I am active in the MAA, both nationally and in the New Jersey section. I have been the director of NJ-NExT, a program for new faculty in mathematics in New Jersey. I am editor of MAA Online's Innovative Teaching Exchange, and am on the Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET). I edited a book, with Sandra Z. Keith, of St. Cloud State University, and William Marion, of Valparaiso University, Assessment Practices in Undergraduate Mathematics, published by the MAA (MAA Notes #49). This was followed by the SAUM (Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics) project, on whose steering committee I served. A book, Supporting Assessment in Undergraduate Mathematics, edited by Lynn Steen and published by the MAA, reporting on the outcomes of this project, including many new case studies, is available from the MAA. For more on my professional activities, see my vita.
One of my main activities in spring and summer 2000 was co-directing, with Dr. Charles Pack of the Computer Science Department, the 21st Century Science Teacher Skills Project. This project, sponsored by Congressman Holt, addresses the need to improve school-level mathematics and science education by enabling high school teachers to participate in science in action through summer practicums with local industries.
I have spent two sabbaticals in Belgium, speak French, some Chinese,
a little German and Dutch. I am interested in Tai Chi, Chinese landscape
painting, Indian sculpture, Platonic philosophy (I have taught a freshman
tutorial in Platonic Dialogues as Drama). During the summer of 2000,
I started making a Japanese-style garden in my backyard - here are some
photos.