Greetings to the growing list of mathematicians interested in the
environment!  This memo is primarily an account of the activities of the
MAA Committee on Mathematics and the Environment in Baltimore, with an
initial plug for our website.  In a week or two I will send a memo titled
"EM list" that will have no content.  The list is long, and you wouldn't
want to scan down through it for a message.  You can reply to that message
to reach kindred spirits with YOUR message about environmental math.  If
you don't want to be on this list, let me know.

Bill Stone has made a Committee website to which the MAA website links.
It is http://www.nmt.edu/~wdstone/www/EnvironMath/CommEnvMathCoverPage.htm
Or you can get to it via the maa website, activities, committees, human
resources council, Committee on Mathematics and the Environment, and then
there we are!

Bill says he is good at posting things, but not so willing to chase down
items to post.   You can link to the places given below at our website.
We link to programs in EM, books and websites about EM, and our own
websites.  We are not willing to post unrefereed papers.

The panel at Baltimore was about books that the panelists have written.
Marty Walter told us about his well-received but not officially published
book primarily for non-majors at the U. of CO.  Others do teach from it,
and they attract two classes of students per semesters.

Nancy Zumoff talked a bit about her algebra book EARTH ALGEBRA and her
trig book EARTH ANGLES, but even more about her growing website, with
collaboration from a variety of others, that you can access via the
aforementioned EM website.  It offers many resources for integrating
environmental issues, activities, and data into math courses.

Charlie Hadlock told us about a lesson about tracking ground water
pollution in his own book that also appears in the newly published book by
the MAA THAT VERY DAY!  ENVIRONMENTAL MATHEMATICS is a collection of
mostly pre-calculus lessons written by over a dozen mathematicians and
edited by Ben Fusaro and me.  Charlie's lesson demonstrated the kind of
mathematics used in the movie "Civil Action," and I think he told us he
was actually involved in the events that that movie is about.

I told briefly about my book MATHEMATICS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL, a
quantitative literacy book written for general education college students
whose examples and exercises use all REAL numbers in applications to
environmental, peace, and health issues.  You can learn more at
www.mathematicsforhumansurvival.com.

There was also a contributed paper session about EM in the Classroom
organized and led by Karen Bollinger and Ben Fusaro.

At the Committee meeting we discussed various ways to publicize the
website (ideas?) and to get our message out.  Bill Stone said he has been
giving presentations in nearby high schools on Earth Day, and we decided
it would be good to encourage mathematicians to do this once a year.  Bill
is glad to provide us with suggestions for presentations that have been
successful in his experience.

We also elected Bill Stone and Karen Bolinger Vice Chairs for website and
program, respectively.  Most of the time we spent discussing future
programs.

This summer in Boulder we will have another "Conversations" about
environmental mathematics education, since it went well last summer.  We
will have a (very) few people give 5-minute presentations to start the
conversation and then encourage audience participation.  People who attend
these Meetings tend to have plenty of interesting ideas.

Next January in Phoenix we hope to sponsor a panel based on the
just-published book ENVIRONMENTAL MATHEMATICS and featuring some of the
authors.  We tentatively decided on Barry Schiller, Bill Stone, and
Mohammed Maozzam; Barry wasn't there, but the other two liked the idea.
We hope that the following January we might have a minicourse based on the
book, led by Ben and me and featuring more of the contributing authors.

We began discussion what we might do in Providence in the summer of 2004.
The people at the meeting included Jerry Marshall, Roland Lamberson, Marty
Walter, Ahlam Tannouri, Karen Bolinger, Lee Seitleman, Marcia Sward, Fred
Chichester, Ben Fusaro, Bill Stone, and Bob Reihemann, busily taking notes
for Andy Long.

Pat Kenschaft
Chair, MAA Committee on Mathematics and the Environment