University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu students Sarah Elaina Arios and Dylan Mason Blue recently presented at the 52nd Annual Conference of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning (RCML), an event which aims to share current research in mathematics education.
The RCML conference, which took place March 6-8 in College Station, Texas, had the theme, “Innovating and Integrating: Advancing Mathematics Learning Across Disciplines.” RCML is a professional community of researchers interested in mathematics education who value collaboration and interdisciplinary research efforts.
“Of the over 200 graduate students and mathematics education faculty in attendance, Sarah and Dylan were the only undergraduate student presenters and the only presenters from Hawai‘i,” said Dr. Eric Kobayashi, UH West O‘ahu Mathematics lecturer, who attended the conference with the two students.
Arios and Blue’s presentation titled, “Learning Community High Impact Practice – Investigation of the PAL Program and Lower Division Math,” highlighted the Peer Academic Leader (PAL) program, a component of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded grant, Broadening Engagement in Mathematics – Participation and Readiness in Education Project (BE-MathPREP).
“Through this process, the students gained valuable experience with professional research conferences and were able to network with other experts in the fields of mathematics and mathematics education,” Kobayashi said. “They received feedback on their presentation and are excited to continue their research.”
Arios, a Psychology major who plans to graduate in spring 2026, said the conference was helpful in preparing her for future schooling.
“It was nice to connect with professors and experts in multiple fields, not just math education, as well as receive feedback and take a look at multiple perspectives in terms of pedagogy and modes of research,” said Arios, of Mililani. “This conference also allowed me to get outside my comfort zone and broaden my research stances — all while being able to connect with my colleague and advisor.”
Overall, the conference was a great experience, said Blue, who is majoring in Creative Media and planning to graduate in spring 2027.
“I was able to go out of my comfort zone and present research in front of other professors and graduate students,” the ‘Ewa Beach resident said. “Being able to do so not only increased my confidence in my public speaking ability, but also in my ability to produce work that is on par with other researchers.”
He continued, “Above personal growth, I was able to learn more about what other projects people were working on and the impacts they are making. Coming from a Creative Media student who works on different software development projects, it was nice to see how researchers were using different software tools (AI Text-to-Image Generation) as a pedagogical strategy to teach mathematics to students.”
Arios and Blue were mentored by Kobayashi and Dr. Veny Liu, Associate Professor of Mathematics and BE-MathPREP Principal Investigator. Student travel funding was provided through the NSF grant, Puko‘a Kani ‘Āina (PKA) Undergraduate Research grant.