Explorations in Mathematics - Course Calendar 2009

Class meetings:

Meetings are generally scheduled for 5-6pm Wednesday; but initial meeting is Friday Jan.8 (organizational) All meetings are in basement of East Hall, room B743. For most of the semester these meetings will be devoted to oral project reports. Attendance is required at these meetings.

Consultation with Course Staff:

Teams must meet with course staff at least once a week in addition to the regular class time. The computer room B743 will be staffed 5-7 PM five days a week (starting Wednesday, Jan 10)

• Monday: Mark Conger, Andrew Kiluk
• Tuesday: Jeff Lagarias, Brian Mann
• Wednesday: Class meeting (first meeting Jan is exception)
• Thursday: Mark Conger, Brian Mann
• Friday: Jeff Lagarias, Andrew Kiluk

Timetable:

(This schedule is subject to change concerning Weeks 0 and 1.)

• Week 0 (Jan. 7-9)
  First class Friday Jan 9 (5pm-6pm) B743 East Hall. Organization, discuss teams and projects. Remarks on doing research.
• Week 1 (Jan 12 - Jan 16)
  Wednesday (Jan 14): Lecture: Discussion of Projects, doing research.
  Fill out IBL Questionnaire.
  Friday: Fix teams, choice of topic for first project due.
• Week 2 (Jan 19 - Jan 23)
  Monday: MLK Day; No class
  Begin work on first project.
  Wednesday: Lecture (computer-assisted math exploration)
• Week 3 (Jan 26 - Jan 30)
  Wednesday: Lecture (LaTeX - typesetting)
• Week 4 (Feb 2-Feb 6)
  Wednesday: Lecture (how to write up a project)
  Friday: Draft of the first project report due
• Week 5 (Feb 9 - Feb 13)
  Wednesday: Draft report of first project returned.
  Wednesday 2/11 Presentation: Continuous Blackjack
• Week 6 (Feb 16 - Feb 20)
  Wednesday 2/18 Presentation: Factoring Polynomials (mod p)
  Friday: Final report on first project due and choice of second project due.
• Week 7 (Feb 23-Feb 27)
  Spring Break; No classes
• Week 8 (Mar 2 - Mar 6)
  Start work on second project.
  Wednesday 3/4 Presentation: IRS
• Week 9 (Mar 9 - Mar 13)
  Wednesday 3/11 Presentation: Periodic Recurrence Relations
  Friday: Draft report on second project due.
• Week 10 (Mar 16 - Mar 20)
  Monday: Draft report returned.
  Wednesday 3/18 Presentation: Graphing Monomial Ideals
• Week 11 (Mar 23 - Mar 27)
  Begin work on third project.
  Wednesday 3/25 Presentation: Kolakoski Sequence
  Friday: Final report on second project due and choice of third project due.
• Week 12 (Mar 30 - Apr 3)
  Wednesday 4/1 Presentation: Polynomial Mapping of Complex Circles
• Week 13 (Apr 6 - Apr 10)
  Wednesday 4/8 Presentation: Sums of Cubes
  IBL Focus Group meeting (40 minutes), after presentation
  Friday: Draft report on third project due.
• Week 14 (Apr 13 - Apr 17)
  Monday: Draft report returned.
  Wednesday 4/15 Two Presentations: 3x+1,
  Coloring Knots
• Week 15 (Apr 20 - Apr 24)
  Tuesday: Last day of classes and final report on third project due.
  Wednesday: End of class party