Changing the Culture 2026
Topic
The annual Changing the Culture Conference, organized and sponsored by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, brings together mathematicians, mathematics educators and school teachers from all levels to work together towards narrowing the gap between mathematicians and teachers of mathematics, and between those who do and enjoy mathematics and those who think they don't. The theme of the 2026 Changing the Culture conference is: The New Constant: AI in Mathematics Education
Details
The annual Changing the Culture Conference, organized and sponsored by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, brings together mathematicians, mathematics educators and school teachers from all levels to work together towards narrowing the gap between mathematicians and teachers of mathematics, and between those who do and enjoy mathematics and those who think they don't.
Date: Friday, May 15, 2026
Location: SFU-Vancouver at Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver, Canada
As in past years, registration for this event is free, but we ask you to complete the registration using the button on this page. Please register by Tuesday May 12th.
Additional Information
Conference Program
8:00 Registration
8:45 Opening Remarks
9:00 Plenary Talk I:
The Modern Traditionalist: Bridging the Post-Secondary Mathematics Gap in the Digital Age
Douglas Tam, St Georges School
Mathematics education, particularly in the secondary school setting is often caught in a philosophical divide. On one side is the modern movement towards Standards-Based Grading, Building Thinking Classrooms, and student well-being. On the other hand lies the traditional, uncompromising reality of university STEM programs, which demand objective precision, high-stakes performance, and deep cognitive stamina. Students caught in the middle often experience a “Post-Secondary Cliff”, a brutal transition from protected settings to stressful exams.
My journey in the last few years has been to not abandon either camp, but to combine the most prevalent parts of both the modern and traditional philosophies. The teaching and learning culture of my school is shifting, and students are becoming more aware of their own mathematics profile.
In this plenary talk, we will identify some of the cliffs naturally produced by the BC Ministry and curriculums like the IB. I will share how I’ve shifted our school’s assessment culture to be both progressive and traditional in hopes of better preparing students for post-secondary STEM, and how technology and AI have made this journey possible.
10:00 Coffee Break, (1400 Segal Centre)
10:30 Workshops
Workshop A: LaTeX + AI - The Perfect Duo for High Quality STEM Documentation
Douglas Tam, St. George's School
Tired of MS Word and Google Docs destroying your formatting every time you insert an equation or adjust a margin? This hands-on workshop introduces a frictionless workflow that pairs the typesetting power of LaTeX with the generative speed of AI. We will walk through a step-by-step process to instantly build flawlessly formatted, professional-grade math assessments, in a fraction of the time.
Participants will receive access to my personal LaTeX templates and AI prompt structures. Please bring a laptop and an existing quiz you would like to instantly upgrade during our live build session.
Workshop B: Why Machines Learn; using the mathematics of AI to motivate learning mathematics
Brenda Davison, SFU
12:00 PIMS Award Ceremony
12:15 Lunch
13:00 Plenary Talk II.
The New Student-LLM Partnership: Feedback, Cognitive Offloading, and Exploration
Nahid Walji, UBC
14:00 Panel Discussion
15:30 Concluding Remarks