• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

  • Home
  • Academics
  • Athletics
  • Campus Services
  • Events
  • Human Resources
  • University Relations

Woot Woot, Aaron Wootton!

January 31, 2020

Mathematics professor Aaron Wootton has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award for the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Pacific Northwest Section. Winners of the section award are automatically nominated for the national MAA Deborah & Franklin Tepper Haimo Award, given to nominees who are widely recognized as extraordinarily successful in their teaching, who have had an influence in their teaching beyond their own institution, and who foster curiosity and generate excitement about mathematics in their students. The Pacific Northwest Section includes all institutions of higher education in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Northwest, Nunavut, and Yukon territories.

Wootton has been teaching math classes spanning the entire undergraduate curriculum for 21 years. The success of his teaching comes down to his willingness to listen carefully to his students and colleagues and adapt his teaching methods accordingly. He teaches classes offering students multiple formats to help in their learning, creating a safe and comfortable learning environment, and by regularly communicating with them to learn about their individual needs and concerns. For example, he requires that every student picks up each of their tests from his office in person. Though these meetings take up a tremendous amount of time (200+ meetings per semester), every minute is time well spent as it allows him to build an honest and trusting relationship with his students, and it provides him with the opportunity to identify and help students who are struggling.

Outside of the classroom, to pique student interest in mathematics, Wootton created a course in cryptography and drafted an accompanying 200-page textbook. Nationally, Aaron is recognized as the founder and series editor of the book series Foundations for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (FURM, published by Springer Verlag). To date, FURM has released one volume with two further volumes in press. He is a member of the Mathematics Calculus Consortium, a group of educators ranging from high school teachers to faculty from world-renowned research universities. Since joining the Consortium, he has been involved in the completion of four new edition textbooks, all of which are published by Wiley, and are strong sellers throughout the world.

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized

Primary Sidebar

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • YouTube

News Categories

UpDate

Hannah Pick, Dundon-Berchtold Institute, published a review of Yuval Levin’s A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus: How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream through the journal of Christian Higher Education (22 January, 2021; DOI: 10.1080/15363759.2020.1865123).

Natalie Nelson-Marsh, communication studies, was featured in the Portland Business Journal magazine February 26 edition for her participation in the panel discussion on “Organizational Transformation – The Impact of COVID on the Future of Work.”

Katie Danielson, education, published “Enacting content-rich curriculum in early childhood: The role of teacher knowledge and pedagogy.” Early Education and Development, 32(3), 443-458. doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1753463

Alice Gates, social work, presented on March 3, 2021 as part of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work 2021 Research Colloquium Series.  Her paper was titled “Engaging equity and critical race perspectives in community-based research.”

Jordy Wolfand, Shiley School of Engineering, published Assessing resilience of a dual drainage urban system to redevelopment and climate change. Journal of Hydrology. 2021. 596. 126101.

Stephanie Salomone, mathematics, was an invited participant at Envisioning and Enacting an Inclusive and Diverse STEM Professoriate: Aligning the Recruitment and Retention of Diverse STEM Faculty, an APLU Think Tank, virtual.

Hillary Gaudio and Randy Hetherington, education, presented Inequity in the classroom: Improving teacher training by listening to completer voice. Virtual paper presented at the Oregon Association of Teacher Educators (ORATE) conference.

Randy Hetherington, education, co-presented Training transformative leaders: Valuing teacher wellness in complex change. Virtual paper presentation at the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges of Teacher Education (AILACTE) conference.

Jacqueline Waggoner, Randy Hetherington, Hillary Gaudio, Bruce Weitzel, James Carroll, education, presented Inequity and the reality of teacher preparation: Hearing the voices of completers. Virtual paper presentation at the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges of Teacher Education (AILACTE) conference.

Bruce Weitzel, Hillary Gaudio, Jacqueline Waggoner, James Carroll, Randy Hetherington, education, presented The completer voice: Inequity revealed. Virtual paper presentation at the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) conference.

James Carroll, Randy Hetherington, Jacqueline Waggoner, Hillary Gaudio, Bruce Weitzel, education, presented Educator preparation in traumatic stress. Virtual paper presentation at the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) conference.

Randy Hetherington, education, co-presented Interrelated leadership: Valuing teacher impact in a complex school. Virtual paper presentation at the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) conference.

Update Archive

About

UPbeat is a newsletter for University of Portland faculty and staff published through the marketing & communications office; submit information to Marc Covert, upbeat editor, at 8132 or upbeat@up.edu. Submission deadline is noon the Thursday prior to publication. Submissions may be edited for clarity, consistency, brevity, or style.

Copyright © 2021 · University of Portland