Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange
Mathematics Educators Stack Exchange

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How to assess an undergraduate mathematics program?

Our university and department, like most, are required to "assess" our program annually. In the past our department has done this by e.g. picking one of the learning outcomes for our program and a final exam question in one or two classes that are…
Mike Shulman
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Problem-Solving Activities that Engage Low-Level Students?

I'm going to be starting teaching a course called algebra COE, which is for students who didn't pass the required state algebra exam to graduate and are now seniors, to do spaced-out exam-like extended problems after extensive support. I don't want…
Opal E
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Teaching mathematics and its charms to non-mathematicians

I am teaching English in Japan and I have a student who speaks English well, and to keep up his level, in our weekly lessons would like to learn some subjects related to my degree in mathematics. I would like to get across reasons why mathematics…
Sam Burville
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Teaching and motivating the use of Eigenvectors

I would like to know how to better demonstrate Eigenvectors. The texts that I have display the properties and methods to calculate them. There are plenty of great elementary examples to follow through before taking on larger matrices and applying…
Vass
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Mathematica in the classroom?

In this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9sYzMG-43k) session Dan Meyer uses Excel, Google and Wolfram Alpha in a class (of teachers) for calculation. He himself uses them on a laptop projected for the class to see. The skills to use these tools are…
pdmclean
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Should $\varphi$ be monotone in the integration by substitution?

I'm trying to calculate $$\int_{\frac{-\pi}{2}}^{\frac{\pi}{2}}\sin t \cos^3 t\,dt$$ using integration by substitution $$\int_{\varphi([a;b])} f(x)dx=\int_{[a;b]} f\left(\varphi(t)\right)|\varphi'(t)|dt$$ First Method Let $\varphi(t)=\cos t$ which…
user5402
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How to teach calculus (book recommendation)

I'm going to teach calculus for the first time to undergraduate students. I would like to know if there is some book about how to teach the concepts of calculus (e.g. limits, derivatives, etc.).
user26832
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How many problems do we have to do as undergraduate mathematicians in order to learn a subject?

I'm wondering how many problems are needed in order to learn a subject, let's say Calculus of Several Variables. We know that the professors often assign us a list of problems to solve as homework, but I find that this is often insufficient. I have…
HeMan
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New math. teaching assistant facing big problems, what to start with?

I'm new math teaching assistant in faculty of engineering in Egypt. And after one term only, I found 3 big problems here: 1) There is no help in teaching me how to teach. It's up to my own skills. 2) There is no obvious goal for teaching math. what…
Mohamed Mostafa
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1:1 iPads for K-3: how can an educator accommodate student(s) opting out?

My school district has decided to provide an iPad to every student in the district, from kindergarten to grade 3, starting next September -- although a handful of classrooms are piloting this currently. The iPads will stay at school (i.e. they…
aparente001
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Ideas for math problem solving class for undergraduate students in university

In our university there is a huge gap between two group of students. a group of them came from Math Olympiad competitions and have a very strong background from high school but others, they have just ordinary background from high school and there is…
Saman Habibi
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Becoming independent of the calculator

I have an excellent undergraduate student who is suddenly being put into math classes where she does not have access to a calculator. She is fine with all the new topics, but when running into something like $\sqrt{441}$, it takes her a significant…
Chris Cunningham
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What activities can enhance student comprehension of concepts involved in logarithmic and exponential integrals?

I will be teaching a calculus class, specifically, integration of common functions (e.g., polynomials, logarithms, exponentials and the like). It has been my experience that if an abstract concept can be at least related to a real life context,…
user106
9
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The 'epsilon-delta' method for teaching limits

Weierstrass' method for handling limits with the epsilon and delta symbols is very useful for rigorous analysis of math but it is terrible in terms of any intuitive approach to limits. There are are other ways to teach limits. For instance with…
201044
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Open-ended tasks for teaching students about integration techniques

One of the best algebra-teaching games I've seen is the "Four 4's" game, where students have to take 4 fours and construct every number from 1-100 using only those fours and algebraic operations: 44/44=1, 4/4+4/4=2, 4-(4/4)^4=3, etc. This is a great…
Brian Rushton
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