LYNN — Karl-Dieter Crisman has been honored with a national education award in mathematics due to his efforts at schools worldwide. 

The Lynn resident was one of three recipients of the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award on May 30. The award is presented to university and college professors recognized for influence outside of their institutions.  

Crisman, a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Gordon College, has been an active educator and mentor on the North Shore for more than 20 years. He promotes a method of experiential learning that brings creativity to mathematics. 

Mathematics is not often thought of as a creative practice. However, Crisman challenged this stereotype, saying creativity was necessary for math to exist. Formulas were created through exploration and experimentation, and that’s creativity in its finest form, he said. 

One of the practices Crisman prides himself on is the combination of physical activity with different branches of mathematics, for example, creating geometry outdoors. He credits this teaching style to research suggesting that actively learning math and science subjects helps students retain more information when compared to lecture-based teaching. 

“Geometry has always been hands-on,” said Crisman. “You’re drawing the triangle, you’re constructing the circle… so we tried something and the students responded really positively, so we actually did it again this past fall.” 

“You have to try a lot of stuff, and that’s the creative part, which is figuring out what’s actually true because there is actual truth in mathematics,” Crisman said as he echoed a point made by famous mathematician Georg Cantor, that the essence of mathematics is in its freedom.  

At Gordon College, Crisman has continuously engaged in mentoring undergraduate students, which in some cases leads to publishing research papers with them. 

This style of Crisman’s mentorship has followed Gordon College’s message of advising holistically, encouraging the students to flourish in their own ways. 

“They’re spreading their wings, they’re starting to do the things that they didn’t even know they could do… There might be other models for how you do things in the academy, but I’ll stick with what we do here, which is to engage as powerfully with students as we can,” he said. 

Students from all over the world have been impacted by Crisman’s teaching, whether it was in student tutoring programs associated with Lynn Classical High School, or teaching three-week courses at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Crisman has engaged in computational teaching courses at AIMS since 2014, and even once taught a course while simultaneously teaching at Gordon College. 

His teaching career has been driven by a pure love of mathematics and being able to share its beauty with others in unique ways.

“You get to build people up and see them grow in ways other than learning the stuff,” Crisman said. “Teaching is much more about character formation and affect.” 

One thing Crisman addressed is how honored he’s been to be one of the recipients of a national education award, saying he hopes he made as much of an impact in the mathematics world and on students as others who have been honored in the past. 

“I respect them so much,” Crisman said, adding that he hopes his contribution is only a fraction of what other award recipients have contributed to the world.