Math in the City - Fall 2011

Math in the City - Fall 2011

Ananthnarayan Hariharan, Lauren Keough

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

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Semester Outline

Before the semester

Meet the collaborators

Data collection and analysis

Data examples

Topics and broad questions

Group 1 - BudgetingGroup 2 - InvestingGroup 3 - Investing ++

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Semester Outline

Beginning of the semester

Days 1 - 5:

Lay the ground rules: LyX (Journals and Homework), Dropbox, Doodle.Assign homework 1 (writing assignment on relevant topics)

Homework 1 Example

Form groups and assign project topics.Collaborators’ presentation and introduction to the data.

Weeks 3 - 5.

Lectures: Mathematical Modeling (John Harte: Consider a SphericalCow)Lectures: Linear Programming (Course Materials 2010)

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Semester Outline

Middle of the semester

Homework

Homework 2 - Estimation and Mathematical ModelingHomework 3 - Linear Programming

Sage presentation

Memos1 An estimation problem2 Concrete questions (Student Example)3 Sage worksheet

Visit the Collaborators’ workplace

Writing Presentation

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Semester Outline

End of the semester

Memos

IntroductionMath Section

Presentations

Background and QuestionsMathematics

Deadlines

Final report first draftPresentation slides

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Writing Assignment and Report

Guidelines

Readability

Graphs and Tables

Organization into Sections

Grammar

Credible and Relevant Sources and Resources

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Writing Assignment and Report

Grading the Writing Assignment/Report

1 Content

2 Examples

3 Clarity & Grammar

4 Overall Style & Presentation

5 Organization

6 Introduction & Conclusion

7 Accessibility

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Overall Grading Scheme

Overall Grading Scheme

20% Homeworks

30% Project participation (documented through student journals,communication with team and instructors, participation in specialsessions)

35% Project (memos, intermediate drafts, final report)

15% Performance during oral presentation (understanding of thework, communication skills, quality of the slides)

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Tools

Tools Used

Sage: Mathematical Software for Linear Programming, etc.

Dropbox: Sharing files online

Blackboard: Sharing confidential files (e.g., Journals)

LyX: Latex without the learning curve

Doodle: Easy scheduling

Other mathematical software and programming languages

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Tools

LyX Example

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Summary

Things We Liked

“Hands-off” approach

Journals

Memos

Presentations

Tools: Sage, Dropbox, LyX, Doodle

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Summary

Things We Were Not Happy With

“Hands-off” approach

Fall Break

Thanksgiving Break

Presentations

Tools: Blackboard

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Summary

Challenges

Open ended problems

Making and justifying assumptions

Data

Student projects using high level mathematics

Last minute programming issues

End of the semester stress

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Summary

Why we chose to teach this course

Ananth

Mathematics and Talent Search Programme (India)AdaptabilityReal Life Mathematical Models

Lauren

For the love of mathExperience to repeatLearning

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Summary

Questions?

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