Day 01, MAT115, Spring 2010
Introduction to Mathematics for Liberal Arts
- Welcome!
- 3x5 cards: Please fill out the card, indicating
- Name
- Hometown
- Year (Freshman, etc.)
- Major
- Working status (If so, where and how much?)
- Something special about yourself.
- Your assignments, for Wednesday, 1/13:
- Sign your class agreement, if you wish to stay in the class.
- Read the chapter "Welcome" (pages xi-xiv) and
Section 1.1;
Attempt stories #1, 3, 5, 7, 9 from Section 1.1. You may even enjoy reading the other "fun and games", but these five will be our focus on Wednesday.
You may read Section 1.2 (hints), but do not read 1.3
(solutions)!
-
There are far too many topics in the text to cover everything: you
should take a look at the text in case you would like to suggest some
topics for coverage. I'll be finalizing the schedule in the next week,
but will give you a chance to make requests for coverage of any
particular topics of interest on Wednesday.
- I'll put a couple of copies of the text on reserve at the library, for those who haven't purchased their texts yet.
- The syllabus
-
This particular section of the course would not exist without our
textbook, The Heart of
Mathematics. It is absolutely essential that you read it! The
authors know how most people feel about mathematics, and want to help!
They apologize for all the stupid jokes....
- Attitude: your best friend, or worst enemy
- The assignment page will be updated as we go along.
- Class will be organized around discussions of material, and
activities. You must be prepared to contribute! My role will be
to present and clarify, but moreover to moderate the
discussions, and be a resource.
- Another resource will be the Norsemathology wiki: material will be written just for you, and you will be expected to read it there.
- The authors claim that our goal is more than just mathematics -- there are
"Lessons for life (from our textbook, page 28)" that we should
focus on:
- Just do it.
- Make mistakes and fail, but never give up.
- Keep an open mind.
- Explore the consequences of new ideas.
- Seek the essential.
- Understand the issue.
- Understand simple things deeply.
- Break a difficult problem into easier ones.
- Examine issues from several points of view.
- Look for patterns and similarities.
- Let's try a little gambling game, about birthdays:
- I always like to give you ways to win money, so here's one.
- We're going to go around and check birthdays (just month and day,
not year!)
- What's the chance that two student in this room have the same
birthday (month, day)?
- What are the odds? (What are odds?!)
- Next time: we'll play some of the "fun and games" our authors feature in
chapter 1.
Website maintained by Andy Long.
Comments appreciated.