Most Popular

1500 questions
9
votes
0 answers

Long division layout in French-speaking Switzerland

This question is addressed to those familiar with mathematics teaching in French-speaking Switzerland. The main textbook in use in grades 3 to 5 in the canton of Vaud from 1957 to about 1972 appears to use the German layout for long division rather…
Anonymous
  • 91
  • 1
9
votes
3 answers

What's the Deal with Inverse Cotangent?

So, I was minding my own business and I thought I had defined inverse cotangent in the natural fashion. In particular, we define inverse tangent as the inverse of tangent restricted to $(-\pi/2, \pi/2)$. We all know this. So, I thought, $y =…
James S. Cook
  • 10,840
  • 1
  • 33
  • 65
9
votes
5 answers

Applications of Calculus 2 to Physics

I'm teaching a section of Calculus 2 (integration techniques, arc length, surface area, improper integrals, parametric & polar functions, sequences, and series ) next semester and would like to assign a problem set near the end of the course to each…
user1576
  • 91
  • 2
9
votes
1 answer

Is there a blog platform that renders LaTeX well?

I've been using wordpress.com, but it renders LaTeX terribly! There must be a blogging platform that does a good job of this. Can someone recommend one?
jackisquizzical
  • 484
  • 3
  • 10
9
votes
1 answer

Support materials for student who has failed Calculus I

I just finished teaching Calculus I this semester at my university, and I have several students that failed the course despite working hard. The culprit in all of the cases was inadequate background knowledge coming into the course. My university…
Michael Joyce
  • 2,611
  • 15
  • 20
9
votes
2 answers

Should we assess ability to use specific problem solving methods, or general ability to solve problems?

This is my first semester being an instructor of record for a college algebra course. One of the sections we cover is "methods of solving quadratic equations", where we discuss factoring and using the zero product property, the square root method,…
Brain Gainz
  • 561
  • 4
  • 6
9
votes
4 answers

Resources for mathematics for sustainability

I am looking for resources (books, websites, etc.) for mathematics relevant to or in the context of sustainability, broadly construed, at upper secondary or early undergraduate level - so not necessarily assuming calculus or differential equations…
J W
  • 4,654
  • 2
  • 22
  • 44
9
votes
1 answer

Looking for copies of Vasily Vasilovich Davydov's mathematics curriculum

From The Development of Algebra in the Elementary Mathematics Curriculum of V.V. Davydov (by Jean Schmittau, State University of New York at Binghamton , and Anne Morris , University of Delaware ) one briefly understands about the mathematics…
athos
  • 737
  • 6
  • 16
9
votes
3 answers

Is there a study that compares 8-week vs 16-week math classes?

I see a push toward having undergraduate curriculums built around 8-week classes. This is mostly in the online education in the USA. Recently I have seen a number of these in sophomore or junior-level math classes. For example you have 8 weeks to…
Maesumi
  • 1,380
  • 9
  • 19
9
votes
1 answer

Studies which compare students with and without math training

I am looking for studies which compare students who did not receive mathematical education beyond basic mathematics and those that learned maths upto introductory calculus, with the assumption that both groups received similar education in other…
user101
9
votes
6 answers

Worth introducing a mandatory short module on $\LaTeX$ into a mathematics degree?

On Mathematics StackExchange for a particular instance, it is highly recommended that questioners mark up their questions using $\LaTeX$. A surprising number of mathematicians and student mathematicians are perfectly happy to admit that they don't…
Prime Mover
  • 925
  • 5
  • 18
9
votes
4 answers

Why teach the algebraic Calculus?

In the context of a standard undergraduate Calculus sequence, I've noticed there is a big emphasis on teaching the algebra part of Calculus. What I mean by this is that a student may feel more comfortable finding, say, a limit by computing a bunch…
Fox Mulder
  • 191
  • 1
9
votes
3 answers

Definition of Trapezoid

From one textbook we use in our High School - Transcription: A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with exactly one pair of parallel sides. The parallel sides are called bases of the trapezoid. And from Wikipedia - In Euclidean geometry, a convex…
9
votes
3 answers

Seeking references for why it is good that students understand why mathematical rules work

I am currently advising a student at his final project (it is a graduation course for people who will become math teachers). We've chosen to pick some basic mathematical rules which are (or at least should be) known by students (like $a^{-1} =…
9
votes
0 answers

Research into the mathematical education of adults with no prior formal mathematical experience

I am curious about the experiences of people who had no formal mathematical training in their youth, but learned mathematics as adults. I imagine that there are a fair number of people in the US who were homeschooled in such a way that mathematics…
Steven Gubkin
  • 25,127
  • 4
  • 61
  • 110