Project information as of 1/28

You will have three projects to complete in the course of the quarter:

Project 1) You all need to read Flatland, A romance of many dimensions With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE

(Edwin A. Abbott 1838-1926)

You can buy it for $2.00 new from Amazon (or possibly the bookstore). If you are comfortable reading from the screen, you can also find the whole book at http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~banchoff/Flatland/

You will then turn in a 2 or 3 page reflective paper. It will have to do with shifting dimensions. A more specific prompt will turn up soon.

This will be due FEBRUARY 18

Project 2) This one has two options:

Option A) Take part in the Math Fair on Thursday evening, Feb. 26 at St. Bernadette's. This involves also taking part in at least three of the preparation days, which are Tuesdays, February 3, 10 and 23 from roughly 12:30 to 4:00.

Option B) Gather together a group of at least three people, children if you have some available, but if not, adults (many a roommate has been dragooned into being on the receiving end of this!), and spend an hour or more teaching on of the topics I will set up for you. One choice will be pentominoes, another will be geoboards and another will be mirror puzzles and symmetry. I will be giving you a list of possible questions and activities, and you will choose among them and adapt to your particular learners. Before you do it, you will write up your plans and send them to me for checking over, and afterwards you will write up a report.

The teaching plan should get to me at least a week before you plan to carry it out so as to guarantee that I can get back to you with suggestions. The follow-up report is due MARCH 4 -- I leave it to you to schedule the teaching session itself.

Project 3) You will dig deeper into one of the many topics that we haven't time to cover as well as it deserves. Since the topics themselves will be turning up as we go along, your write-up for this one is due on MARCH 13, the last day of class.