Category: Assignment Instructions (Page 1 of 5)

Due Wednesday, December 18

Congratulations on making it to the end of the semester! Do you feel like a different person from who you were at the beginning of the semester??? You’re so much more knowledgeable and mature!

For this assignment, pretend you could get into a time machine and visit yourself from the beginning of the semester. (This is the other side of the back-to-the-future assignment you completed earlier in the semester.) What do you know now that you wish you knew then? Write a letter to deliver to your past self explaining how this semester went for you and how you figured out what it takes to succeed in this class. Include any tips you have for your past self and anything you wish you had done differently semester this semester. How would you motivate your past self to work hard for their upcoming 16 weeks? What do you want your past self to know about where you are now?

Submit your letter as a comment on this post. Your letters may be used for future students of this class!

You may submit your comment any time you like, but if you submit it by 11:59pm on the day of the final exam you will earn one more participation point.

Due Monday, December 1

November is Native American Heritage month! This assignment is similar to the one you completed for Hispanic Heritage Month. This time, you will profile an indigenous mathematician in a comment on this post.

The website indigenousmathematicians.org includes profiles of several indigenous mathematicians, many of them belonging to first nations of what is now known as North/Central/South America. (The website includes profiles of mathematicians belonging to first nations in other parts of the world; while this assignment is to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, if you find an indigenous mathematician from another part of the world and you’d like to profile them, go ahead.)

1. Scroll to the map or click on “profiles” or “honorees” to see a list of indigenous mathematicians.
2. Choose one mathematician you’d like to profile. Read their profile on the indigeneous mathematicians webpage.
3. See what else you can find out about the mathematician you chose. Many mathematicians have personal/academic webpages that include information that might not be in their profile. Try googling their name + “math.”

Your comment should include

1. The mathematician’s name and tribal/nation affiliation (if available).
2. Where they are now (most of them probably have a job at a university).
3. What field of math they do research in or a title of a recent research paper they published.
4. Any other interesting biographical details you can find out about them.
5. What made this person stand out to you.
6. A photograph of them (optional).

Feel free to use other websites as resources for finding out about indigenous mathematicians! Include any relevant links in your comment.

Comment due Sunday, November 25

Test #2 will be given in class Wednesday, December 4. The format will be similar to the format of Test #1 and Test #2.

Recall from Test #1 and Test #2 that one of the questions asked you a series of conceptual true/false questions where you had to justify your answer. Another question asked you for a series of examples of mathematical objects (mostly functions) satisfying certain conditions.

To prepare for Test #3, for this week’s OpenLab assignment, you will comment on this post with two questions that you come up with yourself, as well as their answers.

1. Your first question should be conceptual and phrased as a statement which is either always true or always false. Your answer should indicate whether the statement is true or false together with a sentence explaining the answer.
2. Your second question should be asking for an example of a mathematical object satisfying certain conditions. Your answer should provide this example together with together with a sentence explaining the example and why it satisfies the conditions.

You can use the Test #1 and Test #2 questions for inspiration (the different versions of the tests had similar questions, so check out your classmates’ solutions here and here).

Try to focus on the material covered in class since Test #2. You can see the list of topics on the schedule.