All Questions
Tagged with big-list mathematics-education
22 questions
1072
votes
296
answers
351k
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Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics
The first thing to say is that this is not the same as the question about interesting mathematical mistakes. I am interested about the type of false beliefs that many intelligent people have while ...
333
votes
34
answers
96k
views
Why is a topology made up of 'open' sets? [closed]
I'm ashamed to admit it, but I don't think I've ever been able to genuinely motivate the definition of a topological space in an undergraduate course. Clearly, the definition distills the essence of ...
195
votes
30
answers
78k
views
Real-world applications of mathematics, by arxiv subject area?
What are the most important applications outside of mathematics of each of the major fields of mathematics? For concreteness, let's divide up mathematics according to arxiv mathematics categories, e.g....
208
votes
72
answers
51k
views
What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?
Related: question #879, Most interesting mathematics mistake. But the intent of this question is more pedagogical.
In many branches of mathematics, it seems to me that a good counterexample can be ...
160
votes
28
answers
30k
views
How to present mathematics to non-mathematicians?
(Added an epilogue)
I started a job as a TA, and it requires me to take a five sessions workshop about better teaching in which we have to present a 10 minutes lecture (micro-teaching).
In the last ...
93
votes
20
answers
10k
views
Short papers for undergraduate course on reading scholarly math
(I know this is perhaps only tangentially related to mathematics research, but I'm hoping it is worthy of consideration as a community wiki question.)
Today, I was reminded of the existence of this ...
424
votes
93
answers
149k
views
Video lectures of mathematics courses available online for free
It can be difficult to learn mathematics on your own from textbooks, and I often wish universities videotaped their mathematics courses and distributed them for free online. Fortunately, some ...
51
votes
22
answers
19k
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 algebra with the ...
123
votes
25
answers
18k
views
"Mathematics talk" for five year olds
I am trying to prepare a "mathematics talk" for five year olds from my daughter's elementary school. I have given many mathematics talks in my life but this one feels
very tough to prepare. Could the ...
106
votes
83
answers
19k
views
Elementary + short + useful
Imagine your-self in front of a class with very good undergraduates
who plan to do mathematics (professionally) in the future.
You have 30 minutes after that you do not see these students again.
You ...
87
votes
33
answers
24k
views
Parodies of abstruse mathematical writing
Perhaps under the influence of a recent question
on perverse sheaves,
in conjunction with the impending $\pi$-day (3/14/15 at 9:26:53),
I recalled a long-ago parody of abstruse mathematical language
...
74
votes
51
answers
28k
views
An example of a beautiful proof that would be accessible at the high school level?
The background of my question comes from an observation that what we teach in schools does not always reflect what we practice. Beauty is part of what drives mathematicians, but we rarely talk about ...
57
votes
34
answers
13k
views
Are there any books that take a 'theorems as problems' approach?
Are there any books that present theorems as problems? To be more specific, a book on elementary group theory might have written: "Theorem: Each group has exactly one identity" and then show a proof ...
57
votes
11
answers
13k
views
Interesting results in algebraic geometry accessible to 3rd year undergraduates
On another thread I asked how I could encourage my final year undergraduate colleagues to take an algebraic geometry or complex analysis courses during their graduate studies.
Willie Wong proposed me ...
- 1,042
34
votes
18
answers
20k
views
Interesting and accessible topics in graph theory
This summer, I will be teaching an introductory course in graph theory to talented high school seniors. The intent of the course is not to establish proficiency in graph theory, per se. Rather, I hope ...
32
votes
9
answers
10k
views
Recreational mathematics: where to search?
I am not sure I can strictly define recreational mathematics. But we all feel what it is about: puzzles, problems you can ask your mathematical friends, problems that will bother them for a couple of ...
30
votes
15
answers
17k
views
Useless math that became useful
I'm writing an article on Lychrel numbers and some people pointed out that this is completely useless.
My idea is to amend my article with some theories that seemed useless when they are created but ...
81
votes
22
answers
15k
views
Are there proofs that you feel you did not "understand" for a long time?
Perhaps the "proofs" of ABC conjecture or newly released weak version of twin prime conjecture or alike readily come to your mind. These are not the proofs I am looking for. Indeed my question was ...
48
votes
12
answers
10k
views
How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry is?
This question is similar to this one in that I'm asking about how to introduce a mathematical research topic or activity to a non-mathematician: in this case algebraic geometry, intended as the most ...
40
votes
21
answers
16k
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 an undergraduate can ...
35
votes
14
answers
4k
views
Where have you used computer programming in your career as an (applied/pure) mathematician?
For background: I'm working on a book to help mathematicians learn how to program. However, I need to see some examples from people in the field that have done different kinds of things than I have.
...
25
votes
11
answers
5k
views
Learning through guided discovery
I have been working through Kenneth P. Bogart's "Combinatorics Through Guided Discovery". You can download it from this page: http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/news-resources/electronic/kpbogart/
I've ...