This is the summary of a presentation given at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 10-13, 1996, Orlando, Florida.

The blocks and confusion encountered when many students first confront abstract algebra are easily mitigated by the assignment of a specific finite group to each student, to be used throughout the course to illustrate theorems and suggest patterns and structure. To simulate the research experience, each student is given a pair of matrices or functions from which his or her group is to be generated. Concepts such as generators and defining relations, subgroup lattices, conjugacy classes, and isomorphisms become concrete and natural to the students. When asked to classify their groups into isomorphism classes, the students organize a meeting to exchange their results, simulating the communication and collaboration in research.

This approach has been used successfully for nine years at Miami University.

Bruce A. Magurn, Miami University