Polk State’s Zhou to Be Published in British Mathematics Journal

Posted on by Polk Newsroom

Polk State Mathematics Professor Li Zhou has had another article accepted to the British journal The Mathematical Gazette.

The Mathematical Gazette is a publication of The Mathematical Association. Published three times a year, its readership includes schoolteachers, college professors, and others with an interest in mathematics.

Zhou’s article is titled “Fun With a Sign” and will appear in the journal in November. “Fun With a Sign” discusses how to effectively express patterns of positive and negative numbers.

The paper, Zhou said, originated with questions students raised in his Calculus II class.

The paper, he said, is an example of the new perspective students bring to material — and how even seasoned educators can learn from their classes.

“A lot of times, when we teach these things for 10 years or 50 times, we don’t think anymore. Our minds go on autopilot and we give the usual examples and answers. We stop asking why,” Zhou said. “Our students have fresh minds.”

This is Zhou’s second article accepted to The Mathematical Gazette. He has also been published in the College Mathematics Journal, International Journal of Open Problems in Computer Science and Mathematics, and American Mathematical Monthly.

Zhou has been teaching Mathematics at Polk State since 1999. He is also an adviser of the Polk State Math Club.