Fall 2012
Introduction
Professor: Jeff Johannes
Section 1 R 4:00 - 4:50p
Newton 203
Office: South
326A
Telephone: 245-5403
Office Hours: Monday 3-4p, Wednesday 4-5p, Thursday 12N-1p,
8-9p, Friday 1-2p, and by appointment or visit
Email Address: Johannes@Geneseo.edu
IM:
JohannesOhrs
Web-page:
http://www.geneseo.edu/~johannes
Overview
The class will begin with students sharing their
interests in mathematics and motivations for becoming mathematics
majors. Through various faculty visits and departmental
colloquia, students will be introduced to a wide range of topics and
problems in mathematics. The class will culminate with detailed
student presentations of interesting mathematics problems.
Aside from all that, we will begin each class by
discussing any thoughts and reactions to your first-year experiences at
Geneseo.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion students will be able to
- Describe several areas of mathematics beyond calculus,
- Recognize several members of the mathematics department at SUNY
Geneseo
- Express their interest in mathematics, and
- Write precisely about mathematics.
Grading
Your grade in this course will be three-tenths based on your
participation. One fifth of your grade will be based on each of your
reports and your final presentation. The remaining portion of your
grade will come from your introductory presentation.
Participation
Since most of the class is discussion, the class will
only truly be helpful if you are there and participating. If you are
present for a discussion you will receive one participation point that
day. If you also participate to the class as a whole (answer a
question, present a solution, ask an insightful question or offer important
relevant commentary) you will receive two participation points for that
day. Present each day and never speaking in class will earn 80%.
Speaking every other day will earn 95%. Scores between will be scaled
linearly.
Presentations
You will give two evaluated presentations during this course.
The first will be at least two minutes long, will include notes, and
will describe what led you to becoming a mathematics major. Your
second presentation will be about some mathematics not taught in your high
school or college classes that you find interesting. Your second
presentation must be at least ten minutes long.
Reports
After attending a mathematics department
colloquium or faculty visit (or other approved mathematics
presentation) you may write a report. You are required to write two (2)
reports for the course. In your report, please explain the main point
of the presentation and include a discussion of how this presentation
affected your views on mathematics.
A – Well written, answers the
questions, and is interesting and insightful
B – Well written and answers the
questions
C – Well written or answers the
questions (convinces the reader that you were there)
D – attempted
Papers are due the week after the presentation. I will gladly look at
papers before they are due to provide comments.
Feedback
Occasionally you will be given anonymous feedback
forms. Please use them to share any thoughts or concerns for how the
course is running. Remember, the sooner you tell me your concerns, the
more I can do about them. I have also created a web-site
which
accepts anonymous comments. If we have not yet discussed this in
class, please encourage me to create a class code. This site may also
be accessed via our course page on a link
entitled anonymous
feedback. Of course, you are always welcome to approach me
outside of class to discuss these issues as well.
Religious Holidays
It is my policy to give students who miss class because
of observance of religious holidays the opportunity to make up missed
work. You are responsible for notifying me no later than September 17
of plans to observe the holiday.
Schedule
August 30 Introductions
September 6 Introductory Presentations
September 13 Rest of introductory presentations
September 20 Xiao Xiao
September 27 Chris Leary
October 4 Patrick Rault
October 11 Katherine Socha
October 18 Chi-Ming Tang
October 25 Melissa Sutherland
November 1 Ron Taylor
November 8 Emilie Wiesner
November 15 (History of Calculus on W) Advising
November 29 Combinatorics / Nicodemi
December 6 Final Presentations
December 13 3:30 - 6:30p Final Presentations