Spring 2013 Math 150 Mathematics in Daily Life

Chi-Kwong Li
Office: Jones 128, Tel:221-2042, E-mail: math.ckli@gmail.com
http://cklixx.people.wm.edu/
Office hours: TWT: 11:00 - noon and by appointments

Meeting Time and Place

Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 - 10:50 a.m. Jones 113.

Course Description

This course aims to help students develop the mathematical literacy to see the connections and applications of mathematics to daily life activities. The course consists of two components:

• introducing different topics of mathematics in daily life such as mathematics in voting, finance, scheduling, etc,
• guiding projects on the students' chosen topics of mathematics related to real life problems or other branches of study.

Format and structure

Instructor and students will take turn to present and discuss material related to the theme of the course.

January.

• The instructor will give sample presentations and lead the discussion.
  
• Students will participate in discussion in class and on line, do summary and evaluation of the presentation, suggest improvement of the presentation and class format.
  
• Students will sign up for the first round presentations in February, by Jan. 25.

• Students will do the first round presentation and lead the discussion based on the material chosen from the main reference:
  
  COMAP, For All Practical Purposes (Paper): Mathematical Literacy in Today's World (Comap, the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications) (Paperback), W. H. Freeman, Seventh or Eighth Edition.
  
  
• Other students will participate in the discussion (in class and on line), do summary and evaluation of the presentation, and some homework related to the discussion.
• Presenters will summarize the comments of the discussions, and prepare a report on how they would improve their next presentations.

• Students should submit their first reports and plan for improvement.
• The instructor will give the second round of presentations.
• Students have to submit a topic with a brief description for the second round presentations by March 22.

Stuents will do the second round presentations.

May 3. students should have submitted their papers based on their second presentations.

As participants, students will learn:

• the connections and applications of mathematics to real life problems and other branches of study;
  
• expressing their ideas verbally in class and in writing (on line discussion and in their reports);
  
• thinking critically and provide constructive feedbacks to presentations.

• read, understand, and explain mathematics;
  
• stimulate and lead discussion in a seminar setting;
  
• work in teams and co-ordinate efforts to prepare presentations;
  
• keep an open mind to suggestions and use them to improve their work.

• Liping Ma, Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: Teachers' understanding of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States.
• George F. Simmons, Calculus Gems: Brief Lives and Memorable Mathematics (Paperback), McGraw-Hill Co., 1992.
• M. Nakahara and T. Ohmi, Quantum computing: From Linear Algebra to Physical Realizations, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, New York, 2008.
• M.A. Nielsen and I.L. Chuang, Quantum computation and quantum information, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
• S.N. Chiu and L. Ling, Mathematics of Fairness, HKMS Texts in General Education, Vol. 1., HKMS, Hong Kong, 2010.
• C.K. Li, A website on mathematical education related topics.
• Wikipedia. Key word search on "Mathematics in nature, music, sports, etc."

Course work and assessment

P1    Summary of presentations, and evaluation scores                              130 points
             (5 points each, done on paper, due: at the end of each class)                 

P3    Homework, and additional comments to presenters                              130 points.
             (5 points each, due: before following lecture)  
            [presenters will prepare model answers] 

P3    Presentation 1 from the COMAP book 
               evaluations by peers and the instructor                             100 points.
               report and self evaluation                                          100 points.
                (paper and soft copy, due: one week after presentation).

P4   Presentation 2 on self selected topic 
               evaluations by peers and the instructor                             100 points.
               paper on the presentation                                           140 points.
                (paper and soft copy, due: May 3, 2013).
           

                             

Letter Grades

 
     Grades (for homework, quizzes, exams, final grade, etc.):
 
    %: 0 - 60 - 65 - 70 - 75 - 80 - 83 - 87 - 90 - 93 - 100
          F    D    C-   C    C+   B-   B    B+   A-    A

 

Presentation schedule, files, and homework list.

• January 17. C.K. Li, An overviw of the course.
• January 22. C.K. Li, Amidakuji - Ghost Leg Drawing.
• January 24. C.K. Li, Urban Services (Comap, Chapter 1).
• January 29. C.K. Li Abacus.
• January 31. C.K. Li A gentle introduction to quantum information science.
• February 5. Morgan Silvers, Planning and Scheduling. (COMAP, Chapter 3).
• February 7. Max Mohr, Symmetry and patterns (COMAP, Chapter 19).
• February 12. Jocelyn Westray, Social Choices. Voting systems (COMAP).
• February 14. Emile Khattar, Game Theory.
• February 19. Mary Simpson, Apportionment (COMAP, Chapter 19).
• February 21. Jakob Stalnaker. Weighted Voting Systems (COMAP).
• February 26. C.K. Li, The counterfeit coin problem.
• February 28. Michael Kim, Information Science.
• March 5,7. Spring break.
• March 12. CK Li. Business efficiency.
• March 14. CK Li. Paradox.
• March 19. Morgan Silvers. Savings Models.
• March 21. Max Mohr. Casino Games.
• March 26. Jocelyn Westray. Identification Numbers.
• March 28. Emile Khattar. Linear Programming
• April 2. Mary Simpson. Mathematics of Genetics
• April 4. Jakob Stalnaker. Economics of resources.
• April 9. CK Li, Sum of ones.
• April 11. Group presentation. Mathematics and Culture. Each one spend 5 - 10 min. to talk about the impact of different culture on the study of mathematics.
  CK - Lucky and Unlucky Chinese numbers.
  Mary - Egyptian Mathematics.
  Jocelyn - Arabic mathemtics.
  Morgan - Invention of 0.
  Max - Oksapmin mathematics.
  Emile - French mathematics.
  Jakob - transcendental numbers.
• April 16. Group presentation. Mathematical Eduction - Personal Experience (High school, college, seminar, etc.) You can talk about good and bad experience about learning mathematics.
  CK - Mathematical Education .
• April 18. Michael Kim. Searching, Sorting and Storing.
• April 23. Group presentation. Mathematicians: Their lives and their work.
  Morgan: Pythagoras
  Emile: Terrance Tao
  Jakob: Gauss
  Michael: De Cartes
  Max: Georg Cantor
  Jocelyn: Lovelace
  Mary: Pascal
  CK: MathSciNet, Google Scholar, and Genealogy Project.
• April 25. Preparation of final article, doing on line survey, and course evaluation.