TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's Ideas Worth Spreading ideal. TEDx events are local, self-organized events that bring people together with compelling, thought-provoking speakers combined with deep discussion and connection within a small group. George Mason's Second Annual TEDx Conference included New Century College professor, Michael Randy Gabel, as a featured speaker. Dr. Gabel's talk, titled "The Nature of Mathematics", explored how people are taught mathematics in K-12 education, specifically high-school, and how this impacts their conceptual understanding of the subject.
The video from Dr. Gabel's talk can be seen below or on the TEDx Talks YouTube Channel.
Biography
Dr. Michael Randy Gabel is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Integrative Studies in George Mason University's New Century College. He received a B.S. in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Brandeis University.
Professor Gabel's career at GMU spans nearly 35 years. He was a member of the faculty group that created Mason's award-winning PAGE [Plan for Alternative General Education] Program (which became the Honors College) and is currently teaching in the University's innovative New Century College. He has been the Senior Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Chair of the CAS Committee on Innovative Education, Chair of the University-wide Academic Computing Advisory Committee, Chair of the Faculty Senate Standing Committee on Effective Teaching, Co-Chair of the President's Project Team on Learning Initiatives, Director of the University's Instructional Development Office, Academic Director of a GMU Oxford University Honors Semester, Deputy Director of the Mason Center for Conservation Studies and twice the Resident Faculty Fellow in the Smithsonian-Mason Semester at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
In addition to a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses in the Mathematics Department, he has taught Quantitative Problem Solving in the PAGE Program, Honor's Calculus, and the New Century College learning communities: Community of Learners, The Natural World, Mathematics and Culture, Applied Conservation Biology, Global Communities and Networks, Science and the News, and The Nature of Mathematics.
He was named an ACE Fellow, a SENCER Leadership Fellow and was a co-principal investigator of a Keck/PKAL grant on Facilitating Interdisciplinary Learning. He is a member of the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars and is a recipient of a GMU Teaching Excellence Award as well as the David J. King Faculty Teaching Award for "significant, long-term contributions to the overall educational excellence of the university."
His current book project is "The Music of the Sphere: A Portal into the Nature of Mathematics."
June 30, 2013
