In the math world, Allan Rossman is the teaching equivalent of Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Michelle Kwan — a gold medalist.
He will receive the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award in January. Rossman is one of three mathematicians in the country to receive the award, which is presented by the top mathematical organization in the country, the Mathematical Association of America.
“Allan is competing against statisticians and a plethora of mathematicians and it is incredibly rare that a statistician would get an award from the American Mathematical Association,” statistics department chair Robert Smidt said. “It is exceedingly unique and a high honor.”
Rossman’s colleague, professor Beth Chance, nominated him. The judging is based on several guidelines: being successful and effective in their teaching, influencing beyond their own institutions and generating excitement and curiosity about mathematics in their students.
Students are used to writing down equations and memorizing them, but Rossman’s students do not get anything handed to them. They must figure out formulas, definitions and how things work through a series of questions they are given through activities that use real world data.
Rossman’s activity-based approach is a different teaching style that is not always easy for students to grasp at first, Chance said.
“It is hard to be innovative and to try things in the classroom because students sometimes get uncomfortable when things are new, and Rossman does challenge them to think and to not just repeat back what he says, and so sometimes students don’t like that,” she said.
Many of his students don’t necessarily see it that way. Scott Cairney, a mathematics senior, like some others in his class, said that he enjoys being challenged in class to think.
“I like the fact that he doesn’t spend too much time just sitting there busting out formulas, he really uses them, and then he tries to pick stuff that is fairly interesting, as articles are concerned,” he said.
Rossman said he strives to generate excitement in his students about mathematics.
“The best feeling is when you assign a problem in class and a student really gets intrigued by it and invests a lot of time and effort to try and figure it out, and comes in to me with questions about it,” Rossman said.
Students who may not be mathematically inclined have no need to fear with Rossman’s teaching, economics sophomore Gregory Kramer said.
“He always walks around the classroom, especially when we are doing our assignments on our own, and he is always offering help to anyone who looks like they may be struggling,” he said.
In Rossman’s classes, students are not just crunching numbers but understanding the concepts through application, Chance said.
“Rossman is really committed in the classroom, and pulls off his activity-based approach by letting the students figure it out for themselves,” she said.
Outside of the classrooms of Cal Poly, Rossman has been a major influence among the statistical and mathematical worlds. His published materials are being used across the country, and he puts on workshops and presentations to spread his unique teaching style.
“I hope the ideas that Chance and I have are impacting other teachers of statistics around the country and getting them excited about teaching statistics and helping their students,” Rossman said.
Rossman and Chance have worked together on two textbooks, “Workshop Statistics” and “Investigating Statistical Concepts, Applications, and Methods.” These books are designed with a series of questions that lead students to develop their own thoughts, and creates a classroom environment that nurtures active discussion.
As part of his award, Rossman is allowed to give a 20-minute address about his teaching philosophy. His speech titled “Asking Good Questions” is based on the notion that interesting questions will make students learn and retain information more easily.
“To be honest the biggest perk this award does for me is to give me the chance to give a talk to a big audience, where I can try to convince them that my ideas about teaching are good ideas, and maybe I will convince some of them to adopt some of my ideas,” Rossman said.