ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997 TAG: 9704210002
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Deborah Lyman, a former Army research statistician and analyst, is teaching Ruffner Middle School students how to use algebra to solve real-world problems.
The girls are building an icosahedron.
An icosahedron?
No, it's not a nuclear-powered machine or an atom smasher.
It's a solid figure with 20 plane surfaces.
An icosahedron is no mystery to students in Deborah Lyman's geometry and math classes at Ruffner Middle School in Roanoke.
Each Thursday after school hours, Lyman meets with about 20 eighth-grade girls who are working on the geometric model. The students did research on the Internet to find out how to construct it.
Each girl is making a panel for the icosahedron that will feature pictures and other materials on topics such as cloning, civil rights and endangered species.
"Each girl chose their subject, and they're responsible for researching it and making the panel," said Lyman, a math teacher and former research analyst for the Army.
The project combines mathematics, geometry, social sciences and other subjects in a multi-disciplinary approach. The students are using the Internet to research the topics.
When the panels are finished, they will be assembled with tape to create the icosahedron, which will be displayed at the school. It will be about four feet tall and four feet wide.
Lyman got the idea for the project from the Internet and decided to try it with the students because it combines geometry and mathematics with other subjects.
"It teaches them how to research a topic, gives them training on the Internet and includes mathematics with the building of the icosahedron," she said.
It's part of Lyman's effort to foster girls' interest in math and science. She also stays after school two days a week to work with students - male as well as female - who need help with algebra or other math courses.
Lyman has been named teacher of the year in the Roanoke Valley by the Roanoke chapter of the American Association of University Women for being a role model for girls and encouraging them to take math, science and technology courses.
"She connects math to the real world for her students - she goes beyond paper, pen and textbooks," said Linda Bigger Brown, Ruffner's principal.
"She's so creative and innovative, and I just had a call from a parent the other day praising her. She goes to conferences and keeps up with what's going on in her field."
To teach her students about parabolas, Lyman took them out to the school's baseball field and fired off a toy rocket.
A parabola is one of the curves most used in science. If a baseball player hits a high fly, the path of the ball is nearly a parabola.
Lyman's students measured the time and distance of each flight of the rocket. They used the data to make a graph of the rocket's flight path.
She showed the students how the experiment was a real-world model of how the National Aeronautics and Space Administration calculates the flight path of a space rocket.
"She's strict, but she makes it fun," said Sheina Epperly, an eighth-grader in Lyman's algebra class. "She makes sure that each child understands what we are studying, and she explains things when you don't understand."
Lyman makes algebra interesting by showing it can be used to solve everyday problems, Epperly said.
In a recent class, Lyman taught her students how to use algebraic formulas to compare the rates of cellular phone companies to see which was the cheapest.
"I didn't think I would like algebra when I started the year, but I'm glad I took it," said Ashley Powell, an eighth-grader. "I'm definitely going to take second-year algebra."
Lyman, 44, has taught algebra, calculus, geometry and other math courses for Roanoke for 12 years. She taught at Roanoke Catholic Schools for two years before she joined city schools.
A Waynesboro native, she was a teacher and head of the math department at William Fleming High before coming to Ruffner last year to teach in the pre-International Baccalaureate program.
Before becoming a teacher, Lyman served in the Army for three years as a research statistician and held a classified job with NATO in Turkey for three years.
She also worked as a civilian researcher and "war gamer" on military strategy and weapons systems for the Army in its Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga.
Lyman thinks her Army and NATO background has helped her become a more effective teacher.
"It gives me credibility with my students because I've done other things," she said. "I'm not just a teacher to them."
Lyman said she became a teacher because she was spending so much time on her civilian job for the Army that she was neglecting her three children.
"I was making a lot of money, but I didn't have time to spend it or be with my children," she said.
Lyman knew what she was getting into when she decided to teach. Her father, Shirly Kiger, was principal of Waynesboro High School when she was a student there. He later became assistant superintendent for Waynesboro schools.
Nationally, girls don't perform as well as boys in high school math. Researchers say that girls are often intimidated by boys and aren't as assertive in class. Fewer girls take math and science courses in some localities.
But Lyman said that isn't the case in Roanoke because many girls take higher level math courses.
She enjoys working with middle school students. She requested the move from William Fleming to Ruffner, where she's inspiring younger students to take math and science.
"I'd been at Fleming for 10 years, and I felt the urge to do something different," she said.
Audrey Weikel, an eighth-grader who wants to be a veterinarian, said she's glad that Lyman came to Ruffner. Otherwise, she said, she might not have taken algebra.
"If I have problems in understanding something, she takes the time to explain it to me," Weikel said. "She's one of the best teachers in the school."
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST/THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Student Wanda Wrightby CNBpoints to a math equation during Deborah Lyman's class at Ruffner
Middle School in Roanoke. Lyman is helping to foster girls' interest
in math and science. 2. Deborah Lyman's enthusiasm for teaching is
evident in class. color.