6
Faculty Honors & Activities continued
• Magdalena Ezoe, OP ’55, music
department, has had eight compositions
published recently by Alliance
Publications/Sinsinawa Studios Publications in Wisconsin. Among the newly
published works are “Clothe Me With
Yourself, Eternal Truth” (composed for the
1994 Honors Convocation at Siena in
honor of the college’s 75th anniversary)
and “Morning Prayer,” both of which
feature text by Nadine Foley, OP ’45.
• Peggy Treece Myles, graduate studies,
is the editor of Educator’s Update,
Professional Development News for
Educators, published twice a year by
Siena and distributed to school districts
in southeast Michigan. The newsletter
includes tips for K-12 teachers, changes
in state education policies, and a guide
to education resources on the world wide
web. Peggy also serves as advisor to the
Sigma Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota, an
international honor and professional
counseling society. Peggy also was a twotime speaker at the Michigan Counseling
Association’s 1999 conference in
October: as a panelist for “You’re New?
Here’s What’s New for Michigan School
Counselors,” and as a presenter on
professional counselor portfolios.
• Nadine Foley, OP ’45, (photo above)
past interim president of Siena, is editor
of Journey in Faith & Fidelity: Women
Shaping Religious Life for a Renewed
Church, published this past fall by The
Continuum Publishing Company (NY).
The call for renewal by Vatican Council II
in the 1960s brought about dramatic
changes for more than 180,000 US
women religious. Journey in Faith &
Fidelity is a collection of studies by 12
members of the Adrian Dominican
congregation, tracing the most critical
influences that moved religious
congregations toward a renewed
religious life. The authors discuss
embracing a God who dwells within them
and inspires them toward a life of Gospel
mission and ministry. “What women
religious have done in response to the
call to renewal is not always understood
by those outside of religious life,” said
Nadine who, in addition to editing the
book, wrote the introduction and two
chapters.
Renovated “math cave” is a
model high-tech classroom
ith science renovations moving
ahead thanks to past support from
the Herrick Foundation and Warren and Catherine Reuther, faculty in the
mathematics and computer and information
systems (CIS) departments decided to
mount a renovation of their own, making
high-tech advances on a shoestring
budget.
The results of nearly a year of volunteer
effort, enriched with support from friends
and alumni, were showcased in February
when the CMS (Computing, Mathematics
and the Sciences) Division hosted an open
house at their newly completed Tech Lab.
The lab, also known as “the math cave,” is
located on the bottom floor of Science Hall
in what was formerly a storage area.
“We needed to make technology more
accessible to our students. We needed it
right here in the division, and we needed
different software” than is available in the
computer center in Dominican Hall, Tim
Husband, professor of mathematics, explained. Math Club students did the first
round of heavy-duty cleaning last spring.
Faculty and staff sealed and painted last
summer.
built around math and computing principles.
“People think all you need to teach math
is chalk and a chalkboard, but that’s not
the way we do mathematics at Siena
Heights,” Husband explained. “We believe
the study of math should have a purpose
beyond being able to do procedural work.
That’s why we teach by doing math in context, so students build an understanding of
the ideas and how to apply them in real
situations. Students don’t just memorize the
quadratic formula anymore.”
In fact, Siena Heights is something of a
leader in revising the way math is taught.
“There are very few colleges and universities with math programs as completely
technology-oriented as we are,” Husband
said. “Siena may be one of the few liberal
arts colleges that uses technology in every
math class at every level.”
Thanks to resourcefulness, elbow grease
and well-placed dollars, the CMS Division
has a model classroom for teaching mathematics and computing/information systems
courses.
The University added a
dropped ceiling and carpeting.
The computer center located
some hardware. Friends donated furniture. Sam Ewing, an
education consultant and
occasional adjunct instructor,
donated equipment and software. John ‘89 and Kathleen
Bachman ‘92 of Eaton Rapids,
he a CIS major and she a math
major, directed their annual gift
in support of the project. “We
couldn’t have done it without
everyone’s help,” Husband said.
At the February open house,
visitors saw students in action in
“the cave.” Using motion detec- The math cave is a multipurpose facility. One room is
devoted to desktop computers and other hardware. With large
tors, light and temperature round tables and computers on the periphery, the second
probes, Internet resources and room is set up for group projects and meetings.
other technology, they demonstrated the tools used in today’s classrooms
“This is what we want to do in our other
to collect and analyze data, build mathclassrooms,” Husband said. “This is what
ematical models, and conduct experiments
we need to do, in order to teach math and
computing well.”
n
From the
Heights