Award-winning professor shares ‘joy of math’ with students

In his first classes each semester, math professor Stuart Sidney goes around the room and asks students to state their names, where they live, and one random fact about themselves that others might find curious.

The exercise is an icebreaker, but it has an additional purpose: to let students identify classmates who live near them and might be good study partners. As for Sidney, his random fact is that three of his four children have the same birthday, in different years.

That quirk might form the basis for a classroom exercise in probability, but it doesn’t. Sidney’s teaching is largely in pure mathematics, a world of polynomials, coefficients, daunting equations, and logarithms – subject matter that does not lend itself readily to real-life examples.

Sidney’s students may not emerge from his calculus, advanced algebra, or graduate level analysis courses with techniques for beating the house at Foxwoods, but they do leave with a sense of satisfaction and a healthy respect for their professor. That’s why he won the Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching at the graduate level this year.

Sidney struggles a bit when asked about the meaning of his recognition.

“I guess it has to do with the kindness of students who have treated me well in their ratings,” he says. “But as far as I know, nobody has ever sat down and determined exactly what these ratings measure. So I don’t know whether I’m a good teacher in some measurable sense, but I do know that my students know I’m on their side.”

A visit to his calculus class seems to confirm that. Affable and approachable, Sidney fields questions from students and begins to construct equations on a chalk board. Like a storyteller, he shakes a finger at his audience now and then to punctuate a point: “If you do that, you get an algebraic miracle,” or “By now, you could probably get the answer mentally, with a little cogitation.”

He calls on students by name and encourages participation with a “Did you all follow that?” or “Are you with me?” at crucial junctures. He believes there are no dumb questions. “If a student gives kind of a wild response to a question from me, that’s okay. I don’t dismiss it out of hand, because there is usually something there worth talking about.”

Sidney’s written ratings from students are strewn with encomiums: “Material was well-organized, very interesting, and taught well.” “Class was fun and informative.” “Everything was explained clearly.” “Awesome explaining skills. Enjoys math.” “Stimulated interest. Taught with passion and pointed out the beauty of the mathematics rather than just giving the facts.”

Sidney says he teaches process, then product, meaning that he first emphasizes how to approach a problem. “Think about the math and how you’re going to tackle the problem, I tell students. Then focus on the actual tools,” he says.