Nysmatyc Presentation - See NysmatycTalk for abstact

 

Red denotes slide we have.  Green denotes a slide that needs modification

 

Outline

  • Open with quote My long lost uncle Boole died at the age of 49. Ironically the cause of his death was teaching in cold, wet clothing from walking two miles in the rain to get to class. So I guess when your grandfather tells you as a kid “I used to walk two miles to school”… or to work….. Now you know it’s a true tale

 

Nassau Community College

  • About

 

The Mathematician/Librarian Connection

  • CWCC
  • Information Literacy Infusion
  • Bringing Math students to the library

 

The Three Sets

  • The Mathematics Course: The general liberal arts Mathematics course that teachs boolean logic.

    • Motivate the students.
    • Supply a critical thinking component into the degree.
    • Re-enforces the connection between the logic and set theory.
  • Research Skills
    • Change in research process from print indices to online databases ( subject approach to keyword approach)(scan image of page)
    • Validity / Evaluation of Sources (find that Fermat Last Theorem site)
    • Meets Info Lit mandate (Middle States, SUNY) of writing across curriculum standards.
    • Provide a life-long skill by putting boolean logic into their everyday lives (use of Google, Wikipedia and eBay)
    • Students immediately apply it to their English, History, Composition courses.
  • Databases and Usage
    • Answer he question When will I ever need this? by providing a real-world application to Boolean Logic.
    • Allow experimentation to discover Boolean Logic and Set Equivalence Laws.
    • Introduces the student to research tools available to them.
    • Provides connection between symbolic logic and logical operators in database searching.

 

Assignments and along with goals and objectives.

  • Simple and Compund Statements

    • Exhibit the difference between and and or and not as applied to a database.
    • Formulate queries in both symbolic logic form and general database syntax.
    • Introduce the idea of identifying keywords and assigning of variables.
    • Introduce the concept of literal strings and exhibit the results.
      • The Information Literacy session should stress the difference in the variable assignment used in class (see Variable Assignment below) versus using the literal string (phrase) syntax of the actual database
    • Introduce a particular database syntax.
  • Precedence Of Operators
    • Exhibit the use of paraenthesis and how results vary.
    • Show that some databases have a precedence of and and or.
      • The Information Literacy session should stress the difference in the queries
      • Connect logical operators to Venn diagrams and set operators.
        • Information Literacy instructor should use the words union and intesection
  • Build Your Own Search Strings 
    • Students are presented with typical writing thesis as assigned in composition classes. Using the thesis, they must identify the control words and eliminate superfluous information.
  • Application 
    • Dead Mathematicans Hall of Fame: Students are asked to write a paper on a famous mathematican detailing his / her life using the skills obtained.
  • Finale Exam / Assessment Questions and Further Examples
    • Research Questions combined with outlines that are valid / invalid arguments.
    • Assessment survey: student opinions

 

Other Courses.

These ideas can be applied to major courses. Many students at the two year level will be going on to 4 year degrees and graduate classes. It is important that we teach them the foundations of information literacy.

 

  • Computer Science Major

    • Dual mode assignment One part requires to research the personage, historical and/or mythical component of the topic. The second part requires research of the programming aspect of the topic.
      • Towers Of Hanoi
      • Sieve of Eratosthenes
      • Newton-Raphson (your research on there is nothing much on Rapshon)
  • Calculus 3
    • The Grateful Dead Scientists: Battle Of The Minds
      • Part 1: Write a narrative vitae.
      • Part 2: Define a topics for a course you would like the scientist to teach.
      • Part 3: Register for a class and why.

 

Web 2.0 Connection

  • Implementation of Assignments
    • We say / they say
    • Social Networking
    • Talk back on the blog.
      1. Presentation / expanded capability of a blog: Use of animated Gifs
        1. Hanoi graphic http://glassr.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/tower-of-hanoi-overview/
        2. Sieve http://glassr.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/sieve-of-eratosthenes-2/
      2. Create Hyperlinks.
      3. Tangential topics / Commenting lleads to answer of We'll get back to that topics. Sharing of those ideas. When you place the comments on a paper, only one student can see it. Shared learning.
        1. Assembly Language in the Saftey and Privacy of Your Own Home
          1. http://glassr.wordpress.com/2006/10/23/programming-in-assembly-in-the-safety-and-privacy-of-your-own-home/
        2. A reference made in post about Seagate Technology applying the Towers of Hanoi algorithm for backups as applied to a home user.
          1. http://glassr.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/tower-of-hanoi-overview/
      4. M. Spiegelman post on researching the reliability of Wikipedia.
      5. M. Spiegelman post on About.com. http://glassr.wordpress.com/2006/10/23/curious-about-aboutcom/
      6. Students have fun and allpy what they learned to their lives
        1. Gary suggesting that he has done an A paper.
          1. http://glassrmat101.wordpress.com/2006/10/24/project-1-results-from-the-muse-database-by-gary-altman-this-is-an-a-paper-0/
        2. Irene, a GLA student writing instructions on reading RSS feeds and then using those instructions to better organize her time.
          1. http://glassrmat101.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/extra-credit-irene-m-hopefully-this-will-work-this-time/#comment-10

 

Tying It All Together.

  • Incorporates Writing Across the Curriculum.
  • Opportunities for faculty development between mathematics faculty, reference librarians and colleagues in other departments.
  • Formation of Learning Communities with faculty in English departments where written assignments can count for both classes.

 


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    Anonymous:we need to add this too- from our abstract Presenters will first use a lecture style to discuss the pedagogy of the course and demonstrate the creation and interactive capabilities of a course blog. They will then elicit active audience participation as to possible application and implementation in mathematics courses and learning communities.
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