mathematics

Gail F. Burrill

Gail F. Burrill is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gail F. Burrill rather than just read about it. In short: Gail F. Burrill is a mathematics educator who was president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) from 1996 to 1998.

Key takeaways

Gail F. Burrill belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gail F. Burrill to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gail F. Burrill from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gail F. Burrill is a mathematics educator who was president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) from 1996 to 1998. She works as a specialist in the Program in Mathematics Education at Michigan State University. Burrill worked for nearly 30 years as a high school mathematics teacher; she is also the author of multiple textbooks, and has pushed to include statistics in the curriculum. She won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics in 1985, and the lifetime achievement award of the NCTM in 2012. She was also given an honorary doctorate by the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2000. In 1994, she was elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gail F. Burrill

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gail F. Burrill claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gail F. Burrill before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gail F. Burrill ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gail F. Burrill

In research: Gail F. Burrill appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gail F. Burrill in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gail F. Burrill is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American mathematicians, 20th-century American women mathematicians, 21st-century American mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gail F. Burrill outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gail F. Burrill in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gail F. Burrill means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gail F. Burrill out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gail F. Burrill in simple terms?

Gail F. Burrill is a mathematics educator who was president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) from 1996 to 1998.

Why does Gail F. Burrill matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gail F. Burrill?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gail F. Burrill.