Category Archives: Assignments

OpenLab #9: Advice for the Future

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Assignment (due Thursday, December 17 – final exam day).  Imagine that you are invited to speak on the first day of MAT 2071, to give advice to entering students.  Write at least three sentences responding to at least one of the following, describing what you would tell them.

  1. What do you wish that you had been told at the start of this class, to help you succeed?
  2. Choose one topic in the course that is especially challenging. Identify it, and give advice to students trying to master that topic.
  3. What is the most important prior knowledge (not taught in the class) that you need in order to succeed?  Why is it important?

Extra Credit.  Respond to someone else’s comment.  Do you agree? disagree? Have anything to add?

Weeks 15 and 16 Assignments

Assignments

UPDATE 12/3/15:  As discussed in class today, I’ve adjusted the assignment due next Tuesday (as we didn’t cover the material in Sections 12.1 and 12.2 this week).

Following are the assignments for the last two weeks of class.  NOTE: I will be out during the week of Dec 7-11, returning on Dec 15.

Assignments for Week 15 (11/30 – 12/4):

Written work – Due Tuesday, 12/8:
Sec 11.2 p187: 1,2,7 (In addition, complete Example 11.8 at the top of p182).
WeBWorK – none
OpenLab – none
Project – Project Reflection is due BY EMAIL on Thursday, 12/8

Assignments for Week 16 (12/7 – 12/11):

 

Written work – The following problems from the book are due next Tuesday, 12/15 suggested (for practice), but not required (and will not be collected).
Sec 12.1 p200: 1,3,7,10
Sec 12.2 p204: 1,7,8
Sec 12.4 p210: 3, 7, 10
Sec 12.5 p214: 2,6
Sec 12.6 p216: 1,2
WeBWorK – none
OpenLab – OpenLab #9: Advice for the Future, due December 17 (final exam day)

In-Class Group Project Activity 10/20/15 – Make and Test Conjectures

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NOTE: As a component of OpenLab #6, each person should bring to class a conjecture or question about the Bridges and Walking Tours game.

Group Activity (30 min).  Get into your groups, arrange your chairs in a circle, and take 30 minutes to:

1. Each person should share their conjecture with the group.  For each conjecture, the group should decide if they think it is true or false (or don’t know).  The group should record their conclusion for each conjecture.

2. Choose one conjecture (or create a new one) to focus on as a group.  Your goal for the next few weeks will be to try to prove or disprove this conjecture.  Come up with several ideas about how you might prove it.

Group work due after 30 minutes:  Each group will hand in a sheet of paper with the names of the group members, the date, and the following:
– Each member’s conjecture, along with a brief description of what the group thinks – is it true or false?
– Be sure to clearly indicate which of the conjectures the group has chosen to work on – or, if you have created a new conjecture to work on as a group, include that as well.
– Two different ideas about how you might try to prove the chosen conjecture.

Reflection:  To be completed individually after group work is complete, and submitted on paper with your names and the date.  Take 5 minutes to write on the following prompt:

Briefly reflect on the process of working in a group by responding to each of these points:
1.  Describe something you learned.
2.  Describe something you contributed to the group.
3.  How did today’s work change your understanding of your assigned game?

Week 9 Assignments

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Written work, Due Tuesday, November 3rd, in class:
Chapter 6 p.116: 3,4,5,8,9
      **NOTE: this assignment is not due until November 3rd, HOWEVER I strongly recommend that you spend some time working on the first problem before Tuesday October 27 – this is a tricky topic and tends to give people some trouble, so early preparation will help you!
WeBWorK – none
OpenLab – OpenLab #7 due Thursday, October 29th at the start of class

Class work: There will be group & individual work completed & submitted in class on Tuesday 10/20/15, which will count towards your “Project” grade.

Homework Chp 5 Update – problem #20

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Hi everyone,

Problem #20 in Chapter 5 uses an idea that we have *not* yet covered in class.  It is no longer a required problem – you don’t have to do it – but I will give you extra credit if you turn in a solution.  This is excellent practice in reading and applying a definition (just as we have been doing for the definitions of odd, even, divides, and so on).  The problem relies on a new definition, that of congruence mod n – it appears in the book as Definition 5.1 on page 105, but I will also give it here:

Definition.  Given integers a and b, and n \in \mathbb{N}, we say “a is congruent to b mod n”, or a \equiv b \pmod n, if
n | (b-a).

For example, if are told that x \equiv 7 \pmod 3, then we can conclude:
3|(7-x)  (by the definition of congruence), and
7-x = 3k for some integer k (by the definition of divides)

Hope this helps!  Please write back and let me know if you have any questions.

Best of luck,
Prof. Reitz