Contact: * [email] a_baddorf <at> berkeley <dot> edu
About Me: I am from Southern California, South Carolina, and Germany (it's complicated...). I finally am finishing my bachelors in Mathematics which began back in 2002. Although this degree is long overdue, I don't regret the path that it took. On my several sabbaticals I got to teach English to Thai children in Bangkok, and work with Tsunami victims in the south of Thailand. I also accrued some great work experience, in the cleanup of several hurricanes and other natural disasters. I hope to continue my education with a Masters in Math Education and then go on to teach math to high school students. Cooking, mathematical logic, and jumping out of airplanes are a few of my favorite diversions!
Research Interests: I don't yet have any specific research interests. I was lucky to participate in the B-Tech Math Workshop with Jose Gutierrez and Kelly Buchanan, where we worked with "at risk" high school math students. We inquired as to how and why these students' social, cultural, and educational backgrounds affected the way they perceived and understood math. I hope this and other similar experiences will help channel my, as of yet, vagrant fascinations with math education into tangible research questions and projects. A few of these vagrant fascinations are 1) the affect of teachers' attitudes toward students on the students' learning success, 2) the relationship between various classroom and learning environments and students' understanding of math, and 3) the correlation between students' native language and their understanding of mathematics (Like, how does their native language explain the differences in how a Chinese, an American, and a Swedish high school student learn math? And are there any intrinsic qualities in certain languages that facilitate understanding of mathematical concepts?).