Florence Newberger
Professor
Department of
Mathematics and Statistics, California
State University, Long Beach
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Visit me! Office: FO3, Room 218 Write to me! Call me! Email me! |
Teaching Research and Scholarly Activity Service Beads
I serve as the Department of Mathematics and Statistics Service Course coordinator. In this role, I oversee various 100-level courses.
- Calculus for Biology (Math 119A and B) Currently Math 119A and B use the text, Calculus with Applications for the Life Sciences, by Raymond Greenwell, Nathan Ritchey, and Margaret Lial. The first semester (Math 119A) includes three writing assignments, in which students write about calculus problems, their solutions and implications. Instructors administer these assignments through Calibrated Peer Review, a browser based software available for free from UCLA. Following the BIO 2010 recommendations, I am considering changing the text for the second semester of the course to reflect the mathematics now found in biology and the health sciences more accurately.
- Calculus for Business (Math 115) Currently Math 115 uses the text, Calculus for Business, Economics, and the Social and Life Sciences, Brief Edition, 10/e (Tenth Edition), by Hoffmann and Bradley. We take advantage of on-line homework (MathZone) provided by the publisher, and an on-line preparation for calculus program from ALEKS.com. The course runs for 3 hours per week in large lecture, and one hour per week in a 35-student activity session. Find more information on the CSULB Calculus for Business Website.
- Modeling with Algebra (Math 109) Following the recommendations of CRAFTY, in 2006, CSULB divided its college algebra courses into one for students continuing to calculus, and one for students requiring general education. Modeling with Algebra (Math 109) is the course for students majoring in subjects that do not require further study in mathematics. I designed this course using the book, Explorations in College Algebra, by Linda Almgren Kime, Judy Clark, and Beverly K. Michael. In Fall 2010, we changed to College Algebra, Concepts and Contexts, by James Stewart, Lothar Redlin, Saleem Watson and Phyllis Panman, for which I wrote the study guide. The course includes writing and Microsoft Excel assignments, and a poster project, as well as on-line homework. I have set it up, and passed it off to Dr. Xuhui Li; I look forward to seeing how it evolves.
I am one of the campus coordinators for Calibrated Peer Review (CPR), which is a browser based software that facilitates a peer reviewed writing assignment. For an overview, go to http://cpr.molsci.ucla.edu/ and click on Tour. If you are CSULB faculty, and you would like more information about CPR, please contact me.
I wrote the document About Authoring for CPR to help faculty develop their own successful CPR assignments.
My current courses
Fall 2010
Math 115: Calculus for Business
Math 562A: Complex Analysis I
Master's Thesis Students
The following students have completed Master's Theses under my direction.
2008 Blake Rector
Thesis Title: Characterization of Solenoidal Groups
2006 Jeremy Jankans
Thesis title: Invariant Quaternion Algebras and Kleinian Groups
2005 Merrick Sterling
Thesis title: Geometric Coding of Geodesics on Surfaces of
Constant Negative Curvature
2004 Alison Williams
Thesis title: Equivalent statements of property (T)
2004 Jason Karcher
Thesis title: Algebraic actions and the Borel Density Theorem
CSULB College of Natural Science Outstanding Thesis Award Winner
Research and Scholarly Activity
My Ph.D. research lies in differential geometry and dynamical systems. More specifically, I study systems such as geodesic flows and isometric group actions, in which the geometry and the dynamics closely intertwine. Recently, through my work in College Algebra, I have become interested in how the different representations of mathematics (such as graphs, equations and the contexts they model) can be used to communicate and describe aspects of science and economics. I find modeling and the mathematics that naturally arises in biology particularly interesting. I hope my research record will soon reflect this new interest.
Publications
Study Guide, for College Algebra Concepts and Contexts, by James Stewart, Lothar Redlin, Saleem Watson and Phyllis Panman, Cengage, 2010
Counter examples to minimal entropy rigidity in the Finsler category normalized by symplectic volume, joint with B. Colbois and P. Verovic, Annals of Global Analysis and Geometry, October 2008
A Multiplier Theorem for Fourier Series in Several Variables, with Nakhle Akbar and Saleem Watson, Colloq. Math. 106 (2006), 221-230
Recounting the Odds of an Even Derangement, with Arthur T. Benjamin, and Curtis D. Bennett, Mathematics Magazine, December 2005, 387-390
Patterson-Sullivan measure for geometrically finite groups with parabolic elements acting on real rank 1 symmetric spaces, Geometria Dedicata 97, (2003) 215--249.
Minimal entropy rigidity for Finsler manifolds of negative flag curvature, joint with J. Boland, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, 21 no.1, (2001) 13--23
I am a member of the Mathematics Association of America, and the webmaster for the Southern California-Nevada Section of the Mathematics Association of America. With my business partner Gwen Fisher, I sell patterns for beadwork, made by sewing small seed beads together using a needle and thread. Our business is called beAd Infinitum.