From harelb Fri Apr  1 21:34:01 EST 1994
To: orlandi,gargova,milnikel,harelb
CC:  rishel
Subject: DRAFT  #1


Hi, following the meeting, Bob and Maria and I discussed the idea of
drafting and re-drafting a more and more concrete "syllabus et al
mechanics of the course" by email, via a back-and-forth process.

Everything below, even when I don't say so explicitly, is ideas,
suggestions, not set in stone. I merely volunteer to be the
"secretary" and as others add ideas or suggestions, suggest changes to
what's below, etc, I'll incorporate them into newer drafts, until we
have something that's close to a final draft for the Curr. Committee,
at which point we might want to meet in person...

Harel

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COURSE SYLLABUS ET AL MECHANICS
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The consensus seems to be for two Big Projects, plus an unspecified
number of smaller projects and assignments. It occurs to me that we
need to look more carefully through our list of possible projects to
see if there are two obviously longer projects among them. We could
probably choose two two-week assignments, plus several one-week and
shorter assignments.

There will be one midterm and one final, we seemed to agree. The two
other evening blocks set aside for prelims could be used for the two
big projects' workshops, although we can certainly also set aside
shorter evening blocks for other parts of the course.

We also need to decide on joint versus individual work. I'm inclined
towards group work for the two big projects, surrounded before/after
by smaller projects and assignments some/all of which would be
individual. How does that sound?

Maria and Bob and I, talking after the meeting, seemed to agree that
for each of the projects, we will give two alternatives the students
would choose among, since it would be too much work for us to prepare
for three or more; maybe 3 choices would be do-able for the 1-week or
shorter assignments.

Two or three instructors each could then be in rooms "A" and "B"
respectively for evening workshops on either of the two possible
projects.

We also discussed the students presenting their work in class. Could
we fit this in for the smaller projects as well as the two larger
ones?

** A SUGGESTION: The innovative technique prof Henderson, with whom I
am currently TAing, conducts some of his classes might be a big help
in the process of evaluating the projects and giving feedback: there
is a back-and-forth process as we comment on a first version, the
students reply to and address our comments, perhaps add some things,
and re-submit. This can be repeated as time permits. As Tom Rishel
suggested, we might want be different here by asking a final
neatly-written-up version at the end of this process.

** A CONCERN: Students really don't know how to write mathematics. I
think it's largely the "fault" of how math is taught (e.g. high
school, but beyond and before that). We could really use resources,
materials, readers, whatever, to teach them that a bunch of formulas
on a page does not make for a very read-able projects. They should
state what they are proposing to do, or to show. What their main steps
will be, what their assumptions are versus what they are trying to
prove (these two often being confused), and so on. We may need to
spend a good week (or do it piecemeal over the early part of the
semester) teaching good mathematics (good scientific) writing.

** AN IDEA: To help promote cooperative learning AND ensure basic
techniques are there, AFTER their initial work on a project/s on
material A, B, C, and before the individually taken pass/fail quizzes
on that material, we give them non-reform past years' Prelims, two say
to look at. Then they show up for an evening session were we give them
a new (non-reform) prelim and they have the hour or whatever to solve
all the problems in groups of 2 or 3 or 4.
197z
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We also need to figure out (in addition to the pass-fail quizzes):
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Activity:         % of grade
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Project 1	:
Midterm         :
Project 2       :
Final           :
smaller projects:
HW		:
Class Presentations:
Individual Class Participation:
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Finally, ***Survey*** for current 112 students (let's start passing
ideas about this back and forth by email soon)...

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