Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange
Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange

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Reusing homework exercises from previous terms

I am teaching a course for sophomore-level math majors this quarter, and next quarter, I'll be teaching the same thing. I haven't been in this situation before, and I'm wondering to what degree I can reuse exercises from this quarter. On the one…
anon
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Beyond Calculus, an Invitation to Dream Higher for High School

From what I see in the curriculum we use for my children if we stay on track with the current trajectory they'll finish by grade 8 what is usually called Precalculus (USA terminology, includes solutions of algebraic equations, factoring techniques,…
James S. Cook
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Why do we teach calculus in high school rather than a different math course?

In most high schools (in America), I think it is safe to say that the highest math subject offered is calculus. But why is it calculus rather than number theory or some other branch of mathematics? While calculus has applications, I'm sure other…
Simply Beautiful Art
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Was math education following a western trend?

After some research on the recent history of math education in the U.S., from the new math movement to the beginning of the 21st century, I understood that the historic flow of the math education paradigm was something like this: during the cold…
Henrique Augusto Souza
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Descriptive Thinking vs. Formal Writing

Sometimes I come across some exam answers which describe a proof sketch or a counterexample very well but are not written formally. Such proofs show that a particular student understands the general picture of the question completely. Furthermore in…
user230
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Mathematical education slang

Amir Asghari recently asked a question about mathematical slang. He was "looking for "non-mathematical" terms or phrases that are used to refer to mathematical objects (of any kind) mainly for educational purposes." He defined slang as "a type of…
JRN
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Collaboration on math homework assignments?

There is considerable evidence that pair programming, when executed properly, both increases the accuracy of the code produced and enhances the learning of both participants. I wonder if anyone has explored similar pairing for math homework…
Joseph O'Rourke
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How can I be more prolific as a maths teacher with my visual handicap?

I have a chronic visual handicap and am in need of adequate level of accessibility support while learning and teaching mathematics from and to the visually challenged as well as the sighted. I'm familiar with the JAWS for Windows screen reading…
Saaqib Mahmood
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What are your opinions of a flipped classroom at the secondary level?

Warning: a lot of this post borrows heavily from education theory. I'm in my student teaching semester right now, so a lot of what I explain is taken from research papers and things like that. So how realistic it all is, I don't know. I've been…
Wmol
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Are there examples of countries where the use of CAS systems or graphing calculators was deemphasized or discontinued?

In the last 30 years more and more countries introduced graphing calculators and then CAS systems to their high-school students. But are there already any examples of a trend in the opposite direction? That is, examples where a state or country…
Julia
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Textbook for first course in linear algebra

Since this does not appear to have been asked here before, I would like to solicit suggestions and recommendations, ideally with rationales, for a textbook in a first course in linear algebra. In my university, students will not necessarily have…
Michael Joyce
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Hands-on demonstration ideas for multivariate calculus

In teaching Calculus III geometry plays a very important role. It is crucial that students get a good sense of how to visualize curves, surfaces, coordinate axis, frames to curves, vector fields and so forth. I think my pictures do some justice to…
James S. Cook
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Is there some standard method to measure the difficulty level of mathematics problems?

First off I apologize if this question comes out to be off-topic. I wasn't sure whether to post it on MSE or here. Lately I gave an exam named SSC-CGL. This exam is conducted every year in India for the selection of grade B officers. The exam is of…
user31782
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How do I grade long calculations in a mathematics exam in a fair way?

I am currently grading a problem in an exam on analysis for mathematics students. One subtask is to calculate a certain integral (The resulting term has to be as simple as possible.). For this part I am able to give up to $n$ points in essentially…
Adrian Clough
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Reference requests: Is there a text that is even more advanced than books on "advanced engineering mathematics"

Advanced engineering mathematics is a subject of its own, building up from simple notions of functions, series, integration techniques and brief review of linear algebra which leads to transform methods (Laplace, Fourier, Z and sometimes Hilbert),…
Fraïssé
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