An Introduction to Teaching Mathematics at the College Level

Teaching college mathematics can be a daunting task, indeed. It's nice for seasoned professionals and others to have a solid primer on the subject and this guide from Professor Suzanne Kelton is quite useful. The 54-page guide is divided into four chapters that cover documenting teaching practices, classroom basics, course policies, and discussion sections. Each of these chapters has additional subsections, such as syllabi, pace, and proofs. As a bonus, the document has an appendix that covers graphing techniques. The language of the document is jargon-free and accessible, which is a welcome departure from other guides. Visitors will want to share this item with friends in the field and even those who are teaching in other disciplines.

http://www.ams.org/profession/career-info/grad-school/Kelton-TEACH.pdf 

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Numberphile

Are you a numberphile? Maybe you are and you don't know it yet. If you have any interest in topology, geometry, algebra, or other facets of math, this website may be right up your alley. Created by Brady Haran, the site contains hundreds of entertaining videos, including titles like "Unboxing Calculators," "Politics and Numbers," and the very engaging "Pi and the Size of the Universe." Visitors can search the entire collection as they see fit, read comments by other users and also even view topical themes, such as Prime Numbers and Yahtzee. Additionally, there is a Discussion area where visitors can engage in dialogue with other scholars and folks with an interest in mathematics education.

http://www.numberphile.com/text_index.html

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/http://www.numberphile.com/videos/simpsons_pi.html

MathDL Mathematical Communication

Created as part of the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA) outreach efforts, MathDL Mathematical Communication is "a developing collection of resources for engaging students in writing and speaking about mathematics, whether for the purpose of learning mathematics or of learning to communicate as mathematicians." The site contains materials on giving successful math presentations, talking about math to a diverse audience, and also communicating effectively with teammates working on a math project. Visitors shouldn't miss the Resources for Presentations: Handouts & Links area. Here they can find how-to-guides such as "Preparing a Poster Presentation" and "How to Give an Effective Math Talk." Also, visitors are encouraged to submit their own resources for possible inclusion on the site. The site is rounded out by a nice primer titled "Introduction to Teaching Math Communication."

 http://mathcomm.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Probability Resources

This collection from the MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library brings together probability resources from a wide range of sources. First-time visitors can look through topics such as basic probability, games of chance, various discrete and continuous distributions, and more. As they browse around, visitors will notice that each resource has a title, a format, a rating, and a link to more information. The formats are quite diverse, and include interactive graphics, instructional fact sheets, and so on. All told, there are several hundred resources here that could be used in high school and college mathematics classrooms. Perhaps the most interesting sections here are the Famous Problems, which include the celebrated Monty Hall problem and the "birds on a wire."

http://mathdl.maa.org/mathDL/61/?pa=newCollection&sa=viewCoursePage&courseId=9

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

Transition Mathematics Project

The Transition Mathematics Project (TMP) was created in 2004 "to help students successfully progress from high school math to college-level math." Since its inception, TMP has worked with a range of partners including high school and college math educators. First-time visitors should check out the 'Curriculum and Instructional Materials' section and the Resources area, which includes a number of useful tools such as "Agile Mind" (a web-based platform for educators to develop contextually rich math curricula and instructional materials). The Communication area features a semi-annual newsletter and a compilation of current "Math in the News" articles and publications related to TMP.

http://www.transitionmathproject.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Shortest Paths, Soap Films, and Minimal Surfaces.

You know you're in for a real treat when a lecture starts off with "I just happen to have with me today this bucket filled with soap solution, water, and some glycerin." That happens to be the opening line from a talk given by Professor Michael Dorff at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Dorff's talk was quite hands-on and it included a number of skeletal Zometool creations and deconstructed Slinkies, among other items. The title of the talk was "Shortest Paths, Soap Films, and Minimal Surfaces" and it is available here in its entirety. In the lecture, Dorff talks (and demonstrates) the shortest distance between four points, neighborhood accessibility, and a number of fascinating topics.

http://www.maa.org/news/2012ch-dorff.html

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. https://www.scout.wisc.edu

Encyclopedia of Mathematics

"The Encyclopedia of Mathematics wiki is an open access resource designed specifically for the mathematics community. The original articles are from the online Encyclopaedia of Mathematics, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002. With more than 8,000 entries, illuminating nearly 50,000 notions in mathematics, the Encyclopaedia of Mathematics was the most up-to-date graduate-level reference work in the field of mathematics.
Springer, in cooperation with the European Mathematical Society, has made the content of this Encyclopedia freely open to the public. It is hoped that the mathematics community will find it useful and will be motivated to update those topics that fall within their own expertise or add new topics enabling the wiki to become yet again the most comprehensive and up-to-date online mathematics reference work"
http://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php/Main_Page

Primer on Probability

How did Gregor Mendel derive the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment? Most budding geneticists know he used peas, but how exactly did he do it? This fine document from Professor Robert Merritt of Smith College provides explanations of Mendel's groundbreaking work, along with information on the basic rules of probability. The 20-page document was developed for "Your Genes, Your Chromosomes", a course that was offered through the Smith College Summer Science and Engineering Program. The document explains how to test a hypothesis using The Chi-Square Test, and also covers topics such as sex determination and sex linkage, blood group, and gene interaction. Finally, the document contains a detailed explanation of the basic rules of probability and a selection of sample problems

http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/resources/SPT--DownloadFile.php?Id=3

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

MAE 10: Introduction to Engineering Computations

The Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (MAE) 10 course at the University of California at Irvine is a recent addition to their Open Courseware Initiative, and it is well worth a look. The main goal of the course is "to develop computational programming skills and learn computational tools to be used in the solution of engineering problems." The topics covered within the course materials include basic Matlab commands, flow control, selective execution, and modular programming. The course was created by Paul Nissenson, and visitors can click on the "Begin Course" button to get started. Here they will find a syllabus, homework problems, discussion notes, and lecture notes. Finally, visitors who find the course helpful can also provide a testimonial for use on the site

http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/course.aspx?id=129

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011. http://scout.wisc.edu/