Popular mathematician and best-selling author offers tips on teaching

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Mathematician and best-selling textbook author James Stewart will be at McMaster later this week to offer solutions to a math educator's greatest problem — making math learnable.

As part of the Math 2000 Conference (June 6-13), Stewart will discuss
methods for engaging students' attention that will benefit both
secondary school and university math educators. Many students find math
difficult because material has to be learned, not merely memorized. On
June 11, at 7 p.m. in Togo Salmon Hall, Room 120, he will discuss the
use of technology, applications, contests and history to teach math by
illustration and example, to break the habit of learning by mimicry.

Stewart is the author of the best-selling calculus textbook of the
decade, Calculus, Fourth Edition, and the best-selling calculus textbook
series that includes Single Variable Calculus, Multivariable Calculus,
Calculus: Early Transcendentals and Single Variable Calculus.

Stewart received his B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, his MA at
Stanford and a PhD from the University of Toronto. He joined McMaster in
1969 and was a professor of mathematics until his retirement in the
early 1990s. During his academic career, he was the recipient of several
McMaster teaching awards.

The mathematics instructor is also a talented violinist and was concert master of the McMaster Symphony Orchestra for eight years. He also played professionally with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.