Math 354/355

Math 354/355 -- Math Enrichment for the Schools

(Autumn and Winter 2005-2006)

Information for Students

Welcome to Math 354/355!

This is in many ways an unusual math course:

My office is C-335 Padelford, phone 543-4386, e-mail koblitz@math.washington.edu (koblitz@math is enough if you are in the UW system). Office hours this quarter will be Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30-4:00. In addition, brief questions can be discussed before or after class.

The basic material for the course (both quarters) consists of three required books:

  1. The Bedford Handbook, 5th edition, by Diana Hacker, available at the University Bookstore. PLEASE NOTE: If you do not own a dictionary, please buy one, keep it by your side, and use it (as well as The Bedford Handbook) frequently when writing your papers.
  2. How To Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff, available at the University Bookstore.
  3. For All Practical Purposes: Mathematical Literacy in Today's World, also available at the University Bookstore (but you might be able to find it at lower cost online, for example, at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com).

This is a 5-credit course, so you are expected to devote a lot of time to it -- at least 10 hours per week not counting the MWF classes and the Thursday visits to the middle school.

Grading

Your course grade will be the average of two midterm grades. During each 5-week half-term there will be 4 writing assignments; the lowest paper grade will be dropped, and you may stop after 3 papers if you are satisfied with the grades on them. You are also required to participate in at least 8 hours of class visits during each half-term.

Each midterm grade will be made up as follows:

Writing assignments

One of the main purposes of the course is to improve the clarity and reduce the number of stylistic and grammatical errors in your writing. I believe that the generally accepted minimum writing standards at U.W. are far too low. Teachers (including math teachers) must write letters of recommendation for students, notes to parents/guardians, memos to colleagues, and sometimes grant proposals, magazine articles, contributions to textbooks, etc. Teachers who can write well are at a tremendous advantage over those who cannot.

In addition, many schools are now asking teachers to combine subjects (``integrated teaching''). Thus, a math teacher might be called upon to help students with multidisciplinary projects and grade the reports that they write.

A paper of 1 1/2 or 2 pages double-spaced (typewritten or word-processed -- please do not exceed 2 pages) will be due in class every week. The first writing assignment is to describe something that a math teacher did once that you thought was either an example of good teaching or an example of bad teaching.

After that, the topic of each short paper should be either (1) a specific issue discussed in class, in the readings, or in the media (newspapers, magazines, TV, films) or else (2) some observations from your experiences during a classroom visit or elsewhere.

Your papers should show some originality. This means that you should think carefully and deeply about your topic and find a fresh way of writing about it, rather than simply parroting what other people have said. In addition, you should do your best to follow correct English grammar, style, and word usage. The papers should convey the impression that the writer is sophisticated, articulate, and well-educated.

I will make corrections and comments on your paper, and return it at the next class. You are expected to rewrite it and hand in the revised paper at the following class. Out of the 40% of the course grade from the writing assignments, 30% will come from the grades for the revised papers, and only 10% from the grades for the papers before final revision. In most cases, the initial grade on the paper before revision is likely to be low.

Late papers will not be accepted.

Note that Math 354 and 355 can be used to earn W-course credit. To receive such credit, I insist that your writing improve over the quarter. I expect that by the end of the quarter the first version of your paper will be of at least minimally acceptable quality, and your second version will be better. Specifically, in order for you to receive W credit, the average grade on the last three papers you write this quarter must be (1) 2.5 or above for the first version and (2) 2.8 or above for the revised version. Otherwise, you will not receive W credit for this course.

Journal

You are required to keep a journal in which you record your observations about the classroom visits and your thoughts about the readings, the math topics, and the class discussions. The journal will be of use in writing your weekly essays, and will also serve as your permanent record of your experiences in this course. I will briefly examine your journal from time to time.

Teaching

Every Thursday part of the class will accompany me to a middle school to present math enrichment topics to several classes. Each of you is expected to come to the school for at least 16 hours during the quarter. You are encouraged to come as often as you can.

After one of us briefly explains a topic to the class and tells the children what they are to do, your role will be to work with them individually or in groups of two to four, answering their questions, repeating or amplifying the explanations when necessary, monitoring and correcting their work, and encouraging them to participate fully.

The purposes of the classroom visits are:

Details about the class visits (times, location, etc.) will be given in class.

The mathematics

The mathematical content of this course will consist of the subjects that we will be presenting to the middle school students, along with some more advanced material that is needed in order to fully appreciate the elementary examples. These topics, while ``serious'' -- in the sense that they are related to important applications to real life -- are also ``fun'' in the sense that they make the learning of math enjoyable. The topics include: graph theory (map coloring, graph coloring, spanning trees, dominating sets); prime numbers (a card game that generates primes); arithmetic games; cryptography (breaking a code by frequency analysis of letters); geometry with geo-boards; and statistics (mean, median, mode, and how they can be misused).

In our university class we will treat the mathematics in greater depth than in the middle school. Some of you will some day be teaching high school honors classes or advising high school math clubs and science fair projects, and so will benefit from understanding these enrichment topics at a more advanced level than needed for middle-school teaching.

Continuation in Spring 2006

The Math 354/355 sequence ends at the end of Winter quarter. However, if you wish to continue going to the middle school, you may sign up for Math 398 (for 1 or 2 credits, depending on how frequently you plan to be at the school). Details will be given later.
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