He confesses he has always been a math geek, but Glen Van Brummelen says anyone can understand mathematics. He’s sure of it.
Van Brummelen, a professor at Quest University, met me at Brackendale Bean, where he gave me a math lesson and talked about his passion for teaching people to understand numbers. In April, he received the Mathematical Association of America’s Pacific Northwest Teaching Award.
For him, math has always been easy.
“I was always a math geek when I was a kid…. I loved to solve mathematical problems,” he says, sipping tea. “The mathematical universe is outstanding and beautiful. Connections are around every corner… It’s like living in a giant playground.”
His enthusiasm for numbers led him to his BSc in math from University of Alberta, then masters and doctorate degrees in the history of math from Simon Fraser University.
Learning the history behind the formulas made obscure concepts understandable, and now he likes to tell stories when he’s teaching math so students understand.
“I always start with a story. If the student can’t buy into why it is important, I am going to lose them. I don’t want them to memorize it and survive, I want them to be interested.
“If I say, ‘This is calculus and we are going to do derivatives now,’ everyone’s eyes glaze over. But If I say, ‘How hard do I need to hit the brakes for the car to stop in time?’ then it has meaning for them.”
His first job was at Kings University in Edmonton, the city where he grew up, and he was teaching at Bennington College in Vermont in 2006 when he was offered the job teaching at Quest. He leapt at the opportunity to be part of an innovative, start-up university.
“It was an enormous risk,” he explains. “I had a good job already. I was already living the dream, so to speak. I believed Canada needed to have a meaningful, innovative university…. But in the beginning, like any startup, you didn’t know if it would survive.”
Van Brummelen was one of the five founding professors – four are still there – when Quest’s doors opened with 73 students in 2007. This fall, there will be 700.
He’s proud to be a founder.
“The idea behind Quest is to have very engaged and genuine lessons, where students are asking why rather than how, and taking ownership of their learning,” he explains. In fact, the professors are called tutors at Quest to emphasize their role.
Quest has been rated number one in student engagement in Canada in the National Study of Student Engagement, Van Brummelen reports with pride. Now the university is a role model for other institutions, he says. “It is the most meaningful thing I have ever done. I was just part of it.”
He’s also proud to be part of the Squamish community where people, like him, are enthusiastic about life. Van Brummelen lives here with his wife and three children ages 12 to 19 (the eldest is a Quest student).
“It’s such a different place, such a unique town,” says Van Brummelen. “There’s an enthusiasm to engage… mostly with the outdoors, with nature.”
“The students of Quest, who I consider part of Squamish too, are passionate about how they want to contribute to the world.”
At other institutions, professors sometimes have a hard time engaging the students, especially in required courses that are not their main focus.
But at Quest, “they jump in with both feet,” he says, smiling broadly. “It’s very exciting.”
One student is using equations to come up with investment strategies for the stock market to decrease risk. Van Brummelen is excited to help his student on the project but says he is not interested in wealth.
“I honestly don’t care about money,” Van Brummelen says. “I am much more interested in telling stories and having fun.”
