18
votes
16answers
3k views
What are your experiences of handouts in mathematics lectures?
There are many different styles of lecturing, and many different aspects that are blended together to give a whole "lecturing style". That said, I'm particularly interested in hea …
52
votes
10answers
5k views
Teaching proofs in the era of Google
Dear members,
Way back in the stone age when I was an undergraduate (the mid 90's), the internet was a germinal thing and that consisted of not much more than e-mail, ftp and the …
5
votes
7answers
987 views
Undergraduate Topology
I am developing an introductory topology course for undergraduates, and I am wondering what topics to cover. At my institution, real analysis is not a prerequisite for the course, …
23
votes
20answers
5k views
Nontrivial question about fibonacci numbers?
I'm looking for a nontrivial, but not super difficult question concerning Fibonacci numbers. It should be at a level suitable for an undergraduate course.
Here is a (not so good) …
26
votes
20answers
5k views
Why linear algebra is fun!(or ?)
Edit: the original poster is Menny, but the question is CW; the first-person pronoun refers to Menny, not to the most recent editor.
I'm doing an introductory talk on linear alg …
16
votes
16answers
3k views
Journals for undergraduates
Are there math journals that are aimed for undergraduates? I don't mean here journals where students can publish their papers, but journals that publish introductory articles that …
57
votes
15answers
4k views
Why do we care about L^p spaces besides p = 1, p = 2, and p = infinity?
I was helping a student study for a functional analysis exam and the question came up as to when, in practice, one needs to consider the Banach space $L^p$ for some value of $p$ ot …
34
votes
8answers
3k views
Possibility of an Elementary Differential Geometry Course
I have to admit I'm not sure if this is an appropriate question. It's related to research in math education, but not directly to math.
I've found that in talking to professional p …
12
votes
17answers
2k views
Short Course Suggestions For High School Students
I am planning to teach a course for talented high school students at a summer camp and I need suggestions for possible topics. The students usually have different backgrounds but m …
37
votes
7answers
5k views
What is Lagrange Inversion good for?
I am planning an introductory combinatorics course (mixed grad-undergrad) and am trying to decide whether it is worth budgeting a day for Lagrange inversion. The reason I hesitate …
12
votes
7answers
1k views
Unexpected applications of the fact that nth degree polynomimals are determined by n+1 points
I had a funny idea for proving an identity in Euclidean geometry. While it didn't end up being a very nice proof strategy in my case, I would still like to collect nice examples o …
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Battle of the brains; cultural mathematics
Firstly, I apologize if my question is long.
Three years ago, I watched a video with the name Battle of the Brains. It was a wonderful video about challenging some famous peoples …
9
votes
6answers
2k views
Leibnizian calculus textbook
Where can I find a calculus textbook that emphasizes differentials?
Is there such a book that I could realistically require my calculus students to use?
I want a textbook that sup …
31
votes
15answers
5k views
Strong induction without a base case
Strong induction proves a sequence of statements $P(0)$, $P(1)$, $\ldots$ by proving the implication
"If $P(m)$ is true for all nonnegative integers $m$ less than $n$, then $P(n) …
31
votes
12answers
6k views
Examples of undergraduate mathematics separation from what mathematicians should know
I'm looking for examples of four kinds of things:
Material that is usually covered in standard undergraduate mathematics courses and/or in first-year graduate work (or tested in …

