Math 203 -- What it is (information for instructors)

Here are a few thoughts about the course...

The text is For all Practical Purposes, 4th edition.

Math 203 is a covers a variety of accessible mathematical topics and their 
applications.  For example, it starts with applications of graph theory to
efficient garbage collection.  The course is designed so that even if a
student's prior experiences with mathematics were disastrous, the student
can still be successful (and enjoy) math 203.

The course offers a combination of flexibility and rigidity to the instructor.

Rigidity: Many materials have been prepared in advance for you to use.
    Specifically, you will receive (periodically) handouts for in-class
    activities, and there are videos which accompany particular sections of
    the text.

Flexibility: Because the course is not a prerequisite for any other course,
    you can in principle choose topics as you see fit.

You will want to watch each video in advance, if you have not done so before
(and perhaps even if you have).  At a minimum, this gives you the ability
to start and stop the video at the right place during the lecture.  Otherwise,
you may waste a lot of class time fiddling with the machine.  With more
forethought, you may be able to stop the video in the middle of a segment
and make comments or engage the students in discussion before returning to
the tape.

Your classroom will have a TV and VCR mounted in a cabinet.  Get a key for
the cabinet from Mavis, and make sure that you know how to use the equipment!
During the course, report any equipment problems immediately to Mavis.
After you watch a tape in class, rewind it (or bring it back to the place
where you think the next instructor will be starting).

You will need to think carefully about the writing assignments you wish to
assign.  In the "traditional" model, students turn in a journal each week
(with each student having a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday turn-in date), and 
you look them over and return them promptly.  These journals are more or less
free-form.  See the 203 web page for more information.  Some of us prefer
directed writing assignments, or a combination of journals and directed 
writing assignments.  For examples, see the 203 web page.  (As instructors
give me their first-day sheets, etc., I will post them to the page.)

Caveats: As the semester progresses, the students tend to run out of things
to say in their journals.  With more serious writing assignments, be aware
that the abilities of the students in the class vary greatly.  Some students 
will try to turn in reports loaded with spelling and grammatical errors.