T.A.: Dylan Helliwell
Office: Padelford C-404
Office hours: Tuesdays 4:00 - 5:00; Thursdays 2:00 - 3:00

Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30 - 5:00 MEB 238

By Thursday, all of you will have taken part in your first Leschi session. So far every one of you has done admirably.

Now the next phase. Your team either have received or will shortly receive a packet of games/puzzles for each of your two classes (exception: the Friday morning bunch has one double-sized class.) What you need to do is each take charge of one puzzle for each of the classes. Take it and make a version that can be played/worked on by a group of about five students. It doesn't yet need to be fancy in fact, fancinessshould probebly be saved for the Fair itself), but it should be large enough and clear enough to be worked on. You should also have available (physically or mentally, as the case may be) ways in which the problem could be made easier or or more challenging if need be.

The next time will be when you and your groups work out how to present the game/puzzle on Math Fair night. Maybe also how to be in charge of it. In the case of the K-1 kids, I will try to confer with the teachers, and you should do likewise. It may well be that they need to do it more as general stations than as individual groups. Or maybe not -- teachers are way better sources on that than I.

Final phase, after the Fair itself: turn in 1) a page or so describing the experience and 2) a template for your games or puzzle such that a future Math 170 student would be able to use it. If you had ideas on how it could be improved, attach them. In fact, any notes on the strength and weakness of a particular item would be helpful.

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Expanded description of what to hand in: think of part 1 as something that will help me shape future Math Fairs. Tell me what went well and what could be improved. Think of part 2 as something to help a future Math 170 student -- turn in descriptions of both of the puzzles or games that you used with your two different classes (if you did two classes).
These should be turned in my Monday, November 15.

Turn in a brief (up to one page) mathematical autobiography. It needn't be particularly thorough or detailed—what I would like to know is roughly your current level and roughly your current feelings about mathematics and, insofar as you can trace them, how you arrived at those feelings.

Finish the problems you began on Wednesday with your group.

for Wednesday, October 5 : In the textbook (the big green book by Bassarear), 1) read pages xv to xx of the Preface. 2) Active reading. The Bassarear textbook is set up with a specific model in mind of how you should read it. Every few paragraphs there is a little pencil and notepad symbol, and when you get to one of them you are supposed to write something on a scratch pad before you go on. This is an admirable format, but one that it can be difficult to persuade oneself to follow through on. So your assignment is to read the sections 1.1 through 1.3 of Chapter 1 (pp. 1 - 24) and to write out thoughts or comments or partial solutions or guesses—whatever he calls for—at each of the marked spots. Then turn in what you wrote. You will NOT be graded on whether you wrote the "right" thing (there generally isn't one) but on whether you wrote something indicating you were putting some thought into the relevant issue.

Problem solving. You are to do fifteen problems. The first ten are listed below. After you have done them, find five more problems in the same set that look interesting, and that offer you a challenge. Try to solve them. If you succeed, wrtie up your solution. If you get stuck, write up what you figured out and why you can't get any further.

The required ten: from the exercises that start on page 27 of the textbook, do #2,4, 6,10,12,18,20,25,31,35

For Wednesday, October 13: Actively read sections 1.5 – 1.7 and turn in your notes

From the problem set at the end of §1.7 (pp. 52-54) Do problems 2 – 4, 9, 13, 18, 20

      Note:       You should feel free to discuss these with anyone you want to, provided it won’t be detrimental to your own learning (try to resist the temptation to hand them to someone who will take one look and hit you over the head with the solutions.) Make sure that what you turn in is in your own words and that you understand it clearly.

Find somebody with whom to play one of the NIM games we played in class. You may choose to try to entice someone else into understnading a strategy that you yourself already understand, or else someone to help you figure out one you do not understnd. In either case, write a short report on how it went.

Also work as many of the problems in Problem Sets 1 and 2 on pages 9 and 10 of the Sundry Items Packet. A class discussion of them on Wednesday will be your major midterm preparation.

In reading Chapter One of the textbook, you will have found many references to the NCTM Curriculum Standards. This extremely important and influential document has recently been edited and re-issued, and its current title is Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The book itself is rather a hefty volume, so we have reproduced for you a selection of sections from it. They constitute the last 3/4 (more or less) of your Sundry Items packet.
      Your assignment is to read all of the sections actively. When you have finished reading and cogitated about it a bit, write a paper about one page (word-processed) in length giving your reaction to the Principles and Standards. In case you need to prime the reaction-pump, here are some questions you might ask yourself: How does this relate to the mathematics I learned in school? How would I like learning this? How would I like teaching this? What parts of it would I look forward to working on with children? What parts would worry me? What’s the point of all this, anyway?

If you got 75% or more for your total grade, AND 25% or more for your individual grade, you have credit.

If EITHER the total is less than 75% OR individual is less than 25%, then you need make up work.

Make-Up:
1.) Get yellow test from Dylan.
2.) Do it in peace & quiet.
3.) Bring it to me (GW) by NOV. 8. If you cannot come to my office hours, e-mail me and we will set up a different time.

Finish as an individual the worksheet you began in class with your group (Sundry Items pages 13-15). Turn it in.

Also read actively the article just before the NCTM Principles and Standards in the same packet. It is about Extraterretrial Beings doing Earth arithmetic. Turn in two comments about it.

In the textbook, read from page 108 to 115.

Turn in problems 11 - 20
[NOTE: I may have written 11 - 18 on the board. On the chance that that is true, I am declaring 19 and 20 to be Extra Credit. If you do them (correctly) you will receive a blob of spare credit of an unspecified nature.]

For those of you who are doing the reading project, here is the written assignment that goes with it:

Turn in a one page typed essay answering the following pair of questions:

Suppose I could, with a wave of my magic wand, arrange to have all classes in all schools in the United States instantly being taught in the way described in the NCTM Principles and Standards.
A) What is one source of fear described by Zaslavsky that would no longer be present?
B) What is one source of fear that would not simply disappear?

Note that I am not asking for a discussion of the implausibility of my having such a wand. I want you to think hard and specifically about the goals and teaching strategies you read about in the Principles and Standards, and then think hard about the content of Zaslavsky's book, and put the two sets of thoughts together.

Read pages 100-108

Turn in problems 2,3,9 and 10 from page 116

Read Section 3.1 (pages 123 - 145)

Turn in problems 5,6,9,10,19 and 20

Read section 3.2 (pages148 - 161)

Turn in problems 1,5-7,9, 28

In the textbook, read sectin 3.3 (pages 163 - 180)

Hand in Problems 1,3,5,13 and 15

NOTE THAT THIS IS A DOUBLE ASSIGNMENT BECAUSE CLASS ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 IS CANCELLED


On pages 18 and 19 of the Sundry Items Packet, there is a MegaWorksheet on Bases. Do that set of problems and hand them in.

In the textbook, read Capter 5, section 2 (p. 266 - 278)

Turn in problems 2,3,5, 9 - 11, 27, 28

In the Sundry Items packet, read the section on Fractions by Diagram (starting on page 20) and do all of the probelms in the set entitled "Yet More Fraction problems" (page 29, I believe)

In the textbook, read Chapter 5, section 3.

Turn in problems 4-10 [note the directions before #4], 15,16,
41a - f and 42

NOTE 1: I believe that these are correct, but they are not guaranteed. If you are in doubt, please e-mail me!
Note 2: The subscripts for the bases all came out too big and not sub. Interpret accoardingly, please!

1a) Caterpillar b) Bear

2a) Yes (converting to base ten to compare, he has $804 and it costs $721)

b) Spends $230four , leaving $23311 four

c) Spends $11542 seven , change is $5125 seven

3) 3/20 of a pound

4) 7 1/8

5) 7/24

6) 37 1/5

7a) 1 hour, 16 minutes and 5 seconds b) 60

8) In base 2 and 4 yes, because all powers of even numbers are even [that's a partial explanation.]

Base 3: no consider 11 three , and 21 three

9) HINT: First weighing should have 3 in each tray.

10) 84

11) 31

12) 7

12 again) HINT: Step 1: test a mixture of samples A,B,C,D

13) 45 miles

14) 1/3

16) 30651 seven ,

17a) 1,2,3,…,89 b) 1,2,4,…,110

18) 4421 six , 101110two , 888 nine , 4500 six

19) 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27