Wartburg College professor Mariah Birgen is the recipient of the 2020 Iowa Section of the Mathematical Association of America’s award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.

Recipients are widely recognized as extraordinarily successful in their teaching, having teaching effectiveness that can be documented, having had influence in their teaching beyond their own institution, and fostering curiosity and generating excitement about mathematics in their students. She was nominated by Amanda Matson, professor of mathematics and coordinator of transitions at Clarke University.

Birgen is now in the running for the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award, a national award that recognizes a college or university teacher within the field of mathematics. Three college or university teachers are honored with this award annually.

“For the past 10 years, I’ve been really experimenting with a novel teaching technique, or at least novel to most of mathematics, called inquiry-based learning,” Birgen said. “That is pulling away from textbooks and lecturing to more of a student-centered, student-designed philosophy. This keeps the students as the center of the classroom and not the professor.”

Despite the pandemic, Birgen has taught all of her classes in-person this fall, though she is studying techniques that would work for her students if the classes were to transition to remote learning.

“This award reminds me that I really do make a difference and it motivates me to work harder and try harder,” Birgen said.

Birgen has been at Wartburg since 1997 when she completed her doctorate at the University of Michigan. She wasn’t interested in teaching at a larger institution because of the opportunities that smaller liberal arts schools could provide.

“This is possible because I get to work with students who want to learn new things. They have the work ethic to figure stuff out. They don’t give up when things get hard.”