Steven Boyce 00000-quicktime What kind of research? Math education research Specifically: how do students understand fractions? Most of the students I taught didn't have a good understanding of fractions 2:00ish Have you worked on the candy factory app? Basic overview of app Students have trouble seeing a fraction as a number in and of itself It's hard for us to explain it because we figured out that abstraction 4:10 More explanation of candy factory app 5:25 that's what we call transformative research 5:38 Candy Warehouse (unofficial name) 6:24 Are you in the math department or the school of ed? 7:00 one of the things that makes VT stand out is that you have the opportunity to be in a math department while research math education (benefits follow) 7:45 Being in the math department gives you the foundation you need to do research in those areas 8:20 What else drew you to the program at Tech? (pretty good description of Blacksburg follows) 9:50 In your research do you have a lot of interaction with both students you're researching, and the undergrads? 11:44 Teaching experiments 12:33 We have seminars that we take, I could practice my presentation for a conference 12:55 Interaction between grad students in the math department and the school of ed 13:20 I love the summers ...mountains, rivers, not crowded 14:15 It's a nice place to be, it's a nice place to raise a family. 14:40 Can you describe the partnership between the math department and the school of ed? 15:25 Benefit of the partnership: I can focus in on my content in the math department, and then in the school of ed I get exposure to a wider variety of perspectives 00001-quicktime 1:01 Describe your interaction with faculty at VT? 2:45 Our relationship with faculty is one where it's a give and take. We're learning from one another 4:48 What would you say to a prospective student? 5:17 I feel like no matter what type of research their interested in, they can find a place at Virginia Tech 5:55 I think VT is a great place to be to study mathematics education 6:30 You've got very good access to your advisors, you get treated as a colleague... 7:03 Is there anything you would like to say? 7:18 Our focus is trying to encourage students who love math and want to make the world a better place with mathematics 8:10 There needs to be a greater focus on the relationship between mathematics and mathematics education, and Virginia Tech really allows that