Institution: Olivet Nazarene University
Reporting Year: 2023-2024
Advisor: Jeremy Lyle
Advisor's Email Address: sjlyle@olivet.edu
Has There Been a Change in Chapter Advisor During the Past Year?: No
Permanent Faculty Correspondent:
Permanent Faculty Correspondent's Email Address:
Officers:
Chapter Website: http://
Number of New Members: 10
Number of Continuing Members: 8
Activities:
Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present at the PME National Meeting this year? No
Do you have any news about current students or recent graduations? For example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences, etc.
If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.
We received a PME prize grant for this last year and hosted a “Pi Mu Epsilon” problem of the week. We had a 15 POWs each semester, with a weekly drawing for a $5 Starbucks gift card for “new” correct solutions (no one could win a weekly prize more than once per semester, though they could continue to submit correct solutions), and a $25 gift card drawing at math department events at the end of each semester, giving each student one chance for each correct answer submitted throughout the semester.
Overall, the results were pretty good. Previously, the department had tried a similar idea with no prizes (just for the recognition of getting the correct answer) with little success. Both semesters we had about 20 different students submit correct answers, some infrequently, some every week, which for the size of our department is pretty good. In addition, it helped with publicizing Pi Mu Epsilon membership. We are planning on continuing this again next year, but possibly cutting down a few weeks in the semester to also be able to offer modest prizes for scoring points on the Putnam Exam.