MAJOR MAGIC - MerAmec Juggling ORganization MAGIC - on Thursday from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. meeting in the Applied Science (AS)/Lecture Hall (LH) Quadrangle or Lecture Hall Atrium. Juggling Club Web Page URL http://www.jug/wt/major.htm
StLCC @ Meramec Web Pages URL http://www.stlcc.cc.mo.us/mcdocs/ PREQUISITE: Prerequisites: MTH 160, MTH 160A, MTH 160B, or MTH 160C with a "C" or better, or a satisfactory score on placement test. Students from other institutions must provide appropriate documentation for enrollment to the instructor on or before January 16, 2004. Structure of Mathematical Systems I COURSE INTENT: This course is intended for students who are planning to transfer into early childhood education, or special education programs. It is an introduction to problem solving and logic. A study of the developmental and construction of mathematical systems. Including whole numbers, integers and rational numbers. MTH 165 TEXTBOOKS: Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers and Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers: Explorations, 2nd edition, both by Tom Bassarear. There is a website for this book at http://college.hmco.com/mathematics/bassarear/elementary_school/2e/students/index.html . The planned features of the website include: links, New Explorations and Investigations, and a contact the author link. TIME ON COURSE: The three class hours and project time you spend on this course will require about twelve homework hours per week for high grades to around eight hours per week for passing grades. It is best to construct a time schedule for each week of the course and mark out the study time you plan. A plan gives you the needed hours indicated above. ADDITIONAL MATERIALS: calculator, graph paper, poster board, and other materials needed for demonstrations. ADDITIONAL STUDY AIDS: Computer software may be used in SW 110 and I will help you with this mathematics software when needed. The Mathematics Department's Syllabus is on the Web using this link..
The mathematics department tutors located in room SW 211 can help you and some library materials are available. Tutoring is also offered at the South County Education Center and the West County Education Center. You may obtain individual peer tutoring through the College Success Program.
Please see me as soon as possible for any personal accommodations you require. CHAUTAUQUA TYPICAL CLASS PERIOD: The first part of class time is open for answering student questions about the previous assignment including exercises, reading material, or classroom notes. Add your questions to the class day's START UP LIST. You are encouraged to help answer other student's questions or show your solutions by presenting chalk board work. While presenting information is expected, this communication is not graded. Use this time to experiment with your ability to understand an exercise and convey your understanding to others. Your frequent involvement will help you practice many of the activities covered in your general and specific goals covered later in this syllabus and generally aid your understanding of the material and problems of the course. Don't worry about mistakes you may make, that's natural in this part of class. Record on the day's attendance sheet a point of extra credit for each problem presented.
Another part of class is used to introduce NEW MATERIAL, do EXPLORATIONS, INVESTIGATIONS and EXERCISES with examples, discussion and demonstrations. I assume that prior to the class in which new material is introduced that you already took notes as you read from the new textbook sections and practiced the new vocabulary. You may wish to include the textbook investigations and examples in your class questions of new material as your instructor will cover these ideas and concepts and do additional examples. Some class time is spent with all students working at the chalk board, some class time is spent working on PROJECTS and PRESENTATIONS both in teams and individual. Some class time is spent in the computer room SW 110. TEAM ACTIVITIES: Some class time is devoted to team work on EXPLORATIONS, INVESTIGATIONS and PROJECTS aimed at a deeper understanding of some course topics or their applications. Your instructor will assign you to a team and assign team coordinators. A grade will result from this team work and each student must hand in their report to be graded. When working on a team, students are to think for themselves treating the instructor as a guide, consultant, coach and evaluator to the team. Always try to approach your team time with a knowledgeable position based on your personal studies. During team activity, you should display a willingness to generate discussion that leads to answers or more refined questions that converge to solutions to your team assignment. You may be in the dark on some points but being open to change and willing to communicate your points even if mistaken at first helps the team toward the final goals while helping you toward greater clarity. At times we need team work to derive all the answers or computations in some assignments. And other times teams provide a natural background for discussion of the material and presentation of solutions. You are expected to help your team reach reasonable objectives on time and demonstrate to me that you are participating on your team in a meaningful way. Also, teams may wish to work as a study group covering daily assignments. This can be implemented via your telephone or computer networking. Individual communication is not permitted in class. Please note that individual communication is not very productive while another person is speaking in a group or class room situation. EXPECTATIONS: This syllabus including its Course Schedule (below), the Mathematics Department's Policies combined with the St. Louis Community College student academic rights and responsibilities form the substance of this course. Please see me as soon as possible for any personal accommodations you require and please keep in mind that: The quickest way to resolve any difficulty, no matter how small, is to let your instructor know about it as soon as possible. SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS: You are expected to read the textbook and take notes from the textbook before the class in which the material is covered. Add to these notes or take separate notes covering the new material and activities in each class. Then finish the assigned exercises by doing all the odd exercises for the following class except perhaps a few of the more difficult exercises that you should ask about in the next class and then finish. Put your list of studied but unsolved problems on the class day's START UP LIST. Definitely ask for individual help when needed particularly if you can not work large portions of the exercises. Review processes you used to solve home work exercises and practice vocabulary each day. Remember that you want to stay on top of your work and be able to adequately prepare for the unit test coming in a few days. This generally means you need to develop a dogged attitude with more than several hours per day spent on explorations, investigations and solving exercises, keeping good notes from the text and class, and doing plenty of daily grappling. Give yourself a short test of five problems each day! Use your personal weekly study schedule sheet to keep track of finished work and extra credit points. If you need help, I am located in the mathematics department during office hours or you may call my home telephone number before 9:30 p.m. This course takes lots of gumption. SOME GENERAL GOALS: Learning in this course may be enhanced by your frequent willingness to use and thereby improve various attributes related to knowing or learning mathematics.
Print and consider this Web list (http://jug.net/wt/mgoals.htm) while you strive for excellence in understanding mathematical ideas and develop corresponding techniques. Add more activities or general goals by experimenting with new ones that may help you increase learning or make learning more meaningful and pleasant. Reorganize your methods and even style of learning for deeper understanding and interest. Pursue the lines of inquiry that you find your mind selects naturally while not diverging from the outline of course material too far. It is OK to spend large amounts of time studying just a few ideas, pages, or problems and as a matter of fact this is YOUR MAGIC for learning mathematics. Also give yourself personal permission for making lots of mistakes. Use the criterion of "when time seems to flow" as your gauge for individual development to realize a sense of accomplishment then personal complexity may change as well. Don't get stuck or stay stuck! Help yourself to be an expressive engaged learner, that is, "be all you can be".
* Keep pencil and learning journal, log, personal weekly study schedule sheet or just plain scratch paper next to you and actively fill in the details of ideas that lack continuity.
SPECIFIC STRUCTURE OF MATHEMATICAL SYSTEMS GOALS: Know and apply the systems and their properties found in this course.
ASSIGNMENTS and NOTES: Your problem assignments, text notes and class notes are checked during regular test times. Turn in your notebook as you enter the test time and take it with you when you leave the test. All material should be in sequential textbook order. Seven extra credit points = 3 for completely worked homework exercises + 2 points for textbook notes + 2 points for class notes are given via a quick review of the thoroughness and spot checked for accuracy of your work. TESTS: A regular test is given as shown on the Course Schedule and no make up tests may be taken. Regular tests are composed from the EXERCISES in your textbook and the rest from material highlighted during class. These tests are graded and returned as soon as possible but certainly less than a week. Ask for help if you need to develop better test taking skills. The final exam counts as two regular tests and is not returned. PROJECTS: A few individual and team project assignments are required and count as a regular test grade Additionally, some extra credit exercises and reports are suggested during the course and carry the amount of points assigned with the given work. A grade rubric will be discussed in class for each project. GRADES AND THE GRADE SCALE: The final grade is based on the average of these regular tests and team assignments. Any extra credit points are added to the regular test points at the end of the course. The following scale is used on each unit: A for 90 points or above, B for 80 to 89 points, C for 70 to 79 points, D for 50 to 69 points, and F for under 50 points. Test grades correspond to percentages of highest raw scores. I recommend high test scores (without the extra credit points) before you take any courses for which this course is a prerequisite. You may ask about PR or I grades for your individual combination of circumstances. You may give yourself one point extra credit on the day's attendance for each problem you put on the board. You may give yourself one point extra credit for each math error you find in class, in the textbook or in the answer key as long as you document what error is and show the page number next to your one point on that day's attendance sheet. ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED: more than three days of absences or six times of tardiness gives you a course grade of F. CHANGES: Some additions, substitutions and/or corrections to this syllabus will be made during the course.
Copyright © 2004 with all rights reserved by William V. Thayer, PedLog