Handout with project assignments

Below is the handout that included the information on Weekly Project Reports.

Projects

As stated in the syllabus, the written project report will be due on Monday, Dec. 4. Additionally, each week you should e-mail me a weekly project report (see below). It is expected that you will work on the project pretty much continuously from now until it is due. In addition to the written report, student groups will make an oral report to the class.

The project questions are starting points for your investigation. You should move beyond the question in the final report by investigating further question, explaining the relationship of your project to the secondary curriculum, etc. The purpose of the project is for you to experience mathematical research, so you should not try and find the answer to your project in the library. It is possible that at some point I will recommend some reading for you, with regards to your project, but that would happen later in the term, after you have made significant progress.

I do expect that all groups will need to meet with me occasionally concerning their projects (occasionally may even be more than once a week for some groups at some points during the term). In fact, I want groups to meet with me this way from time to time. These meetings should be a time to organize your thoughts and to ask me questions about the project.

Weekly Project Reports

1. Report on activities for the week.
2. Also answer the following questions:
   1. What is the sub-problem you are currently working on? (What sorts of things have you tried? Why have you tried them?)
   2. What are the mathematical obstacles to your solving this problem? (What could you change to make the problem easier? How could you restrict the problem? Where do you get stuck?)
   3. What is a more general question arising from your sub-question? (What is the overarching them? What constants could be made variable? What restrictions could be lifted?)
   4. What is a more specific question arising from your investigation? (What additional restrictions could be placed on the problem? What variables can be made constant?)
   5. What is a related question you have seen elsewhere? (Have you seen a problem like this? Have you seen a problem with a similar unknown? Is this problem of a certain genre, or from a certain field? Do you know any analogous problems?)
   6. What is a related question you could take to a high school class? (What elements of this problem could be brought down to the high school classroom? How would you characterize that investigation? What are the necessary tools and understandings the class would need to have to answer this problem?)
3. How long did it take your group to answer question 2?

Return to Projects Page

Discussion of Final Projects