mathematics

Lee Stiff

Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff rather than just read about it. In short: Lee Vernon Stiff (February 4, 1949 - March 19, 2021) was an American mathematics education researcher; a professor in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education and the Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the College of Education at North Carolina State University (NCSU); and the author of several mathematics textbooks. In his 72 years of living, he wrote many books.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lee Vernon Stiff (February 4, 1949 - March 19, 2021) was an American mathematics education researcher; a professor in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education and the Associate Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs in the College of Education at North Carolina State University (NCSU); and the author of several mathematics textbooks. In his 72 years of living, he wrote many books. Stiff's father was "a factory worker with only a third-grade education". Stiff studied mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1971, and went on to earn a master's degree from Duke University in 1974 and a doctorate in mathematics education from North Carolina State University in 1978. After teaching mathematics at the middle school and high school levels, and then holding a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte beginning in 1978, he returned to NCSU in 1983. From 2000 to 2002 Stiff was president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Under his leadership, the NCTM pushed for a greater emphasis on basic computational skills in elementary and secondary school mathematics education, and for an appropriate emphasis on conceptual understanding. Stiff rejected simple solutions to complex issues, saying that "Back to basics is moving backward. Number-crunching alone is no longer enough." Instead, Stiff has recommended better training and incentives for mathematics teachers, a teaching style that incorporates a variety of ways of looking at the same material, and an attitude that all students can learn mathematics regardless of their background. In 1995 he was a Fulbright scholar in Ghana. In 2010 the NC State College of Education gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2015 he received the Benjamin Banneker Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2017 he was given the TODOS Iris M. Carl Leadership and Equity Award, and in 2019 he was honored with the NCTM Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, with Drs. Valerie Faulkner and Patricia Marshall, he wrote the critically important work, The Stories We Tell: Math, Race, Bias, and Opportunity, which "...sits the "gap problem" on the doorsteps of schools and districts and off the backs of children and parents."

References

External links Faculty web site at NCSU Personal web site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lee Stiff

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff

In research: Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff 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: Lee Stiff is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 2021 deaths, 20th-century African-American people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Lee Stiff in simple terms?

Why does Lee Stiff 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 Lee Stiff?

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 Lee Stiff.