Professor: Jeff
Johannes
Section 1
MWF 10:00 - 10:50a
Sturges 208a
Office:
South
326A
Telephone: 245-5403
Office Hours: Monday 2-3p, Tuesday 5-6p, Wednesday 4-5p, Thursday 8-9p, Friday 12N-1p, and by appointment or visit
Email Address: Johannes@Geneseo.edu
Web-page:
http://www.geneseo.edu/~johannes
Textbook
Mathematics
in
Historical Context, Jeff Suzuki
Purposes
The first main goal of this course is to
connect the
mathematics you have learned (and some you haven't) with the history
you have learned (and some you haven't). The second main goal
is
to connect the mathematics you have learned together.
Grading
Your grade in this course will be based
on four
main components. One-fifth each will be determined by daily
reading reactions and by a midterm essay exam. Three-tenths
each
will be determined by a research paper in history and mathematics and
by a final essay exam. More components may be integrated into
this evaluation. Any alternate grading proposal must be
discussed
before and submitted by January 29 (the second Friday of the course).
Reading
This book is much more a history book
than a mathematics
book. It reads like "what mathematics was going on during all
the
history I learned about in humanities?" The book begins at
the
dawn of human mathematics and runs through the second world
war.
You have reading assignments for each class day, roughly ranging from 7 to 15 pages. Our entire
reading will come from our book, and we will complete the entire book
by the end of the course. Each day (with three exceptions -
the
first day, midterm day, and the final day) you are required to email
reading reactions before class. These reading reactions must
include
reactions to at least five topics in the reading. They must
be
written in intelligible English. Each one will be evaluated
out
of 5 points, with points deducted for fewer than five points being
addressed. They must be time-stamped by 9:00a that
day.
They must be in the body of the email - no attachments. I
take no
responsibility for email that gets spam filtered. To help
avoid
this - be sure to include a subject beginning with "390". I also will do no
detective
work to determine who gets credit for them - sign your
submissions. Finally, you will only receive credit for your
reading reactions for that day if you are in class that day.
By
getting your reactions an hour before class, I hope to incorporate some
of them into the class session that day. With 45 of you, I
cannot
promise to do this for everyone.
Exams
There will be a midterm and a final
exam. Both
will be essay exams and involve analysis of the mathematical and
historical content of our investigation. Both will be written
in
class using laptop computers provided by you. I will accept you not
using a
computer for the exam, but I expect your work will be far lesser
quality by doing so - less written, no editing capability, illegible
&c, and I will not compensate in grading. All exams
will be
graded to the same standard. The final will
naturally be more lengthy. Both will include a variety of
questions and allow for some choice of which questions to
answer.
More details will be provided as we approach the exams.
Research Paper
You will write a 1200-2000 word research paper
on a topic in the history of mathemaitcs. Papers will be graded
in three main
aspects:
writing, historical content, and mathematical content.
Stories
about mathematicians will not suffice as mathematical content, and a
date and name will not suffice for historical
content. I
will assign a signed letter evaluation in each of these three aspects
and then average them. The final paper will be a
substantial research paper on a topic not covered in
class.
Selecting the topic by the deadline will be worth 5%, the annotated
bibliography will be worth 20%, the draft will be worth 30%, and the
final paper will be worth 45%. For those
seeking a
teaching certification, the topic must be from the NCTM/NYS standards
at
their level of anticipated certification. For those who are
not,
the topic must be from a post-secondary class they have already (or are
currently) taken. The topic should be a topic
of no
more than a week at either level (one point on NYS standards would be
typical). Due dates are indicated in the schedule below.
For
those wishing to satisfy oral research requirement, may present
research paper during a GREAT day (The most important are 4, 14, 16, 22, 28, 10, 12, 24, 27) math. history session.
Other components
More aspects for evaluation may include,
but are not
limited to problem sets related to the material, connections to
curriculum (at pre-K - 16 levels), paper on mathematical notation.
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. Of
course, you are always welcome to approach me outside of class to
discuss these issues as well.
Disability Accommodations
SUNY Geneseo will make reasonable
accommodations for
persons with documented physical, emotional or learning
disabilities. Students should consult with the Director in
the
Office of Disability Services (Tabitha Buggie-Hunt, 105D Erwin,
tbuggieh@geneseo.edu) and their individual faculty regarding any needed
accommodations as early as possible in the semester.
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 February 1 of plans to observe the holiday.
Schedule
January 20 Course Introduction
January 22 1.1 / 1.2
January 25 1.3
January 27 -2.1.2
January 29 2.1.3-
February 1 -2.2.2
February 3 2.2.3-
February 5 -3.1.2 Research Project
Topic Due
February 8 -3.1.3
February10 3.2
Febuary 12 4.1
February 15 4.2
February 17 4.3
February 19 4.4
February 22 5.1
February 24 -5.2.2
February 26 5.2.3-
March 1 5.3 Annotated
Bibliography due
March 3 6.1
March 5 -6.2.2
March 8 6.2.3-
March 10 7.1
March 12 Midterm - Chapters 1-6
March 22 -7.2.3
March 24 7.2.4-
March 26 -7.3.5
March 29 7.3.6-
March 31 8.1
April 2 8.2
April 5 -8.3.3 Research Paper Draft due
April 7 8.3.4-
April 9 9.1
April 12 9.2 / 9.3
April 14 9.4
April 16 -10.1.3
April 19 10.1.4-
April 21 10.2
April 23 11.1
April 26 11.2
April 28 11.3
April 30 -11.4.2
May 3
11.4.3-Epilog Final
research paper due.
Tuesday, May 11 8-11a Final XM