Helping mathematics students
develop information competency
Section NExT, Spring 2003
MAA Southern California Section
Bruce E. Shapiro
bruce.e.shapiro@csun.edu
http://www.bruce-shapiro.com/presentations.html
Information Competency
• How do we obtain a process information?
• Good communication skills are the key to
advancement in any job
–
–
–
–
Writing
Speaking
Electronic communication
Navigating the world-wide-web
What we expect ...
• Read the book
– before the material is discussed in class
• Attend class
– Take notes as necessary
– Reinforce what they have read
– Raise questions, clarify difficulties
• Review notes and text after class
• Do homework, i.e., work problems
What really happens ...
• Come to class (sometimes)
• Look at the homework
• Look for examples that are similar to the
assigned problems
• Mimic the examples
– when that fails, look for examples in notes
– when that fails, ask for a worked example
– when that fails, give up
• Read the book ... not!
Ereading Assignment
• Variation on weekly reading interpretation
assignments
• Due Weekly Sunday Night at Midnight
– 48 hour grace (so really due Tuesday Midnight)
– Absolutely no exceptions beyond grace period
• Summarize:
– What they learned in class last week
– What they learned from the text last week
– Identify at least one thing they did not understand
in the text, the lecture or the homework
Ereading Assignment
• No paper allowed
– Originally by email, now use cgimail (web form)
• Grading
– 1/0: turn in/not turned in
– Overall 10% of semester grade
• Math classes used in:
– Math 103 - Business Calculus (1)
– Math 150A/150B/250 - Calculus I/II/III (1/1/2)\
– Math 351 - Differential Equations (2)
Name: ********************
Email: *******************
Assignment: 7: Due October 20, 2002
---------- ---------- What I Learned in Class -------- ---------1. Directinoal Derivative: D˚ f = ˚ . grad f
2. D˚ T = rate of change of temperature
as we move in ˚ direction.
3. A function increases most rapidly in the direction of grad f.
4. Maximum rate of change is |grad f|
Minimum rate of change is -|grad f|
5. Chain Rule:
du/dt = Du/Dx dx/dt + Du/Dy dy/dt
--> u depends on x and y; x and y depends on t
6. Implicit Differentiation:
dy/dx = - Df/Dx / Df/Dy
---------- ---------- What I Learned by Reading the Book -------- ---------1. Tangent Plane: need a normal and a point in the plane
gradF<xo,yo,zo> DOT <x-xo, y-yo, z-zo> = 0
2. f has global max and global min values if it is continuous.
3. Critical Points:
boundary, stationary or singular points
4. Second Parital Test:
useful to find local max, local min, and saddle point.
---------- ---------- What Confused Me -------- ---------Lagrange's method is still a mystery.
---------- ---------- Additional Comments -------- ---------nothing to declare.
Name: ********************
Email: ********************
Assignment: 1: Due September 8, 2002
---------- ---------- What I Learned in Class -------- ---------Well, aside from the fact that I've learned not to take math 280 and math 250
concurrently, I learned about vectors. I learned to add 'em, subtract 'em,
multiply 'em (dot and cross). I also learned that I really like the mint
"Milano" cookies by Pepperidge Farm. I wonder if people in Milan really eat
them?
---------- ---------- What I Learned by Reading the Book -------- ---------Key points so far:
Vectors in three dimensions. Again, multiplication--dot product, cross
product. Equation of a plane and sphere. Determinants (interesting).
Direction angles and cosines.
---------- ---------- What Confused Me -------- ---------Problem 34 in section 14.2 was a little tough. With vectors, it seems as if
we generally think of them as emmanating out of the origin. With this
problem, however, it was a little different--vector between two points.
---------- ---------- Additional Comments -------- ---------None at this time.
Name: ********************
Email: ********************
Assignment: 5: Due October 6, 2002
---------- ---------- What I Learned in Class -------- ---------I learned about limits and continuity.
---------- ---------- What I Learned by Reading the Book -------- ---------The key points were limits and continuity and differentiability.
---------- ---------- What Confused Me -------- ---------I didn't understand problem number 12 on 15.3.
---------- ---------- Additional Comments -------- ---------I have no other comments.
Name: ********************
Email: ********************
Assignment: 6: Due October 13, 2002
---------- ---------- What I Learned in Class -------- ---------more on partial differentiation
---------- ---------- What I Learned by Reading the Book -------- ---------directional derivatives and the chain rule With partial differentiation
---------- ---------- What Confused Me -------- ---------15.5 number 20
---------- ---------- Additional Comments -------- ---------I have no other comments.
Average Compliance (±1 std dev) (n=245)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Week of Semester
11
12
13
14
15
Average Compliance (±1 std dev) (n=245)
100%
Attendance
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Week of Semester
11
12
13
14
15
4.0
3.5
3.0
GPA
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0%
20%
40%
60%
Compliance
80%
100%
Ereading Summary
• Students are about as likely to do their
homework as they are to come to class
• Is there a weak correlation between
compliance and grade?
– Turning in homework leads to good grades, OR:
– Good students turn in their homework
Term paper
• Classes
– Upper Level Differential Equations (3 times)
– Upper Level Numerical Analysis
• Structured writing assignment
– Topic is chosen by student
• Must be something that is not covered in class that semester
– Proposal (abstract plus 5 references, 1-2 pages)
– Paper (page limited)
– Presentation (Limited to 5 minutes)
What does this have to do with
technology?
• Doing a term paper is not the same thing it was
10 years ago. A literature search has changed:
– Online electronic book catalogs
– Online journal search engines: Medline, MathSciNet,
WebOfScience, etc.
– Most journals are online
– Tremendous amount of on-line material
• Students don’t know how to wade through all this material
• A literature search is not a Google search.
• Learn how to order/obtain material that is not
physically in the library
• Learn how to use Library facilities
Typical topics chosen
• Differential equations
– Fourier Analysis
– Transforms
– Various PDES: wave,
Laplace/Poisson, Maxwell,
Schrödinger
– Population Biology
– Stock Options
– Electrical Circuits
– Chaos, Fractals
– High School teaching
programs
– Special equations, e.g.,
Bessel
• Numerical Analysis
– Image processing
– Graphics
– Solving systems of
nonlinear equations
– Chaos, fractals
– Monte-Carlo simulations
– Encryption
– Systems of ODEs
– Various work-related topics
Early Homework Assignment
• Go to the library, pick any journal you like, and find the instructions
for authors. From these instructions, give an example of precisely
how you would format each of the following in your manuscript:
a) A reference to a specific text.
b) A reference to a journal article.
c) A reference to a web site.
d) A reference to a chapter in a book where every chapter is written
by a different author.
• Indicate both how you would refer to the reference in the text of your
manuscript and how you would refer to it in the references section of
your paper.
Why write?
• Hone writing skills
– Learn to do discipline specific research
– Learn to learn on their own.
– A finished project is a great confidence builder.
• Learn to follow directions: grant application,
company pub, journal article.
– Students are given specific format instructions: Fonts,
page numbering, margins, bibliographic styles
• Learn to typeset equations
– Use Equation editor, compatible with most major
word processors (Not allowed to use Latex)
– Microsoft Word (Universal US Govt Std.)
Why Talk?
• Students will need to be able to communicate
their ideas to others in virtually any future
employment
– Students are allowed to use any AV equipment they
desire; most choose overhead, some do powerpoint,
posters, chalk (difficult in 5 minutes).
• First time before a live audience
– They learn not only by doing but also by observing
their colleagues
– Students do simple written critiques
• Many students are in math education!
Student Evaluations
Name of presenter:
Overall Rating on a scale of 1
(worst) to 10 (best):
Topic:
The presentation was interesting.
I understood everything that was said.
The presentation was well organized.
The presenter is knowledgeable of the subject.
The content was relevant to the course.
The presenter used the time well.
The presenter made good use of visual aids.
The handouts were helpful (if applicable).
Additional Comments:
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Not Sure
Agree
Agree
Agree
Agree
Agree
Agree
Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Strongly Agree
Additional Student Comments:
 Good job. Nice graphics.
 Interesting topic.
 Well o rganized.
 Knew what she was talking about.
 Good coordination of food with topic.
 Good job.
 Throw the gum out before you speak – it makes it
easier to talk 
 Very interesting talk, good job.
 Good Job!!
You need to speak up and project your voice – you
speak so softly it is very hard to hear you at times.
Good job.
Kept us entertained through the entire
presentation
 Nice model!
 WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 Good presentation and great visual aids.
 Very interesting. Awesome
demonstration.
 Loved how it was different from
everyone else. Like how he didn’t read
off papers/slides.


Good job!
Nice topic, fun to lis ten to.
Very funny. A nice look on stabili ty.
Very good presentation.
Cute and fun topic. Makes application
of DE’s more fun..
 Fun topic
 Interesting concept.
 Cool topic!
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Final exam question
• Write an essay discussing the most valuable
lesson(s) you learned doing the project. Discuss
the significance of this (these) lesson(s) in terms
of your personal educational and/or career
objectives. If you had it to do over again, how
would you do the project differently? Having
seen everyone else’s presentations, would you do
the presentation differently? If so, how, and if
not, why not? There is no “right” or “wrong”
answer to this question. Can you come up with a
list of pointers for someone who is making a
presentation?
Common Answers
• I learned that I could learn about
something in math on my own.
• Giving a talk is harder than I thought.
• I learned how to express my ideas on paper
- I didn’t know I could do that in math!
• I finally learned how to find stuff in the
library.
And from a graduating senior
• “this is the first time I ever had to actually
go into the stacks in the library and find a
book.”