Department of Mathematics

Eric Kuennen is an assistant professor in the department of mathematics at UWO, specializing in teaching mathematics courses for pre-service elementary and middle school teachers. His goal as a teacher is to facilitate student learning by providing opportunities and motivation for students to learn how to think and communicate mathematically and develop mathematical reasoning at a high level so that they are able to learn the course content in a deep, useful and permanent way. He designs his classes to be driven by student engagement on mathematics problems, allowing students the opportunity to construct mathematical meaning for themselves.

Eric has published research on statistical analyses of pedagogical practices in college-level mathematics and statistics classes and studies mathematical behavior and thinking in pre-service mathematics teachers. He has received two University of Wisconsin System grants to study mathematics teaching and learning, and together with Dr. Jennifer Szydlik, has received a UWO Faculty Development grant to develop an instrument to measure mathematical sophistication in pre-service elementary teachers.

Eric has led two Mathematics Education study abroad trips to Peru for UWO students. Besides travel, his hobbies include bicycling and building furniture. He and his wife have new twin daughters born in August 2009.

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Jen Szydlik has twenty years of experience working with preservice and practicing elementary and middle grades teachers. As an instructor, she shows her students the nature of mathematics; she helps them become skilled and enthusiastic problem-solvers; she supports them in understanding mathematical content; and she helps them become effective communicators of mathematical ideas. Through her research, she investigates how students view mathematics and mathematics learning and how they can be nurtured to adopt more powerful beliefs about mathematical behavior. Jen has won several teaching awards including the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Distinguished Teaching Award and Wisconsin’s Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Along with her colleagues Eric Kuennen, John Beam, and Carol Seaman, she is currently working on a series of activity-based mathematics texts for future teachers.

Jen has two boys (a third-grader and a fifth-grader), a mathematician husband, and a creaky old house. She loves to write trashy novels, play cards, sing Karaoke, and dig in the garden.

Amy Parrott was a high school mathematics teacher in Iowa before she decided to go to graduate school in mathematics. She received her Ph.D. in August 2009 from the University of Nebraska where she did research on the effects of temperature variation on turtle egg development, sex determination and population dynamics.  Amy has taught numerous courses for in-service middle school and elementary mathematics teachers as part of the Math in the Middle and NebraskaMATH professional development workshops

Amy and her husband have a two year old daughter who keeps them very busy.   When she has free time, she likes to cook and bake as well as read mystery and thriller books.