mathematics

Marilyn Carlson

Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson rather than just read about it. In short: Marilyn Paula Carlson is an American scholar of mathematics education specializing in preparing mathematics educators for precalculus and in guiding future mathematics teachers towards understanding student thinking. She is a professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Marilyn Paula Carlson is an American scholar of mathematics education specializing in preparing mathematics educators for precalculus and in guiding future mathematics teachers towards understanding student thinking. She is a professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Arizona State University.

Education and career Carlson is originally from Cleveland, Missouri. She became a star athlete at the University of Central Missouri, competing both in basketball and in track and field. She placed second in the 800m race at the 1976 AIAW Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She earned All-America honors four times, and was the inaugural recipient of the university's annual outstanding senior female athlete award. After graduating cum laude from the University of Central Missouri in 1977, she earned a master's degree in computer science before shifting her interests to mathematics education. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 1995. Her dissertation, A Longitudinal Investigation of the Function Concept, was jointly supervised by Josef Dorfmeister and Philip Treisman. She joined Arizona State University in 1995. From 2003 to 2008 she headed the university's Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (CRESMET), afterwards returning to a faculty position in mathematics.

Recognition The University of Central Missouri named Carlson to their athletics hall of fame in 1995. Carlson was the 2008 recipient of the Annie and John Selden Prize for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education of the Mathematical Association of America.

References

External links Marilyn Carlson publications indexed by Google Scholar

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marilyn Carlson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson

In research: Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson 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: Marilyn Carlson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American mathematicians, American women mathematicians, American women middle-distance runners, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Marilyn Carlson in simple terms?

Why does Marilyn Carlson 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 Marilyn Carlson?

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 Marilyn Carlson.