Alliance for Michigan IBL (AMIIBL)

Upcoming Events

  • February Tea: Active Calculus with Matt Boelkins. Friday Feb. 17 on Zoom from 11:45AM to 1:15PM. Come for a casual discussion with Matt and others about his open-source active Calculus texts. Register here.

Join our community to stay in the loop.

What is Amiibl?

Goal

The Alliance for Michigan IBLers (AMiIBL) is a grassroots organization working to build and sustain a regional community of two-year and four-year college mathematics instructors in Michigan that is welcoming and supportive of all instructors using---or interested in using--a variety of active learning and equitable teaching strategies in their college mathematics classrooms; we believe this is best accomplished through collaborative learning and reflection, and depends on creating social and professional connections that traverse institutions and organizations.

What we offer:

With this goal in mind, we currently:

  • organize and facilitate workshops and events for both new and experienced practitioners;

  • Maintain a listserv with announcements of projects and events relevant to interactive and equitable mathematics teaching.

  • Provide financial and logistical support for smaller, collaborative activities---such as classroom visits, book groups, task-writing, etc. The financial backing for these projects is in the form of $500 mini-grants. See more on this below.

We are part of the larger COMMIT Network (Communities for Mathematics Inquiry in Teaching)

What kinds of pedagogy do we support?

We support a wide variety of active learning and equity-focused classroom teaching practices. While some of us originally came together under the umbrella of “Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL)”, pedagogical strategies or approaches that aim to bring deep mathematical learning, collaboration, and equity into the classroom can go by many different names. Regardless of a particular brand or name, we find the four-pillars of IBL (see graphic) expounded by Laursen and Rasmussen to be helpful in describing some of the key principles of any active-learning classroom: rich mathematics, student collaboration, instructors inquiring into student thinking, and instructors fostering equity with their instructional choices.

Leadership Team

Kevin Gerstle, Hillsdale College

Barbie Hoag, Oakland Community College

Victor Piercey, Ferris State University

Nina White, University of Michigan

Interested in joining the leadership team? Email whitenj(at)umich(dot)edu

Past Leaders (Thank you!)

  • Melinda Koelling, Western Michigan University

  • Francesca Gandini, Kalamazoo College, now at Univerza na Primorskem

  • Shanna Simpson-Singleton, Henry Ford College, now at Wayne State University

  • Erik Brown, Jackson College

  • Dawn Archey, University of Detroit Mercy

Past Events

August 9-11, 1pm-4pm ET: 3-day UM/AMiIBL virtual workshop with facilitators Rebecca Glover (University of St. Thomas) and Elizabeth Thoren (Pepperdine University). More information.

June 28 1-day workshop with facilitators Erin Militzer (FSU), Grace McClurkin (SVSU), Francesca Gandini (Kalamazoo College), and Nina White (UM).

April 20, Active learning in developmental mathematics. Panel discussion and "tea". See full description. Slides (including discussed resources)

March 16, tea discussion with guest Katie Waddle (UM) on Complex Instruction, and specifically on "assigning competence"

February 10, tea with guest David Clark (GVSU) on the topic of "Scarcity and Abundance". Check out this related blog post.

November 18, tea

October 15, tea

August 10, 2021. Virtual Hangout / Tea.

July 27-29, 2021, Three day intensive Workshop, including Working Group presentations. Facilitators: Nina White, Robin Wilson, Francesca Gandini, Annaliese Keiser.

June 8, 2021, Working Group Kick-off with Christine Von Renesse and Nina White. Resulting Working Group outputs.

June 7, 2021, Introductory IBL Workshop with Francesca Gandini, Annaliese Keiser, and Christine Von Renesse.

May 10, 2021, Virtual Hangout / Tea

April 9 and 16th, 2021, MI MAA Section Meeting. Mini Workshop.

March 26, 2021, Joint SINE-AMiIBL Joint Workshop: Developing Mindsets for Math with Appreciative Teaching Approaches presented by Dr. Jhenai Chandler (Santa Fe College), Dr. Jesse Ford (University of North Carolina Greensboro), and Dr. Lawanda Cummings (University of the Virgin Islands).

March 4, 2021, Virtual IBL hangout

January 26, 2021, Virtual IBL hangout

October 13, 2020, Virtual IBL hangout.

August 13, 2020, Virtual IBL hangout. Victor Piercey and Francesca Gandini from the AMiIBL leadership team hosted this informal meet-up. We hope to make these regular events.

July 28-30, 2020. Free virtual IBL workshop hosted by University of Michigan. Over 25 mathematics instructors attended this 3-day workshop designed and facilitated by Amy Ksir (US Naval Academy) and Nina White (University of Michigan).

June 4, 2020. Free virtual IBL workshop hosted by AMiIBL and the IBL Communities NSF Grant. Over 40 mathematics instructors attended this workshop designed and facilitated by Danielle Champney (Cal Poly) and Francesca Gandini (Kalamazoo College).

August 27-29, 2019: Free IBL Workshop at University of Michigan with guest facilitator Kyle Peterson (DePaul) and local facilitator Nina White (UM)

April 5, 2019. Free IBL workshop as part of the MI-MAA section meeting at University of Detroit Mercy.

August 28-30, 2018, Free IBL workshop at University of Michigan with guest facilitator Danielle Champney (Cal Poly) and local facilitator Nina White (UM)

March 24, 2018 (Valparaiso University). As part of Trisection Meeting of the Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan Sections of the MAA, there was a session on "Inquiry Based Learning: Math and beyond" led by Michael Starbird.