Dr. Janet Andersen of the Hope College mathematics faculty has been appointed director of the Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium.
The consortium consists of 11 liberal arts colleges, including Hope, and two research universities. The consortium seeks to promote effective collaboration among faculty at the member institutions; to improve undergraduate science and mathematics education; and to assist with the research efforts of the faculty at the undergraduate colleges and of the undergraduate students at all of the member institutions.
Andersen is an associate professor of mathematics and chair of the department at Hope, where she has been a member of the faculty since 1991. She was the director of general education from 1998 to 2000 and continues to coordinate general education courses for the science division. Her external professional activities include chairing the Mathematical Association of America's Committee on the Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics.
She is co-author of "Projects for Precalculus" and "Precalculus: A Study of Functions and Their Applications," both of which were developed through support from a 1993 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Through a 1997 NSF grant, she led development of a new course at the college, "Mathematics in Public Discourse" that is contented to two general education science courses. Her most recent NSF grant is funding the development of a mathematical biology course that she is co-teaching with Hope biologist Dr. K. Gregory Murray during the new, spring 2002, semester.
Andersen completed her bachelor's degree at LeTourneau College, and her master's and doctorate at the University of Minnesota. Before she began her graduate work, she was a high school mathematics teacher for four years in east Texas.
The Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium coordinates activities including symposia on undergraduate research, faculty development workshops, and consultations through which individual faculty members visit other member schools to share information. As director, Andersen is responsible for coordinating the programs and the consortium's day-to-day operations, and for working with the consortium's Executive Committee to develop new programs.
In addition to Hope, the consortium's liberal arts colleges are Beloit, Carthage, Colorado, Grinnell, Knox, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, Luther, Macalester and St. Olaf. The two research universities that belong are Washington University and the University of Chicago.