The Next CMESG/GCEDM Will Be Golden, I Guarantee It
On the very first day of my Methods in Elementary Mathematics class, I give a pop quiz. To honour the late Jim Mennie, who taught me in his Methods in Secondary Mathematics class at the University of British Columbia about a quarter-century ago, and in an effort to ease the rampant anxiety the students have when the realize that, in fact, they will be writing a pop quiz on the very first day of class, I call the pop quiz a “Spontaneous Celebration of Learning”. Ten minutes to answer ten questions and, if you have the time, one bonus question.
The second question in my “Spontaneous Celebration of Learning” is one of my favourites.
If your doctor gave you three pills and told you to take one every half an hour, how long would they last you?
Given that question comes early in the quiz, and given that the quiz is deliberately short in time to complete, most students, future teachers of mathematics, answer “one and a half hours”, move on to the rest of the quiz, and never look back. After years of looking at solutions, the one-and-a-half-hours answer is generated by multiplying the number of pills with half hours, that is, three half hours is one and a half hours. Wrong, sure, but I get it.
I should note here that we actually do the quiz twice on the first day of class. We do the quiz a second time because I lie and tell the room that my dog ate the answer key. That’s ok, however, because I have room full of future teachers of mathematics and, collectively, we can crank out an answer key in no time flat. Walking around the room, listening to the groups come to the realization that the “correct” answer is one hour is rather entertaining.
Watching and listening to future math teachers try and convince other future math teachers that the answer should be one hour and not one and a half hours is quite entertaining. I remember one student, pulling actual pills out of her backpack (I didn’t ask) and mimicking the gulping of the first pill to “start the clock” like it was yesterday. Soon, just a few minutes into the group version of the quiz, the room is convinced the answer is one hour. Some students, however, take things further.
Two things happen at this point of making the answer key to my Spontaneous Celebration of Learning. First, everyone becomes way more skeptical of their answers to the rest of the quiz, which is appropriate. Second, I start getting called over for follow-up questions. Some students, kind of flexing now, having no issue calling me over and asking questions about the length of the effects of the pills or whether the timeline between getting the pills and taking the first pill is supposed to be taken into consideration. All good follow-up questions, but, ultimately, the room converges on one hour. With the room now in agreement, the focus usually shifts to the other nine questions and the “pill popping question” (as it gets referred to, eventually, year after year) is put to bed. This last semester, however, the question still did not sit well with one student, and they asked for another example.
In order to attend to the annual meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group/Groupe Canadien d’Étude en Didactique des Mathématiques (CMESG/GCEDM), which took place June 13th to 17th, 2025, I had booked my plane ticket to Lethbridge, Alberta just before class that very morning. Influenced by my pending travels, I explained to the room that, in a few months, I would be attending a conference that was first held in 1977. I even showed them a link to the archives of the proceedings, which can be found here: https://www.cmesg.org/past-proceedings/. I then told them that I was born in 1977, which created quite the murmur for some reason. Directing my attention to the student that asked the question, but still talking to the whole room, I told them that I would be attending, in Lethbridge, the 49th annual meeting of CMESG/GCEDM, but would be doing so as a 48-year-old. I asked the room, “How does that even make sense?”. The reply from the nice student who had asked for the example had one of my favourite responses ever, “Are you sure?” Back into their group discussion they descended.
Sure, I could have muddied the waters at that point. I could have explained how Bernard Hodgson, during either his Plenary Lecture or his Opening Panel presentation at CMESG/GCEDM 40, presented convincing arguments as to why the 2016 annual meeting of CMESG/GCEDM should be numbered differently than as the 40th annual meeting. For example, the first ever meeting of CMESG/GCEDM held back in 1977 was actually called “Educating Teachers of Mathematics: The Universities’ Responsibility”. Sponsored by the Science Council of Canada for the second consecutive year, the decision was made to call the continuing group CMESG/GCEDM. As Bernard dove deeper into the history, his conclusion, to the best of my recollection, was that, yes, he was at the 40th annual meeting – plus or minus one or two. Instead, I responded with, “Yes, I am sure.”
At the time of this writing, there are several other things of which I am sure. I am certain, as was the case in Lethbridge, Alberta, CMESG/GCEDM is a salve for the conference attendance consternation that I am still experiencing these days (https://notes.math.ca/en/article/conference-attendance-consternation/). It is definite that at the time of the annual meeting of the CMESG/GCEDM next year, having been born in 1977, I will be 49 years old — unless, akin what happened in South Korea in 2023 when everyone became a year or two younger, the Government of Canada changes the traditional way of counting age here in our country. I am also sure that Queen’s University for the eighth time (1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1987, 2002, 2016 and 2026) will host the 2025 annual meeting of CMESG/GCEDM in late May running into early June, which will be called and will be celebrated as CMESG/GCEDM 50. Having attended the annual general meeting of CMESG/GCEDM, I know that it is shaping up to be a great conference for mathematicians and mathematics educators and, from what I’ve gathered, it’ll be dripping with history. Look, I am confident that you, yes, you, the member of the Canadian Mathematical Society taking time out of your day to read the Education Notes section of CMS Notes, should attend CMESG/GCEDM 50 at Queen’s University next year. See you there!?
No matter how you run the numbers, I am sure that the CMESG/GCEDM 50 will be golden. I am also sure, at least for me, the next-next CMESG/GCEDM will be golden, too.
