Grand Valley State University and the National Science Foundation will support eight students in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program in mathematics during the summer of 2000. In this eight week program, undergraduate REU fellows will work with five Grand Valley mathematics faculty on projects from relatively new areas of mathematics including chaos and fractal geometry, wavelets, and distance geometry. The program will be based on three important beliefs about what student participants should experience: (1) a gradual but noticeable development from a learning style somewhat dependent on a textbook and a professor to a style of intellectual independence; (2) collegiality among students and faculty, for mathematics is best if not pursued alone; and (3) an opportunity to communicate ideas and results, both orally and in writing. Past undergraduate mathematics projects at Grand Valley have resulted in presentations at local, regional, and national meetings and publications in the Pi Mu Epsilon Journal and the Mathematics Magazine.
