Category: Assignment Instructions (Page 2 of 4)

Comment due Sunday, October 27

Background

“I’m bad at math.” This is something I’ve heard from a handful of students (in different classes) over the last few years. It’s devastating to me to hear anyone say this about themselves…let alone my own students.

Comment due Sunday, October 20

MAT 2580 students’ instructions

MAT 2580 students, the instructions here are not for you! Do not comment on this post! See the post with your instructions over on the MAT 1375 site.

MAT 1375 students’ instructions

MAT 1375 students, welcome to the MAT 2580 site! The students in MAT 2580 are learning linear algebra. So far, they have learned generalizations of the type of algebra you would have seen in your high school or college algebra class.

MAT 2580 has MAT 1575 (Calculus II) as a pre- or co-requisite, which has MAT 1475 (Calculus I) as a prerequisite, which has MAT 1375 (your class) as a prerequisite!

So the MAT 2580 students are like future versions of you, who have already passed MAT 1375 and 1475, and maybe even 1575. Even if you are not going to take MAT 2580 yourself, you probably have questions that the MAT 2580 students could answer.

• Maybe you’d like to ask them what skills or material they think is most important from MAT 1375?
• Maybe you’d like to ask them what they wish they’d learned better from MAT 1375 or from any of their other math courses?
• Maybe you’d just like to ask them how they succeeded in MAT 1375 or in any of their other math courses or how they prepare to take a math test?
• Maybe you have a more personal question for them like what their major is, what they like about differential equations, what they liked about Calculus or Algebra, or what other math classes they have to take?

Now’s your chance to get some advice from students who are a bit ahead of where you currently are on their math journeys!

So, your instructions for this assignment are simple: in the comments below, ask the MAT 2580 students any questions you like.

Since you have not commented in this group before, your comments will not appear right away. They have to be approved by the administrator first, but the administrator is me and I’ll approve any questions (as long as they are not too inappropriate). Anyone who asks a question will earn participation credit.

Comment due Sunday, October 6

September 15 to October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month! For this assignment, we’ll honor Hispanic/Latinx mathematicians by learning about their lives and their work.

Pick one mathematician who identifies either as Hispanic/Latinx and who stands out you. Then write a short profile/biography of them as a comment on this post.

Where can you learn about mathematicians from these communities?

There are lots of places online to find out about these mathematicians. Here is one great resource:

• Lathisms showcases contributions of Latinx and Hispanics in the Mathematical Sciences; check out the Calendars and Podcasts tabs at the top of the screen.

Once you’ve chosen the mathematician you want to profile, try to find something out about them that’s not on this site. Most mathematicians have their own websites, which you can usually find by Googling their name (these may be more up to date than the site above). Some of them are active on Twitter and other social media. Your profile should include:

1. Their name
2. Something about their work (try to understand something about their work don’t worry if you don’t really understand it, just tell us whatever you found out about it)
3. Where they are from
4. Where they live/work now
5. Why they are interesting or inspiring to you
6. Anything else you learned about them that you’d like to share
7. If you can’t embed a photo in an OpenLab comment and if you want to include a photo of your mathematician, you can write your profile in a separate post and include a link to it in the comments on this post (tbh I love pictures!).

Why are we doing this?

White mathematicians of European descent tend to dominate the popular conception of who mathematicians are. For example, in Calculus, we mostly learn about work by these two dudes, who practically look like twins, right?

Our goal with this assignment is to broaden the popular conception of what a mathematician looks like and who can be a mathematician, as well as to honor the work of Hispanic/Latinx mathematicians who are living and working today!