Charlotte-Area Schools Take Lead in National HS Math Initiative

Real-Life Math for Crime Fighting, Buying a Used Car at INFORMS Charlotte Annual Meeting/Teacher Program

CHARLOTTE, October 31, 2010 – A special program for Charlotte-area high school math teachers is the latest contribution in a national initiative to improve applied math that has seen North Carolina universities and school systems take the lead in making America more competitive in math and science.

In association with its annual meeting, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®) – a professional society for experts in business analytics, operations research, and applied math – will provide the day-long teacher training program.

• DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
• TIME: 8 AM-3 PM
• PLACE: Phillip O. Berry High School, 1430 Alleghany Street, Charlotte, NC

At the program, area teachers will receive innovative lesson plans to teach high school students the kind of math that they can use at business, in public service, and in their everyday lives. The topics, chosen because they are personally relevant to high school students, include:

• choosing a college
• selecting a cell phone plan
• buying a used car

 Intriguing topics from the real world include:

• dispatching 911 calls
• planning for crime scene investigations

 Locally, Professor David Pugalee of the Center for STEM Education at the University of North Carolina Charlotte is a leading presenter. He will be joined by Professor Kenneth Chelst, of Wayne State University in Michigan, who worked to develop the lesson plans.

Nationally, Project Mindset (www.mindsetproject.org), a program funded by a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, is affiliated with the INFORMS program, which has a strong North Carolina and Charlotte connection. Project Mindset’s principal investigator is Professor Robert E. Young of North Carolina State University. Prof. Pugalee has worked to coordinate testing of the program at Charlotte-area schools.

Professors Pugalee, Young, and Chelst are available for interview.

Charlotte-area schools that are participating in the November 14 workshop are:

• Central Academy
• Charlotte Country Day School
• Cox Mill High School
• Cuthbertson High School
• The Fletcher School
• Gaston County Schools
• W. A. Hough High School
• Independence High School
• Myers Park High School
• Olympic International Studies & Global Economics
• Performance Learning Center
• Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology
• Pine Lake Preparatory School
• Providence Senior High School
• Renaissance High School
• Right Choices High School Program
• Rocky River High School
• Socrates Academy
• South Mecklenburg High School
• Turning Point Academy
• Union Academy Charter
• Weddington High School
• Westminster Catawba School
• Zebulon Vance High School

 The INFORMS annual meeting takes place at the Charlotte Convention Center from Sunday, November 13 - Wednesday, November 16. Some 4,000 experts in analytics and operations research are expected to attend. James E. Rogers of North Carolina-based Duke Energy is a plenary speaker. Additional information about the conference is here.

Operations research, also known as analytics and management science, is the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions. Analytics is experiencing a rebirth in organizations like SAS, IBM, and Microsoft. More about the field is at www.informs.org and www.scienceofbetter.org.

About INFORMS

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, financial engineering, and telecommunications. INFORMS serves the scientific and professional needs of operations research analysts, experts in analytics, consultants, scientists, students, educators, and managers, as well as their institutions, by publishing a variety of journals that describe the latest research in operations research. INFORMS Online (IOL) is at www.informs.org. Further information about operations research can be found at www.scienceofbetter.org.

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