MATH 599: Mathematics Teaching Techniques
Lectures:
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 12 noon-1 PM, room Math 204
Instructor:
Greg Martin
Office: Math 212
Phone: (604) 822-4371
E-mail: gerg@math.ubc.ca
Office hours: by appointment, typically from 1-3 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
Announcement: Remember that there will be Tuesday classes for the rest of the term from 12:30-1:30 PM in room Math 102.
The schedule for the long (40-minute) presentations has been set:
- Monday, October 24: Matthias - Introducing differential equations
- Tuesday, October 25: Jeremy - Finding asymptotes
- Wednesday, October 26: Alex - Integration using substitution
- Friday, October 28: Simon - Motivating the definition of the derivative
- Monday, October 31: Desmond - The Chain Rule
- Tuesday, November 1: Kristin - The Second Derivative Test for local extrema
- Wednesday, November 2: Mclean - Continuity
- Friday, November 4: Alan - The First Derivative Test for local extrema
- Monday, November 7: Karsten - Logarithms and exponential functions
- Tuesday, November 8: Shilpa - The area between curves
- Wednesday, November 9: Ali - Improper integrals
- Monday, November 14: Hardeep - One-variable optimization problems
- Tuesday, November 15: Christine - Critical points
- Wednesday, November 16: Terry - The Mean Value Theorem
- Friday, November 18: Yujin - l'Hôpital's Rule
- Monday, November 21: Jennifer - Partial fractions
- Tuesday, November 22: Gustavo - Partial derivatives
- Wednesday, November 23: James - Defining limits
- Friday, November 25: Mahmoud - The Intermediate Value Theorem
- Monday, November 28: Erez - Surfaces of revolution
- Tuesday, November 29: Natasha - The Quotient Rule
- Wednesday, November 30: Jason - Curve sketching: putting it all together
- Friday, December 2: Shabnam - Compound interest
Each student should attend these long presentations two days of the week, as indicated in the following table. Please make sure you know the correct room and time if you come on Tuesdays (12:30 PM, Math 102).
| Mondays | Tuesdays | Wednesdays | Fridays |
Alan | | | attend | attend |
Alex | | | attend | attend |
Ali | attend | | attend | |
Christine | | attend | | attend |
Desmond | attend | | attend | |
Erez | attend | | | attend |
Gustavo | attend | attend | | |
Hardeep | attend | attend | | |
James | attend | | attend | |
Jason | | attend | attend | |
Jennifer | attend | attend | | |
Jeremy | attend | attend | | |
Karsten | attend | | | attend |
Kristin | attend | attend | | |
Mahmoud | | | attend | attend |
Matthias | attend | attend | | |
Mclean | attend | | attend | |
Natasha | | attend | | attend |
Shabnam | | | attend | attend |
Shilpa | attend | attend | | attend |
Simon | | | attend | attend |
Terry | | | attend | attend |
Yujin | | | attend | attend |
The schedule for the short (15-minute) presentations has been set:
- Wednesday, September 14
- Mclean: Separable differential equations
- Alan: The derivative as a function itself
- Friday, September 16
- Karsten: The Chain Rule
- Shilpa: The second derivative test for local extrema
- Monday, September 19
- Hardeep: Calculating derivatives from the definition
- Matthias: Logarithms
- Wednesday, September 21
- Jennifer: Continuity
- Alex: The first derivative test for local extrema
- Friday, September 23
- Shabnam: The area between curves
- Kristin: The Mean Value Theorem
- Monday, September 26
- Yujin: Compound interest
- Desmond: One-variable optimization problems
- Wednesday, September 28
- Simon: Improper integrals
- Jeremy: Integrating using substitution
- Friday, September 30
- Terry: Critical points
- Monday, October 3
- Christine: l'Hôpital's Rule
- Jason: The Intermediate Value Theorem
- Wednesday, October 5
- Ali: Partial derivatives
- James: The Quotient Rule
- Wednesday, October 12
- Gustavo: Asymptotes
- Erez: Limits of functions
- Friday, October 14
- Natasha: Trigonometric functions in calculus
- Mahmoud: Integration by parts
Course description: The purpose of this course is to provide students with
training to help them become more effective teachers, and also to give the
mathematics department a means for evaluating the suitability of students
to teach undergraduate courses in mathematics. Virtually everybody is capable
of becoming a competent and skillful instructor, but virtually nobody would
do well if made to teach a course without preparation or forethought about
effective teaching practices. Structuring a course, preparing lectures, delivering
information, responding to questions, assigning homework, dealing with problem
students, and so on are all areas where a little consideration of certain
guidelines can vastly improve a teacher's performance. Much of what
comprises excellent teaching is quite different from individual to individual;
most of what comprises bad teaching, on the other hand, is universal yet
easily avoided with some experience.
Evaluation: The course is graded on a pass/fail basis. Passing the course is based on the following criteria:
- Attendance
- Participation in discussions
- Completion of teaching presentations
- Completion of any written assignments
Students will give two presentations during the semester, one of length 15-20 minutes and one of length 40-50 minutes. The first, short presentation will be to critique the students' mechanics and classroom presence, while the long presentations will be to critique their organization of material into a beneficial lecture. Students will teach typical topics from first-year calculus as if the audience were actually a first-year calculus class, after which they will receive feedback from the rest of the class and the instructor.
It might be the case that a very small number of written assignments might be given in the course, for example, writing notes for a one-hour calculus lecture or an outlnie for a one-semester course. Clearly, the focus of the course will be not on the final grade but rather on thinking about issues of teaching and course management and giving and receiving constructive feedback on our skills in the classroom.