Zweng Fellowship Awardees for 2022-23

Sunyoung Park, Brady Tyburski, and Katie Westby, PRIME mathematics education doctoral students, have been awarded the Dr. Marilyn Zweng Endowed Graduate Student Award in Mathematics Education for 2022-23.

Dr. Marilyn Zweng, a mathematics educator who completed her undergraduate work at Michigan State University, generously contributed funds establishing an endowment to provide fellowships to PRIME students. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin. She was a professor of mathematics and head of the mathematics department at the University of Iowa. In Iowa, she created a TV show called “Mathematics with Marilyn.” Dr. Zweng passed away in August 2019 and will be remembered as a philanthropist and an incredible intellectual.

Zweng fellowship recipients are selected based on how they have been active ambassadors of mathematics education and what the student plans to do to extend, deepen, or change their ambassador work.

Ambassadors of mathematics education exhibit active involvement in improving mathematics teaching and learning (pre-K-16+), publications and/or presentations that reach out to a broad community such as K-12 teachers, policymakers, etc., and/or service to mathematics education at MSU (e.g., mentoring) or nationally (e.g. organizing conferences).

Sunyoung Park is a fifth-year student in the mathematics education doctoral program. An experienced middle school teacher and instructor of practicing and prospective teachers, Sunyoung has created hundreds of photos that encourage her students to think about the mathematics they use and see in their daily life.

In her dissertation work, Sunyoung is investigating ways in which teachers can develop curriculum adaptation capacity to connect mathematics with students’ out-of-school experiences.

"Through participatory collaboration with mathematics teachers, I hope that the study can inspire teachers to appreciate mathematics in their lives and exercise agency to adapt textbook problems focusing on open spaces where students can utilize their mathematical and cultural knowledge to learn mathematics," commented Sunyoung.

She continued, "In addition to the dissertation, I plan to organize math workshops at a local library for youths and families to provide experiences of how mathematics concepts (fractions will be of particular interest) are used in real-life situations." Sunyoung's goals are to create a culture that invites people (students, teachers, and families) to see mathematics in their daily lives.

Sunyoung noted that the Zweng fellowship will allow her to purchase hardware for data collection and software for data analysis, travel to the AMTE conference in Spring 2023, and prepare artifacts for free math workshops at a local library.

Brady Tyburski is a fourth-year student in the mathematics education doctoral program. In addition to serving as President of PRIME's Graduate Student Organization (GSO) and coordinator for MLRG (Math Learning Research Group), Brady founded PRIME Time, a weekly seminar for 1st and 2nd year graduate students. These meetings serve as check-ins for beginning graduate students to share their successes or struggles and receive mentorship, support, and reassurance from other graduate students dealing with the same difficulties.

Brady plans to continue to facilitate dialogue between novice and expert researchers to make mathematics education research more accessible. "So far, I have presented two conference papers that aimed to create such conversations in the sub-field of covariational reasoning. With the funds provided by the Zweng fellowship, I would be able to continue presenting this kind of research at conferences such as PME-NA and MES."

He remarked,  "Leveraging my past experiences serving as an ambassador of mathematics education, I would also like to facilitate a participatory dissertation study where I work closely with students in my role as a representative of the mathematics education community. The financial support of this fellowship would help fund key aspects of this project, including participant compensation, transcription costs, and supplies for this arts-based project."

 

Katie Westby is a third-year mathematics education doctoral student and former secondary teacher. She led PRIME Time last year, and served as academic events coordinator in PRIME's GSO.

During the Spring 2022 semester, supported by Jennifer Green
and Andy Krause, Katie led Professional Development for mathematics graduate teaching assistants about accessibility and inclusive, antideficit teaching.

"My practicum sought to grow our field’s understanding of disability and the experiences of people with disabilities through detailing conversation with Michigan State students registered with the RCPD about their mathematics education experiences throughout their lives," Katie commented. She is  working toward disseminating those findings in several journals and national as well as international conferences. 

Katie stated, "I am applying for funding to continue, in Fall 2022, the work I started in the math department. In Spring of 2023, I will run a professional development for in-service math teachers and pre-service math teachers with disabilities looking at ways to humanize math classrooms for students with disabilities."

Congratulations to Sunyoung Park, Brady Tyburski, and Katie Westby on receiving the prestigious Zweng Award!