On the first day of class, I asked the students to send in an email report responding to five questions. One of the questions was for them to write a mathematical biography, listing all of the courses that they had already taken. I also asked them to list courses with which they had particularly positive or negative experiences with. Below I list the responses. (The students are grouped by their project groups.)
Key
x - Took course
p - Took course and had positive experience
n - Took course and had a negative experience
c - Taking the course concurrently with the capstone
? - Student did not indicate taking the course, but for various reasons I now
believe they had taken the course. (This information came to light throughout
the term).
|
Name
|
Calc
1-3 |
Differ. |
Linear
Alg. |
Abstract
Algebra 1 |
Abstract
Algebra 2 |
Analysis |
Analysis
II |
Discrete
Math |
Number |
Geometry
|
P.D.E.
|
Statistics
|
Logic
|
Complex
Analysis |
| Neal |
x
|
?
|
p
|
x
|
?
|
?
|
p
|
x
|
||||||
| Jim |
n2
|
x
|
p
|
p
|
n
|
x
|
c
|
x
|
||||||
| Brad |
x
|
p
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
n
|
x
|
||||||
| Tom |
x
|
n
|
x
|
p
|
p
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||
| John |
x
|
n
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||||
| Ron |
x
|
x
|
x
|
p
|
p
|
n
|
x
|
x
|
||||||
| Alan |
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
c
|
x
|
1,2
|
x
|
|||||
| Don |
x
|
n
|
x
|
p
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||
| Lyn |
x
|
?
|
x
|
p
|
x
|
n
|
x
|
|||||||
| Ellen |
p
|
x
|
p
|
x
|
c
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||
| Mary |
n3
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
||||||||
| Teri |
p
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
n
|
|||||||
| Jill |
x
|
x
|
x
|
p
|
p
|
x
|
x
|
|||||||
| Bill |
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
The question marks mostly arise because students listed differential equations as one of their calculus courses. (They said they took 4 terms of calculus.) The questionmarks under Neal's entry arise because I found out at the end of the term that he had passed discrete mathematics, but received a grade lower than a 2.0 in the class. Moreover, every student was required to have passed Analysis I to be in this class, and the only exception made was for Ellen, who was taking the course concurrently with the capstone.
Being a visitor to the department, I did not really know what students were likely to have taken coming into this class. One of the major differences between MSU students and BGSU students is that the BGSU program for prospective teachers is highly regimented. The students have only one elective. Tied into this, BGSU students all have taken a statistics course and a mathematics history course, courses almost none of the MSU students have taken. On the flip side, Analysis I is a required course at MSU, but almost no mathematics education students at BGSU ever take the course. Similarly, Differential Equations is not a required course in the BGSU curriculum. One final difference is that the abstract algebra 1 course at MSU is taken by both prospective teachers and mathematics majors that are planning on going to graduate school, while the secondary teachers at BGSU take a different course from the mathematics majors. Thus, this survey helped me gain an understanding of my students. The second reason for the survey was to help me with project assignments. Certain of the projects are sometimes covered in classes. For example, the ten cards project, can appear in discrete mathematics classes, and I didn't want to give that project to someone that had seen it solved. Consequently, I gave the ten cards project to a threesome that had not already taken the discrete mathematics course (at least according to my knowledge at the time). Similarly, the Euclidean algorithm project went to Tom, John, and Ron, only one of whom had taken number theory.