Course Description
An analysis of high school mathematics that arises in commercial and non-commercial workplace settings. Topics come from algebra, geometry, statistics, and other branches of mathematics.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be required to demonstrate mathematics in
workplace settings through a project beyond the requirements for the
undergraduates. In particular, graduate students will be
required to identify a workplace setting for a field trip,
uncover mathematical aspects of the work done in that setting,
develop a lesson about that mathematics, and lead the class on
the field trip. This project will count toward 20% of their final
grade.
Athena Title
Mathematics in Context
Undergraduate Pre or Corequisite
MATH 3200
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
To help secondary mathematics teachers construct connections between formal mathematics and workplace settings, and to develop lesson activities that use such settings to introduce high school students to core mathematics topics. Students will connect formal mathematics to practical situations that arise outside of classrooms and will consider issues around diversity as they visit workplace settings that involve manual labor, lab work, and office work.
Topical Outline
Topics vary and are tied to workplace field trips. Current topics include: *ratio and proportion *modular arithmetic *counting principles *slopes of linear functions *exponential growth *statistics concepts *geometric concepts Graduate students will select additional topics as approved by the instructor and approriate to their workplace setting that they choose and analyze for their project.
Syllabus