Colleagues,
The Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy has just finished hosting and organizing two fantastically well run international conferences, STEM 2014 and PME (2014) 38.
The Third International Conference of Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM 2014) took place first (July 12-15), organized by Samson Nashon (chair), David Anderson, Ann Anderson, Stephen Petrina, and Marina Milner-Bolotin, assisted by Mark Edwards and the PDCE team, and volunteer EDCP faculty members (Doug Adler and Sandra Scott), EDCP staff members (Bob Hapke, Kirsty Robbins, and Scott Cartmill) and students (Ashley Welsh, Guopeng Fu, Winston Massam, and Latika Raisinghani). The conference attracted more than 300 delegates from 16 countries covering the five continents. During the three and a half days of the conference, educators and researchers from universities, schools, businesses, industries, and other private and public agencies shared and discussed how their innovative practices and research initiatives could advance STEM education. In addition to the local organizers, the success of STEM 2014 was also the result of strong support from the international committee, comprising scholars from Beijing Normal University in China, Queensland University of Technology, and the University of British Columbia.
Left: Professor David Clark (University of Melbourne, Australia) , opening keynote speaker at the STEM conference, Right: Professor Peter Grimmett, Professor and Head, EDCP
The 38th International Conference of Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME 2014) followed on immediately after the STEM conference (July 15-20). This was jointly organized by EDCP and the SFU Faculty of Education. Cynthia Nicol co-chaired the local organizing committee and brought together a wonderful array of brilliant keynote speakers. The conference was opened by David Farrar (Vice-President Academic and Provost, UBC) and Andrew Petter (President, SFU) with much fanfare and entertainment. Over the six days of the conference, delegates were given a feast of innovative ideas in mathematics and in the closing session, the program co-chairs, Cynthia Nicol (EDCP) and Peter Liljedahl (SFU) were given a standing ovation for the quality of the scientific program and the overall experience that delegates had had on the UBC campus. The conference attracted over 900 delegates from 51 countries around the world. There were also 90 volunteers—including 24 graduate students and 50 high school students—helping out in the day-to-day running of the conference, such was the magnitude of this highly prestigious conference. Special note should go to EDCP staff (Saroj Chand, Kalie Fong, Scott Cartmill, Anna Ip and Bob Hapke) who helped in the organization, EDCP grad students and faculty (Diana Royea, Rob McDonald, Ann Anderson, and Alayne Armstrong) who were members of the local organizing team, and particular recognition goes to Kirsty Robbins who worked very closely with the conference organizers to design a program, signs, banners, and opening invitations that were spectacular in appearance, winning many compliments from delegates.
Please take a moment to congratulate all the people mentioned (when you see them) for the stellar work they did in representing EDCP to the world during a hectic but wonderfully fulfilling nine days on campus during July 2014.
Best, Peter
Peter Grimmett
Professor and Head, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy