Math in the City for Teachers

Spring 2012, Math 816T Section 700

Materials and Announcements:

Most materials, announcements, and other communication will be done through Blackboard.

Instructors:

	Stephen Hartke	Mikil Foss
Office:	Avery Hall 339	Avery Hall 221
Phone:	402-472-7001	402-472-9101
Email:	hartke@math.unl.edu	mfoss@math.unl.edu

General Information about the Course:

This is a mathematical modeling course run in collaboration with local businesses, research or administrative centers. The mathematical content of the course is diverse. The difficulty of the topics will be perceived differently by students; each of you will discover that it depends a lot on your background, the way you think and communicate in mathematics. The discussions will be more beneficial if you keep up with the project on a regular basis. Do not hesitate to ask questions in or outside the class whenever in doubt about an argument, notation, etc. At the end of this course a successful student will not only have performed very well on the tasks during the semester, but s/he will be able to approach other real life problems that involve mathematics with more confidence.

This semester we will be focusing on mathematical aspects of investment.

Assessment:

Your final grade will based on your participation (documented through student journals, and communication with your group and the instructors) and the final project (memos, intermediate drafts, final report, presentation).

Memos. Students will be required to write periodical memos or updates to summarize the work they have done on the project, to present the issues they have encountered, and sketch the direction for future work.

Journals. After each lecture the students will record in their journals (electronic files that they will continuously update) comments and reflections about the material they have encountered, questions they may have, and different ideas related to the project.

Guidelines for grading the report.

mathematical content - presentation of the methods used, setting up the model, correct formulas and arguments, complete explanations
aesthetic aspect (use of graphs, diagrams, colors) and organization
present the novelty and the significance of the work (any research that was done on the subject, new methods, programming skills that you learned while working on the project, emphasize the importance of the work)
Each project should have 3 parts. The Introduction will contain a project description, an outline of the methods used, and the significance of the work. In the Main Body you will include the work: a set-up of the problem, the hypothesis, the arguments, and the steps taken to solve the problem. The conclusions will contain the final results and their interpretation.

Presentations. Each group will make a 30 minute presentation summarizing the results of their project. These presentations are tentatively scheduled for Monday April 30.

All participants in a group project will receive the same grade, so it is important that each person in the group participates fully and equally.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the instructor for a confidential discussion of their individual needs for academic accommodation. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln to provide flexible and individualized accommodation to students with documented disabilities that may affect their ability to fully participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. To receive accommodation services, students must be registered with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office, 132 Canfield Administration, 472-3787 voice or TTY.