What you need to know about this course:

This course is about mathematical thinking, mathematical communication and proof-writing.   Content is secondary, although still very important, and includes the basic material you will need in future mathematics courses:  sets, logic, functions and relations.

I run a highly adaptive and interactive course:

Expect to be active in lectures, and outside of class. I will teach math study skills, not just material. There will be groupwork. Students will be expected to participate actively, and to maintain a respectful and supportive classroom atmosphere. Material and examples will be in response to the students and the classroom. Together we can make this an excellent experience!

The course runs on a per-lecture cycle:

• Attend lecture
• Before the next lecture, view and perform tasks in the Daily Post (front page of this website)

The Daily Post (on the front page of this site) is your guide to what needs doing now. Set aside 1 hour between every lecture for Daily Post tasks, and you’ll stay on track in the course. Further studying is at your discretion (it will be required, but you can decide when).

Weekly work:

• Each Wednesday there is a 20-minute in-class quiz.
• You will be continuously evaluating your own daily homeworks using this self-evaluation sheet.
• You will be creating a study summary of each module.
• You will also (optionally) be meeting with me to improve your grades on the content quizzes via oral exam.

Discord and Study Pods:

We will use discord to collaborate and communicate in the course.  You should log into discord while doing your daily tasks to chat with others working on them too.  During the first week or two of class we will do some get-to-know each other activities that will allow for students to meet classmates. After that, we willhave the opportunity to form “study pods” which will serve as an additional classroom support system. These are not graded in any way, nor is participation mandatory. But doing daily posts in a group can be highly beneficial.

Occasional change of modality:

For health reasons, I may very occasionally need to change the modality of class for one session.  In these cases:

1. I will email the class before class begins with instructions.  I will do my utmost to email at least an hour before class begins.
2. I will post a two-hour daily post activity possibly including a video lecture and/or worksheet.
3. Students may choose to meet in the classroom as usual and use the classroom hour to work in groups on the posted activities.
4. I will be available on discord as much as possible to help with this independent work before the next lecture.

The bottom line:

We are learning skills, not material.  The only path to mastery is practice (think sports or foreign languages), and this course is designed to provide a support system for copious practice.   You will be challenged in many ways you’re not used to from previous math classes.  In particular, there are no recipes.