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Illustrative Resources |
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3: Communicate the breadth and interconnections of the mathematical sciences
Key Ideas and Concepts from Varied Perspectives Project Intermath
is an interdisciplinary mathematics project that is creating curricula at the
Although a number of the textbooks produced during the calculus reform movement are no longer in print, both mainstream and reform texts now consider the concepts of calculus from a variety of perspectives: not only the symbolic, but also the graphical, numerical, and verbal. The Calculus Consortium at Harvard Newsletters discuss issues involved in teaching calculus. Many calculus texts now come with software to enhance student understanding from a variety of perspectives. A good source of ideas on how to teach linear algebra from various perspectives is Resources for Teaching Linear Algebra, edited by David Carlson, Charles R. Johnson, David Lay, Duane Porter, Ann Watkins, and William Watkins, MAA Notes vol. 42. The concept of function can be regarded from many different perspectives and is important in all undergraduate mathematics courses. The editors of The Concept of Function: Aspects of Epistemology and Pedagogy (Harel & Dubinsky, 1992) contributed to the body of research on learning the function concept in order to assist in instructional approaches. Key Aspects of Knowing and Learning the Concept of Function by Marilyn Carlson and Michael Oehrtman is a recent online article that provides a broad view of the subject. Victor Donnay, Promote
Awareness of Connections between Mathematics and Other Subjects Dan Maki (Indiana University Bloomington) and Bart Ng (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) co-direct the NSF-funded project Mathematics Throughout the Curriculum. The website includes links to a prototype course Analytical Problem Solving and a set of Home Pages for Developing Courses, which contain additional information about courses that relate mathematics to the life sciences, business and economics, the humanities and social sciences, and the physical sciences and engineering. A newsletter provides additional information about the project. The MAA’s Journal of Online Mathematics and its Applications (JOMA) contains peer-reviewed articles, class-tested, web-based learning materials, and self-contained, dynamic, single-purpose learning tools. Many of these illustrate a range of examples and applications and connections between mathematics and other subjects. Some recent articles are Special Relativity and Conic Sections, Designing Attribute Acceptance Sampling Plans, and Art and Design in Mathematics.
MAA Online’s Innovative Teaching Exchange contains several articles illustrating applications of mathematics in a range of courses. “Stuck in Traffic in Chicago: A World Wide Web Project” by M. Carroll and Elyn Rykken, has students apply Riemann sums from calculus to construct time estimates for radio traffic reports. In “Volumes and History: A Calculus Project Involving Reading an Original Source,” Elyn Rykken and Jody Sorensen use historical applications to enliven a calculus course. In “The Trial of the Semester: A New Way to Introduce Newton's Law of Cooling,” Joel Foisy describes how he has his students act out a murder mystery scenario. The MAA’s Digital Classroom Resources provides a select collection of learning materials that are available without charge through the site. These materials have been classroom tested and peer reviewed. Many items in the library include editorial reviews and links to a moderated discussion group focused on the materials. The MAA Bookstore has a number of books that give a range of mathematical applications, including Applications of Calculus, edited by Philip Straffin (MAA Notes # 29), Cryptology, by Albrecht Beutelspacher, Elementary Cryptanalysis by Abraham Sinkov, Environmental Math in the Classroom, edited by Bernard Fusaro and Patricia Kenschaft, Geometry at Work, edited by Catherine Gorini, Linear Algebra Gems, edited by David Carlson, Charles R. Johnson, David C. Lay, A. Duane Porter, and Problems for Student Investigation, edited by Michael Jackson and John Ramsay. The entry for the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) in the bibliography contains additional information about incorporating real-world applications into mathematics courses. History The MAA’s online journal Convergence
is a new online magazine that provides resources to help teach mathematics
using its history. Reinhard Laubenbacher,
David Pengelley, Jerry Lodder,
and others at Art In a note to Project NExT participants, Doris Schattschneider,
Moravian College, gave the following list of websites for courses linking
mathematics, art, and design: Some additional websites with information about courses on mathematics and art: Pattern (Pippa Drew and Dorothy Wallace, Dartmouth College), Math and Art (Janice Sklensky, Wheaton College), Mathematics, Logic, and Symmetry and Modules for Spherical and Hyperbolic Geometry (Reza Sarhangi, formerly at Southwestern College, now at Towson University), Mathematics, Art, and Aesthetics (Annelisa Crannell, Franklin and Marshall College), and Math and the Art of M.C. Escher (Anneke Bart, St. Louis University). The Bridges Organization posts information about mathematical connections in art, music, and science, and the AMS hosts a website on Mathematical Imagery. A collection of modules developed by Marc Franz and Annelisa Crannell is available through a link on the Viewpoints website. A new version of Annelisa Crannell’s course on mathematics and art is available as of late summer 2007 through a link on her homepage. Music Three websites with syllabi for courses on mathematics and music: Math and Music (Julia M. Wilson, SUNY Fredonia), Mathematics and Music (David Wright, Washington University), Mathematics and Music: The Cosmic Harmony (Bill Alves and Michael Orrison, Harvey Mudd College). Multiple Connections Most textbooks for general education mathematics courses include sections that connect mathematics with other fields. For instance, The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking by Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird discusses the mathematics of bar codes, cryptography, geometry and art, fractals and chaos, and the likelihood of coincidences. A syllabus for an interesting course that makes some use of this text is from Sarah Greenwald, Appalachian State University. Another text, Using and Understanding Mathematics by Jeffrey O. Bennett and William L. Briggs, University of Colorado at Boulder, contains sections on financial management, modeling a variety of real-world situations, mathematics and art, mathematics and music, mathematics and politics, and mathematics and business. See also the listings in this section under “Introduce Contemporary Topics.” Robert Devaney, The University of Maryland University College offers Mathematics – Contemporary Topics and Applications as both an in-class and distance-learning first-year course. The course is a survey of contemporary topics in mathematics, centering on applications and projects. Topics include measurements, rates of growth, basic statistics, the mathematics of political power, the geometry of the solar system, and computer arithmetic. The goals state that after completing this course a student should be able to cite elements of good statistical design, undertake elementary statistical analysis, and recognize and explain the shortcomings of unsound methods of statistical analysis; mathematically analyze situations involving the weighting of power in various voting structures and implement apportionment of power strategies; and use the Pythagorean theorem and properties of similar triangles to calculate sizes of and distance between objects, including astronomical objects. Both of the popular texts For All Practical Purposes, produced by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, and Excursions in Modern Mathematics by Peter Tannenbaum and Robert Arnold aim to convey insight about topics in contemporary mathematics and its applications to undergraduate students who have limited mathematical backgrounds. Topics in these books include the mathematics of voting, fair division, and apportionment, applications of graph theory to management science, fractal geometry, and statistics. At Mount Holyoke College George Cobb teaches a course on the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method (MCMC), “a very general and powerful method for computer simulation of situations that are too complicated to handle using more conventional mathematical methods. MCMC has become a very active area of research at the interface of computer science and statistics, and has had a powerful impact on the practice of data analysis. As a method for computer simulation, MCMC has very broad applicability. As a branch of mathematics, MCMC offers a number of compelling surprises – structures that on a concrete level seem quite different, but, viewed at the right level of abstraction, turn out to be different versions of the same idea.” In the article “Geometric Photo Manipulation” Tom Farmer shows how calculus and linear algebra can be used to manipulate photographs, a contemporary application with which many students have experience, thanks to currently available software. G.H. Hardy once proudly asserted that number theory would never be applied. Yet today number theory has a range of important applications. Among these are cryptography (see, for example, lecture notes from two cryptography courses by Ed Schaefer at Santa Clara University, the RSA website, and recent textbooks in number theory and discrete mathematics), and error detection using check digits and error-correcting codes (see, for example, Numbers and symmetry: An Introduction to Algebra by Bernard L. Johnston and Fred Richman and Contemporary Abstract Algebra by Joseph Gallian). Enhance Perception of Vitality and Importance of Mathematics The World Wide Web provides a wealth of examples of the use and applicability of mathematics, but searching for appropriate illustrations can be time consuming. There are several sites that focus on providing good examples for instructors: Plus, an Internet magazine that aims to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics; Mathematical Moments, an AMS program that offers a series of pdf files and podcasts to promote appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture; and the Math Forum, a center that provides resources, materials, activities, person-to-person interactions, and educational products and services to enrich and support the teaching and learning of mathematics. Chance
News is a monthly, on-line newsletter that provides abstracts of
articles from current newspapers, the media, and journals, and suggests
discussion questions for class use. It also includes links to related
resources at other web sites. Since 1992, Chance News has been
maintained by J. Laurie Snell of Additional information and resources on communicating the breadth and
interconnections of the mathematical sciences are in Part 2, Section C.3. |
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