Started in 2025, the Central Illinois Math Teacher Circle brings together math teachers and university mathematicians to engage in active, open-ended mathematical problem solving together. Teachers gain ideas for projects to use in their classrooms and discuss research-backed pedagogical approaches.
All in-service STEM teachers are warmly invited to participate, as well as pre-service teachers. There is no cost to participate and teachers will earn CPDU credit hours. Meetings will resume in Fall, 2025.
CIMTC Leadership Team
Jacob L. Beckey obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Before that, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Birmingham in England where he obtained a Masters in Quantum Technology. During his undergraduate degree, his positive experience at Clarion University of Pennsylvania instilled a desire to teach at similarly sized, primarily undergraduate institution — a goal he is still working towards as a NSF Mathematical Sciences and IQUIST Postdoc at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the Co-founder and Vice President of the Idealized Science Institute, an educational non-profit focusing on empowering high school STEM teachers to engage their students in authentic scientific practices.
Beth Runkel holds a master’s degree in mathematics education from DePaul University and has been teaching high school math since 1997. She taught in the Chicago Public Schools until 2022 and has been teaching at the University of Illinois Lab School in Urbana since then. Her current passion is inverse functions – how do we teach them to ensure deep student understanding? She enjoys collaborating with other math teachers and preservice teachers and has learned so much about teaching and learning from those associations. She is excited to be a founding member of the Central Illinois Math Teacher Circle and looks forward to collaborating with you!