India is topic of Bluffton University talk Oct. 5

 

Dr. Donald Hooley, professor of mathematics at Bluffton University, will discuss his fall 2011 sabbatical in India during a campus colloquium on Friday, Oct. 5. Beginning at 4 p.m. in Stutzman Lecture Hall in Centennial Hall, the presentation is free and open to the public.

While in India, Hooley visited secondary schools to talk to math teachers about their use and teaching of Vedic arithmetic shortcuts as a replacement for excessive student calculator use. During his talk, he will introduce Vedic arithmetic and describe other sabbatical projects, including contributing to a Korean math textbook series and presenting an invited lecture at a university in Seoul, South Korea.

Hooley will also address religious and ethnic diversity in the town where he lived and show photos, some that illustrate mathematical concepts and others of scenery and village life in the Garhwal Himalayas.