Maria S. Terrell

Senior Lecturer of Mathematics and Director of Teaching Assistant Programs
225 Malott Hall
(607) 255-3905
maria@math.cornell.edu

Ph.D. (1978) University of Virginia

Research Area

Geometry and mathematics education

My recent interests in geometry have included tensegrities and the history of geometrical optics and linear perspective. I am collaborating with a group of faculty and graduate students in an effort to improve undergraduate mathematics instruction through a project we call GoodQuestions. The project is developing materials to help instructors engage students in meaningful discussions about key concepts in calculus. At a recent MER (Mathematicians in Education Reform) workshop I presented a paper about my recent experience in the project.

Selected Publications

Kaleidoscopes and mechanisms (with R. Connelly and B. Hendrickson), Colloqui Mathematica Societatis Janos Boyai 63 (1991).

Behind the scenes of a random dot stereogram (with R. Terrell), American Mathematical Monthly 101 no. 8 (1994).

Globally rigid symmetric tensegrities (with R. Connelly), Structural Topology 21 (1995).

Asking good questions in the mathematics classroom, Mathematicians and Education Reform Forum Newsletter 15 no. 2 (2003).

Can good questions and peer discussion improve calculus instruction? (with R. Miller and E. Santana-Vega), PRIMUS XVI no. 3 (2006), 193–203.