MAT5930 Assignments (in class and HW)

Class meets MWF. Days enumerated from first day of class.

1. Introductory class.
   HW: Do new user tour by next class.
2. Do: tours1.mws, tourw1a.mws, tourw1b.mws from Chapter 1.
   HW: finish these tours. Read parts of Chapter 1 not in tours. Compare with worksheets.
   Try assignment toura1a: 3, toura1b: 2. If time seems short, do only tour1a, then its assignment. [It is difficult to predict how long these will take in advance.]
3. We discuss how far we got, and the bulletin message. Finish tours if necessary. Begin working on assignments. Look at the MAPLE worksheet interface together.
   HW: Finish assignments and try an exercise from 1.5 that you find interesting, 5 or 7 for example.
4. Frontpage class to learn how to publish our worksheets on our webspace.
   HW: Publish your first Assignment worksheet as chapter1.mws in the subdirectory 5930.
   Export as html and try publishing the set of files which result.
   Do the same using a filename of your choice for one of the more interesting problems from section 1.5, making a self-contained worksheet with comments explaining it completely, without exporting to html. [If you get stuck, at least get it started and put that on the web. SEE the e-mail/bulletin board message.]
5. We make sure we have published on our webspace (going to Mendel public lab if   necessary). Go over assignment worksheet problems and optional problems chosen.
   HW: Do funcs2.mws from chapter 2.
6. Make sure you have published chapter1.mws and your optional chapter1.5 problem by Monday. Continue with funcs2.mws and do the two worksheets.
7. Monday: Publish in Mendel lab, email bob filename for optional worksheet. Continue with chapter 2.
8. Snow Day.
9. Once you finish the two chapter 2 assignment worksheets and publish them with the same filenames so I can check your work, do exercises 2.5: 2, 3 as self-contained fully documented sections of a single worksheet (hints in appendix B),  publish, and email me the filename or link so I can give you feedback.
10. Continue finishing chapter 2 assignments. Consult with me in class.
11. Try to wrap up chapter 2. Make an index.html file for your /5930 folder. When complete, read the beginning material of chapter 3, then begin working through the worksheets, saving your results to your webspace with the same filenames.
12. Work on chapter 3. For this chapter we want to do the main file, then the two worksheets and assignment files in the order you choose. Save your worked main file and worksheets but publish only the two assignment files and notify me for consultation or of completion. You may collaborate. Work at a reasonable pace.
    PLAN an OFFICE VISIT next week to confer with me about how things are going and look over your work so far together.
13. Week 5. Chapter 3. Office visit to discuss work so far.
14. Chapter 3. Office visit? Suggestions for interesting problems to tackle from the book problems at the end of the chapter?
15. Work on 3.5 6 and 7.
16. Week 6. Complete 3. Begin chapter 4. Read book 4.1, 4.2. Do the first worksheet.
17. Continue working on worksheets. We will publish the assignment worksheets.
18. Continue. We need to complete the main file and two worksheets by the end of this week.
    Then we will do both assignment worksheets (worksheet followed by its assignment, then then next worksheet followed by its assignment, to use what you learn immediately).
19. Week 7. Do Countw4a.mws, and publish Counta4a.mws.
    When you do Counta4a.mws, use the page 19 time computation scheme to evaluate the computation time for tN(100) in the last problem:
    > now:= time();   .....    computime:=time() - now;
20. Do Countw4b.mws, and publish Counta4b.mws. [Depending on your pace finish the worksheet assignment pair a or b by Friday.]
21. Select your text and use Format Character Dark Green Color to distinguish your comments from the assignment text in your worked versions of assigned assignment worksheets. Or can you suggest a better contrasting color that is different from red (input) and blue (output) but still readable.
    [In counta4b.1, try to explain the number of 1's you get per 1000 trials (recall that a natural number mod 2 produces 0 if it is even, 1 if it is odd; what about a product of 3 numbers mod 2? i.e., how likely is a product of 3 numbers to be odd?) This is as far as I have gotten so far myself.]
22. Week 8: Chapter 4 assignment files should be published this week.
23. Make suggestions for which 4.5 exercises look interesting to do. We will then decide which to do. Not everyone has to do the same ones. Stop by my office to chat.
24. 4.5 assignment claims discussed.
    We would like to push the problems as far as we can go, doing more than explicitly requested if possible to round out each problem. Each problem should be a self-contained report starting with the problem statement and organizing a complete discussion of the response so that it is easily followed by the "reader". Code should be explained, for example.
    One of the goals as a writing enriched course is to do some real mathematical writing, and we need to agree on some grading scheme for future work so that you have an idea of what is expected rather than be hit with arbitrary grade awards. This should include the depth of the mathematical problem and the thoroughness and organization of the discussion as well as the amount of mathematical ability shown in working the problem and being able to understand and extend the text examples to solve similar problems (revealing comprehension of those examples).  As an example of such a worksheet, I did problem 4.5.5.
    Pick one problem that interests you if one can push it far enough, or two problems if individually they are not very challenging and try to make a nice report on it (them).
25. Week 9. Holding pattern on 4.5 exercises.
26. W.
27. F. Read the Joy of Math.
28. Week 10.
29. Last day in class on chapter 4. Finish activities outside of class. Begin chapter 5 by first reading the preliminary background material only in the printed book. Then start the main worksheet.
30. Continue chapter 5. We want to do the worksheets and all the assignments to understand the ideas, then go on to choose some end of chapter problems when we get to that point as before.
31. Week 11 already?
32. Try to complete chapter 5 assignments, look to choose a problem or problems from the end of chapter to do and extend in a complete report.
33. After today, we will move directly on to chapter 6 and then when finished with its worksheets, consider our choice of problems from the end of both sections, and then the End of Book projects or projects of your choice or both.
34. Week 12. Start chapter 6. Remember to read the preliminary material from the book first.
35. Goal: to finish chapter 6 assignment files this week and turn our attention to finishing one extended problem from 5 or 6 and then doing one of the 3 exercises in experimentation (Appendix A) or an alternate project to complete the course.
36. F.
37. Week 13. M
38. W.
39. F.
40. Week 14. Stay loose. As discussed in the email, we will look at one of the 3 exercises in experimentation and try to do a little more than is requested in its discussion. If they prove too short, we can do more than one, or go back and pick a problem from chapter 5 or 6 to push. Until we have tackled them, we don't know how much time they will require, or if they are sufficient for a project by themselves as a single exercise, etc.
41. W.
    <easter break>
42. W->F. Time to wrap it up. Work on final exercise. Consult with me in my office when necessary. Meet Wed, May 3, 8:30-11:00am in G26 for discussion of results.

Text Assignments [Discovering Mathematics with Maple]:

Each student will create a folder 5930 of their Villanova web space and use FrontPage to publish their worksheets in that folder for feedback from bob. Send an email with the file addresses and filenames when published so I can easily download the worksheets.

Copy the assignment section worksheets a and b and paste into your new worksheet [filename: chapter1.mws, etc] as a section. Relable the section by adding the filename from which it comes. Then enter the section and execute it and add extra input and comment lines in dark green (to distinguish your remarks from the original worksheet) to respond to the instructions. Write complete English sentences in your comments. Try to make this a report which speaks for itself through those comments. You are encouraged to work together with a partner. Put your name(s) at the top of the file in comment mode. Keep a current date at the top as well. Give me feedback about how long these take. If you get stuck, come visit me.

For the end of chapter problems, try to attack them without the hints in the back first. Then if you get stuck, compare what you are doing with the hints, but explain all code that you use line by line. First repeat the problem statement at the top of the worksheet to make it self-contained. Give it a name of your choice. Try to do a bit more than just repond to exactly the instructions of the problem. See if you can stretch the problem to go further or help explain.

Keep a backup diskette! Or if you work with a partner, make sure you both have a current copy so the each one is a backup of the other.

26-apr-2000 [back to course homepage]