mathematics

Jennifer Switkes

Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes rather than just read about it. In short: Jennifer Switkes is a Canadian-American applied mathematician interested in mathematical modeling and operations research, and also known for her volunteer work teaching mathematics in prisons. She is an associate professor of mathematics at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), where she is associate chair of the mathematics department.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Jennifer Switkes is a Canadian-American applied mathematician interested in mathematical modeling and operations research, and also known for her volunteer work teaching mathematics in prisons. She is an associate professor of mathematics at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), where she is associate chair of the mathematics department.

Early life and education Switkes was born in Canada but moved as a child to Northern California. She is a 1994 graduate of Harvey Mudd College, where she completed a double major in mathematics and physics as well as earning credits towards a teaching credential. However, her experience as a student teacher at a middle school convinced her that she was not fully prepared to continue as a teacher, and she returned to graduate school instead. Her doctoral research at Claremont Graduate University concerned mathematical biology, and more specifically mosaic coevolution; her 2000 dissertation, The Geographic Mosaic Theory in Relation to Coevolutionary Interactions, was jointly supervised by Michael E. Moody and John Angus.

Career and volunteer work Switkes was an instructor at Citrus College and the University of Redlands before becoming a mathematics professor at Cal Poly Pomona in 2001. There, she is known for her project-based education of students, centered around real-world applications of mathematical modeling. Switkes volunteers as an associate pastor at the Orange Coast Free Methodist Church in Costa Mesa, California, and as a mathematics teacher with the Prison Education Project. She has taught mathematics to prison inmates both at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, California and in Uganda, where she has traveled repeatedly on church missions, on a 2013 sabbatical visit to Makerere University and on a shorter 2015 visit to teach at the Luzira Maximum Security Prison. As inspiration for her volunteer work she cites a book by Bob Moses, Radical Equations—Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project, on the importance of mathematical literacy in escaping underprivileged circumstances.

Recognition Switkes was one of the winners of the 2015 Inspiring Women in STEM Award of Insight Into Diversity Magazine. In 2019, Switkes won one of the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, the highest teaching award of the Mathematical Association of America, "for bringing her educational core values of excellence, honor, integrity, love, and purpose to all students, and specifically to traditionally underserved students". The award recognized both her prison volunteer work and her mentorship of undergraduate and master's students at Cal Poly Pomona. She was also honored as an outstanding alumna of Harvey Mudd College in 2019.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jennifer Switkes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes

In research: Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes 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: Jennifer Switkes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American mathematicians, 21st-century American women mathematicians, American operations researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jennifer Switkes in simple terms?

Why does Jennifer Switkes 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 Jennifer Switkes?

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 Jennifer Switkes.