Blog – ALC Math Tutors' Site

5/8 math tutors’ meeting re-cap

May 8, 2017 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

Present: Hughes, Yuliya, Professor Poirier

At today’s meeting the following items were discussed:

Some material for MAT 1190 can be used for MAT 2580 and for physics (solving systems of linear equations).
The z-score table for MAT 1190 that is available in the ALC contains information only for positive values of z. Students will have to understand 7 different cases to determine how to calculate the area under the normal distribution curve. The old table for MAT 1180 contains the negative z-values; Professor Poirier will double-check that the table for MAT 1190 is current. Different tables are used for these courses and for MAT 1372.
Since there were few students in the ALC compared to other times, Professor Poirier also used the meeting to conduct short observations of the tutoring sessions for the tutors present.

4/6 math tutors’ meeting re-cap

April 6, 2017 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

Present: Hughes, Frederic, Professor Poirier

At today’s meeting the following items were discussed:

Student verification slips, additions that could be made to them, and how they might be used as communication between faculty and tutors.
MAT 2440 and 2540.
Tutor observations.

ALC Math Tutors’ Meeting – March 16

March 16, 2017 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

Thanks to Frederic, Yulia, and Hughes for attending the tutors’ meeting on March 16. For everyone else, here are the items that we discussed:

The ALC Math Tutors’ OpenLab site has been redesigned; Professor Poirier discussed with the tutors what else could be added to the site.
During the discussion on the OpenLab site, special emphasis was given to the new MAT 1190 Cheat Sheets which are available for tutors who need a quick introduction or review for some less familiar topics covered in MAT 1190.
Professor Poirier informed the tutors that scoring guides for the MAT 1275 final exam are in development. These guides will be made available to tutors when they are available.
Professor Poirier informed the tutors about plans in the works for re-sequencing lower-level math courses to accommodate for the elimination of MAT 1175.
Tutor observations will be conducted in the next few weeks.

Next tutors’ meeting: Thursday, April 6, 4-5pm.

MAT 1190 Cheat Sheets

March 13, 2017 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

MAT 1190 is a course in quantitative reasoning. This course should be understood as a survey course covering math topics–both theoretical and applied–that students encounter in the real world. ALC tutors who have a background in pure math only may not feel familiar with all the topics covered in this class and thus may think they are unprepared to offer help to students who need it. However, because this is a survey course and has no prerequisite math courses (CUNY proficiency in math and reading is the only requirement), most topics are covered at an elementary level only. Tutors will find that they either are familiar enough with the topics, even though they never formally learned them in a class, or they can familiarize themselves with the topics rather easily. Indeed, all ALC math tutors should be capable of tutoring all MAT 1190 topics.

The documents in this post summarize some of the topics that fall outside the usual algebra-to-calculus course sequence–topics that some tutors might initially feel unfamiliar with. While these documents cover only the basics necessary for MAT 1190, tutors who firmly understand these summaries should feel confident in tutoring MAT 1190 students. See the final exam review sheet and homework exercises on the course outline for further practice problems.

The MAT 1190 course outline is available here.
The MAT 1190 final exam review sheet is available here.

Chapters 1 and 3: Reasoning and Logic Cheat Sheet
Chapter 11: Probability Cheat Sheet

Math in the disciplines – unit conversion

February 18, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

Students often struggle to apply abstract mathematical concepts to real-world problems. These might be word problems assigned as math homework, which often appear in a section titled Applications, at the end of a chapter in their math textbooks. These might be problems appearing in one of their other classes like Chemistry, Hospitality Management or Engineering. Or these might be problems that students are solving in their heads in their day-to-day lives, without even realizing that they are applying abstract math concepts.

Tutors may not realize that they can help students with such topics when they pop up in other disciplines, but a tutor’s expertise can be extremely valuable here. The tutor should have a firm grasp of the big picture (the abstract math concept) and the ability to recognize how and when it is applied in different contexts. The tutor has the chance to help the student realize that, “Hey, this is the same math concept, just dressed up in different ways!”

In this post, we tackle a topic that appears in each of these three realms: unit conversion. Continue reading

Tutor meeting December 10 – The formal definition of limit

February 17, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

We touched only briefly on the topic of limits at December’s meeting, so I wanted to follow up here. The concept of a limit is absolutely fundamental in a calculus class, but it’s also one that causes the most trouble for students. One possible reason for this is that in most college calculus classes, the formal definition of limit is not even given! The reason that the formal definition is often skipped is that it can look scary to someone who hasn’t seen it before, and it can take a long time to develop an intuitive understanding of what a limit is from the definition. While a tutor will probably never discuss this formal definition with a calculus student, the tutor himself or herself should have an understanding of the formal definition as well as how it implies the intuitive definition we usually give students.

The formal definition

Let $f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ be a function. We say “ $\lim_{x \to a} f(x) = L$ ” if for all $\varepsilon > 0$ there is a $\delta >0$ such that $|f(x) -L| < \varepsilon$ whenever $0 < |x-a| < \delta$ .

Quite a mouthful, eh?! Continue reading

Tutoring versus teaching

February 17, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

In a previous post I described the approach I take when I’m introducing even and odd functions to my class. I thought I’d follow up with a post exploring the similarities and differences between teaching and tutoring. Certainly, there will be times in a tutor’s life that he or she will be teaching a topic to a student. For example, if a student is catching up after having missed a lecture. Much of the time, however, the tutor will not be teaching in this way.

Who leads?

One clear way of drawing a distinction between teaching and tutoring is by asking the question, “Who’s leading the discussion?” There’s not always a hard and fast answer, for teaching or for tutoring, but in broad strokes one might say:

The teacher leads the discussion with the students.
The student leads the discussion with the tutor. Continue reading

Tutor meeting December 10 – Symmetry of functions

February 11, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

One of the topics we discussed at our December meeting was symmetry of functions. This topic is covered in MAT 1375 when students are learning about graphing functions, but it may appear in any course that includes functions of real numbers and their graphs.

Even or odd or….???

One issue that sometimes gives students trouble is the language that is used. An integer is either even or odd, but a function is either even or odd….or neither even nor odd! This difference between how the words are used to describe integers and how they’re used to describe functions can be really hard to process, since even and odd are such familiar concepts for integers. This difference also obfuscates a really important feature of functions: that most of them are neither even nor odd! Symmetry is a really special feature for a function to have; if you try to think of a random function, odds are that you’ll come up with one that does not have any symmetry. (Pun intended.)

Add to this the fact that there are other names that some people use instead of even and odd. An even function is said to have symmetry with respect to the y-axis and an odd function is said to have symmetry with respect to the origin. Continue reading

WeBWorK at CityTech

February 11, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

Students sometimes visit the ALC looking for help with WeBWorK problems, but what is WeBWorK?

WeBWorK is an online homework system that many math instructors at CityTech use in their classes. (Indeed, it’s used by many instructors and many colleges.) Some instructors use WeBWorK as a complement to traditional paper homework and others use it in place of traditional paper homework. Some instructors use WeBWorK to provide students with review exercises for practice, and some even use it for in-class quizzes and tests!

The way that WeBWorK works, roughly, is as follows: Continue reading

Tutor meeting November 19 – MAT 1275 technical sections

February 11, 2016 / Kate Poirier / 0 Comments

One of the items discussed at last November’s meeting was the special “technical” sections of MAT 1275 that are sometimes offered. These sections are designed to cover the same mathematics material that is covered in the regular sections of MAT 1257, but the presentation is much more motivated by real-world technical problems. While many math tutors in the ALC have a technical background, not all do. Even those who do might find that some of the applications used in these sections are unfamiliar. While tutors need not be world experts on all the specific applications, they are expected to understand them well enough to address how the mathematics is used in such realms when students come for help.

Students themselves may be enrolled in one of these sections without realizing that it’s special. When a student comes to the ALC for help with MAT 1275, the tutor should establish up front whether that student is enrolled in a standard section or a technical one.

We may discuss some of these applications at future meetings. For now, please consult the course outline linked below. The textbook is called Math for Electricity and Electronics and is written by Professor Kramer, who is a faculty member in the Math Department at CityTech. Professor Kramer taught one of these technical sections in Fall 2015 and Professor Smith is teaching one in Spring 2016.

MAT1275 Technical Section Course Outline

ALC Math Tutors' Site

5/8 math tutors’ meeting re-cap

4/6 math tutors’ meeting re-cap

ALC Math Tutors’ Meeting – March 16

MAT 1190 Cheat Sheets

Math in the disciplines – unit conversion

Tutor meeting December 10 – The formal definition of limit

Tutoring versus teaching

Tutor meeting December 10 – Symmetry of functions

WeBWorK at CityTech

Tutor meeting November 19 – MAT 1275 technical sections

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

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Accessibility

Copyright

Creative Commons