Math 266, Spring 2009

Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers

Instructor          John E. M^cCarthy
Class                  TuTh 10.00-11.30 in 218, Cupples I
Office                 105 Cupples I
Office Hours      M 3:00-4:00, Tu 11:30-12:30, Th: 3:00-4:00 or by appointment.
Phone                 935-6753

Text  Arithemetic for Teachers, by Gary R. Jensen

Exams    There will be two exams in the course:

                        1) Midterm        In class, Thursday March 5^th
                        2) Final        Final exam, on Tuesday May 5^th, 6.00-8.00, in 401 Ridgley.

There will be weekly homework sets during the semester, handed out on Thursday in class and due the following Thursday.

Project: Every student must give a presentation on a topic covered in the course, chosen in consultation with the instructor. The presentation will be outside of class, and will be 15 minutes long followed by 5 minutes of discussion. Presentations will all be made in April, at times convenient for the whole class.

Content: It is a truism amongst math professors that, to the instructor, a math course consists of a couple of big ideas; to the students, it consists of hundreds of little tricks. My goal in this course is to teach you the big ideas behind arithmetic and geometry, so that you can explain these topics better to your future students.

Required reading: In addition to the course text by Jensen, you are required to read Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma. This book is on 24-hour reserve in the math library.

Basis for Grading: Final is 35%, Midterm 25%, Homework 25%, Project 5%, Class Participation (including discussion of Ma’s book) 10%.

Homework: Homework is an extremely important part of the course. Whilst talking to other people about it is not dis-allowed, too often this degenerates into one person solving the problem, and other people copying them (often justified to themselves by saying "I provide the ideas, X does the details" - but the details are the key. If you can't translate the idea into a real proof, you don't understand the material well enough). So I shall introduce the following rules:
(a) You can only talk to some-one else about a problem if you have made a genuine effort to solve it yourself.
(b) You must write up the solutions on your own. Suspiciously similar write-ups will receive 0 points.

Class: You are required to come to class every day, and to participate in class discussions. I also expect you to stay abreast of the material we are covering, and may call on you at any time to answer a question.

Office Hours: Please take advantage of them! I am happy to discuss anything related to mathematics or teaching with you, at any time. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you don’t understand something – after all, won’t you want your future students to ask you questions?