vmt-award-2024_47--2-_purple

versity of Virginia. In addition to directing these institutes for over a decade, he traveled across the Commonwealth to teach evening classes linked to these institutes. In July of 1982, Dr. Lowry was appointed as the first Executive Secretary of the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics. His life ’ s work is the focus of the 1999 Winter edition of the Virginia Mathematics Teacher Journal.

Mathematics Teaching in 1990, the American As sociation of University Women's state teacher of the year award and the Virginia Council of Teach ers of Mathematics teacher of the year award. Ka ren Dee was a co - director of a National Science Foundation project. She helped to create the CD published in 2005 called Historical Models for the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. Michalowicz was a member of the board of Math counts, a national enrichment, coaching and com petition organization. She was a member of the Na tional Research Council's U.S. National Commis sion on Mathematics Instruction and helped design a series of posters for the Benjamin Banneker As sociation and she contributed articles for its month ly newsletter. She was a member of the Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics for many years, and served the Board in the role of chairwoman for the First Timers grant. In the community she volunteered at So Others Might Eat, drove the elderly to church services, and played organ at St. Anthony's Catholic Church, where she was a parishioner for more than 40 years. Ms. Michalowicz's interests included math history, female mathematicians and the use of geometry in African artifacts, the topic of a book she reviewed for the Mathematical Association of America. She published numerous articles, and her collection of 500 old textbooks were published between 1529 and 1899. Upon her death in 2006, her collection was gifted to the University Library at the Ameri can University in Washington. An endowment fund was established at the Langley School in 2006 to honor her. This fund provides a grant in her memory, which is awarded each year to a faculty member who plans to undertake a new challenge to further his or her professional or per sonal growth. This grant provides one $1,000 prize and two $400 prizes to VCTM members who have not previously attended, but wish to attend, a re gional or annual NCTM meeting.

One educator from each of the five categories (elementary, middle, sec ondary, college/university, and math specialist/coach) may be granted the Wil liam C. Lowry award in his memory.

Karen Dee Michalowicz

Karen Dee Michalowicz taught middle school mathematics for nearly 40 years. She was the Chair of the Upper School Mathematics Department at the Langley School in McLean, Virginia, and she was dedicated to her students. She taught fifth graders advanced concepts such as the golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence by pointing out how shells develop and how plants grow leaves. Her demonstration of the concept in nature triggered fascination with math among many students. "She was very good at showing how math is inter esting, how it matters and how it pops up . . . in stead of having the class do long division and mul tiplication," said Nathan Curtis, one of her former students, who competed in the international Math Olympiad. He told The Washington Post in 1997 that "Ms. Mikey" taught him how the rules of mathematics govern accurate drawings of plants, clouds, trees and mountains. Karen Dee was a mathematics adjunct professor at George Mason University. She edited a multimedia program on math history and presented talks at more than 75 workshops. She received the National Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 2

10