The committee agreed that Friday, 1:00 PM would be the usual meeting time. Weinberg agreed to write the minutes of each meeting.
The syllabus for Math 247 taught from Joe Rotman's book was distributed and approved for this semester and will be reviewed after some experience with it is obtained.
The following topics were suggested as possible items for future agenda:
It was suggested that the entire faculty be solicited for input about these and other topics the committee should consider.
The meeting adjourned at 1:37 PM.
The chair referred to faculty responses to requests for topics for the committee to consider during the year.
D'Angelo, Bergvelt and Uhl will be asked to consider the question of text and syllabus for Math 242 and the content of Math 280.
The chair passed along a request from Marjorie Obermayer concerning the appropriateness of some topics in the syllabus for the Collaborative Learning sections of Math 130. These were referred to the committee which set up the course this fall (Diamond, McCarthy, Weichsel, and Obermeyer).
Weichsel brought to the committee the question of the appropriateness of offering credit and grade in Math 190. This course gives on a one time basis one hour of credit to a student in C&M in compensation for the increased amount of time devoted to the course. Uhl is not committed to this idea. The possibility of omitting this beginning Fall 1998 was discussed but no decision was reached.
Weichsel reported on a schedule for offering 300 level courses. The courses currently down for offering once a year would be:
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The minutes of the meeting of September 12 were approved after correction of a typo in the list of 300 level courses that would be offered once a year. Weichsel explained that this list, that was drawn up by he and Weinberg, was intended to fulfill a task set by the CIRI committee last year. Weinberg promised to deliver the list to undergraduates so that they could better plan their courses in the future. The list is
With reference to proposed changes in the syllabus for the small group learning sections of Math 130 using Osterbee-Zorn, the committee heard a report that this involved only a rearrangement of topics and approved the changes.
Weinberg raised some questions about Honors Learning Contracts. This had to do with teaching assistants signing the contracts and deciding what constituted honors work. He felt that some participation of faculty in the process was necessary. One faculty member (not present) has complained that graduate students should not be allowed to turn a course into honors because they already have heavy demands on their time. The question was referred to the hnnors committee for its consideration.
The 242 syllabus and text are still under consideration.
Weichsel provided a report from Stephanie Alexander. The question of whether Math 303 could be used to satisfy the Geometry requirement for students in the Teacher Education Option was reconsidered by the Geometry Committee and approved.
Weichsel brought before the committee the question of how to better advise students with deficiencies to prepare for their university mathematics courses and what opportunities to make available to them apart from what is currently done. A committee consisting of Weichsel, Weinberg, Armstrong, and Luker will be asked to look into these questions.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
Dianna Armstrong and John Luker have agreed to serve on The subcommittee to consider mathematical deficiencies of incoming students.
Christopher Francisco agreed to serve as undergraduate representative but is unable to meet with the committee this semester because of a time conflict. After discussing alternatives the committee agreed to invite him to serve anyway and will arrange the spring meeting times of the committee appropriately.
The chair communicated concerns of Paley about the placement exams and in particular the issue of calculators in the classroom. Parents and high school educators are concerned that students use calculators in the public schools and on the placement exam but may not use them in some classes here.
Bergvelt reported on the use of Schey in the experimental section of 280 this semester. It being too early to make a decision on the basis of its use this semester, it was decided to continue the experiment another term.
Weinberg raised the point that we will have two streams of students coming into 280 in the future, those who have only completed 242 and those who have completed the new 243 and learned some vector calculus.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The chair reported that Ullom and McCulloh have surveyed a number of possible texts for Math 315 and decided that the most appropriate of them was the 5th edition of Leon. They will provide a syllabus. A discussion ensued about the difficulty of completing the current syllabus. The chair suggested that some topics might be included as optional.
Uhl presented a list of courses to be offered electonically asynchronously and/or synchrously. There are eight courses, a version of 315 and seven to be offered under the number 351. The committee has taken the proposal under advisement and will return to their discussion.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The syllabus for Math 242 presented by Bergvelt at the end of the preceding meeting was accepted.
Robert Muncaster appeared before the committee as one of the department's representatives to the Engineering-Mathematics Liaison Committee. That committee will meet on Nov 20. The proposal for a Mathematics Minor for Engineering comes at a time when there is apparently a proposal before the Senate Educational Policy Committee to allow Minors acceptable across college lines. (Such is not now the case.) In this case we will have to reconcile the existing minor in LAS with the proposed minor for Engineering. ... We discussed the matter of not allowing 5 hours credit for Math 225-315. (Of 1000 students who recently took Math 315, 200 had taken 225 and 98 of those were from Engineering.)
The committee discussed the possibility of 2nd eight week modular courses covering the last halves of the two versions of Math 285.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
Present: Bergvelt, Jockusch, Porta, Weichsel, Weinberg, and the chair, Janusz
(As a formality, the secretary reports that an email poll of the committee members brought unanimous agreement that Math 296, Honors Seminar, be offered as an Advanced Course, thus making it available for use towards satisfying the requirements of the Mathematics Major.)
Muncaster gave an informal report on the meeting of the Engineering-Mathematics Liaison Committee. The committee seems to be enthusiastic about the proposal to have a Math Minor for Engineers. In addition the committee endorses our proposal to allow a maximum of 4 hours credit for students who take both Math 225 and 315.
The committee continued the discussion of the possibility of creating a method by which students who took one version of 285 could take the last half of the other portion (Linear Systems or Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems). The University would apparently allow us to offer a 1.5 hour course. Alternatives involving 1 or 2 hour courses, or splitting the differential equations course into modules were discussed.
Paley gave an oral version of a written preliminary report that was submitted on Math 134. This course is being taught for the first time in the format of two hours lecture, two hours recitation. There are 3 lecturers, two graduate students and one faculty member. A great deal of tuturing time is available for students. There is a much higher failure rate than usual. The exams are of uneven difficulty. Students are having difficulties adjusting the homework to the lecture discussion format. If the format (2 lectures, 2 discussions) is maintained it was recommended that the schedules be adjusted to Tuesday and Friday lectures with Monday and Thursday discussions. An alternative might be 1 lecturer classes of size 75.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The committee considered a request by Doug West to use a prepublication copy of a text by Barry Tesman for Math 313. The committee decided that this would be fine if West was teaching the course, but otherwise a significant part of the text has to be made available in advance so that the instructor can decide whether this text is suitable for his/her use.
The committee returned to the question of providing the opportunity for students to cover all of the topics covered in the two version of 285.
The basic idea is to create 3 new courses, (1) a first 8 week 2 hour course covering the common content of the two existing versions of 285. (2) a second 8 week 1 hour course on Fourier series and Boundary Value Problems, and (3) a second 8 week 1 hour course on linear systems of differential equations.
We could (a) Create the 3 new courses and eliminate the current course, (b) Create the 3 new courses but continue to offer the 3 hour versions as well, or (c) Create only the two 1 courses to be offered in the second eight weeks.
With Paley present the committee returned to the discussion of Math 134. It was proposed to alternate lectures and discussion periods. Uhl and Weinberg argued for the use of reform methods in 134. Weichsel feels that the experiment with the lecture-discussion format needs to be continued before we reach a decision involving radical change in the course.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
Present: Bergvelt, Jockusch, Uhl, Weichsel, Weinberg, and the chair, Janusz
The proposal to revise the basic differential equations courses was approved to be submitted to Engineering for their consideration. This would create three new courses:
Weichsel pointed out that prospective offerings in large numbers of sections of Math 351, Topics in Analysis, raise a question as to the use of this rubric. Weichsel will draft a statement concerning this issue.
A proposal for an offering of 198 by West was appproved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The committee considered a proposal forwarded from the Graduate Affairs Committee concerning revision of the comprehensive exams. The proposal was forwarded to this committee because it might result in increased numbers of graduate students in the courses Math 348 and 318. The committee discussed the impact on undergraduate students. Although there is concern that these courses might be taught with the graduate students in mind, the committee decided to not object. A statement to the GAC that includes the committee reservations will be drafted by Jerry Janusz.
The committee approved a request from Peter Loeb to offer a section of Math 135 based on Keisler's book "Infinitesimal Calculus". It was suggested that he might continue with this material in Math 245.
The committee discussed a graduate student representative for the committee. Several suggestions were put forward.
There was a discussion of the experiments with large lecture sections of Math 242 and 243. The latter has reverted to a single small section. This is part of the complicated nexus involving 242, 243, and 280 that remains to be resolved.
Maarten Bergvelt discussed his experience teaching Math 280 from Schey's book, "Div, Grad, Curl, and all that". In general he thought this was not successful in part because material normally associated with the course such as change of variables and the Jacobian is not included in the book. But there were plenty of good problems to keep the students happy through the semester. George Francis is using the text again this semester.
Paul Weichsel discussed the VIGRE proposal and its potential impact on the undergraduate program.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The committee concerned itself with details of two earlier approved proposals for consideration at the forthcoming Engineering-Mathematics Liaison Committee meeting.
The chair of that committee, Bruce Hajek, wishes to forward the proposal on the Mathematics Minor for Engineering to their Executive Committee. He forwarded some comments from other members of the college. The UAC asked Weinberg to draft a revision of the proposal which reflected their suggestions and criticisms by cateogorizing selections for students to make for the minor.
Clarification was asked on the proposal approved on Dec 13 to revise the differential equations sequence. The committee reordered the alternatives that were to be presented to engineering for consideration.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The meeting was driven by the need to consider issues to be taken to the next Engineering-Mathematics Liaison committee meeting. The recommendation to offer three new courses as alternatives to Math 285, a two hour first portion followed by two alternative one hour courses each covering the last portion of the current alternative versions of Math 285 is to be accompanied by the preference that the current two versions of Math 285 be retained, at least for the time being.
The proposed Mathematics Minor for Engineers was reviewed. Weinberg presented a revision following the instructions received at the preceding meeting. This would require the calculus, differential equations, and four courses chosen from at least three lists. The lists placed courses in the categories of Algebra, Discrete Mathematics, Analysis, Geometry, Probability and Statistics, and Computer Science. At most one course could be taken from the Computer Science list.
Jerry Uhl felt that the restriction on CS courses was a mistake and that the Computer Science list was misnamed, the courses being perfectly good mathematics courses in Numerical Analysis and Discrete Mathematics. He argued that the list be renamed Numerical Analysis, moving two of the courses to the Discrete Mathematics list and removing the restriction that only one Computer Science course could be used towards the minor. After some discussion these changes were approved by consensus. The meeting adjourned.
Weinberg, feeling that the proposal for the new minor was unbalanced (allowing one course from Statisics and six from CS), and that too many students could actually complete the minor without taking any or at most one more mathematics course, tried to reopen the discussion electronically. He proposed eliminating the Numerical Analysis list, and dropping all of the CS courses except for CS/Math 350 which was to be placed among the analysis courses. This was approved by 5 members of the committee, with two members opposed to the change and one member not participating in the discussion. The proposal to be carried to Engineering would require:
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
The Math-Engineering Liaison Committee approved the revised proposal for a Math Minor in Engineering with some small revisions, the most notable being that students must select courses from at least two lists.
The committee approved a statement concerning Math 318-348 from the Graduate Affairs Committee. This should be added to the syllabi of these courses: "The Undergraduate Affairs Committee and the Graduate Affairs Committee emphasize that Math [318 or 348] is to be taught at the undergraduate level. The purpose of the course is to impart an undergraduate level of proficiency. The depth and pace indicated by this syllabus should be maintained."
The committee began a discussion of the online courses proposed by Peressini.
Sherbert proposed reexaming the course Math 247, Fundamental Mathematics. Weinberg will provide a copy of the Braunfeld report on 247 for the committee to look at.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
Present: Bergvelt, Francisco, Jockusch, Sherbert Uhl, Weichsel, Weinberg, and the chair, Janusz
The committee returned to an examination of the material presented by Tony Peressini for a course in Topics in Mathematical Education. The course is a sequence of modules worth 1/4 to 1 unit or its equivalent in hours. Its intended for high school teachers who are going through the certificate program offered through NetLink rather than for oncampus credit towards a major. It provides useful tools for high school teachers rather than emphasizing mathematical content. It was decided to invite Tony to a later meeting to address questions the committee might have.
The committee returned to the question of evaluating 247. The Braunfeld report was based on those few instructors that had taught the course up till then. There is now a larger pool to provide feedback. Janusz will write to recent instructors while Sherbert will do archival work.
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary
Several text choices were discussed:
Tadashi Tokieda asked to use Bach and Newman, Complex Analysis, in Math 346 for the Fall semester. The committee wants to see the textbook to ensure that it is appropriate for engineering students.
The committee approved the permanent choice of Arrowsmith and Place, Dynamical Systems, as a text for Math 385, Differential Equations II. The text was proposed by Muncaster, Jerrard, and Laugeson
It was pointed out that we will need to consider the text for Math 124, Finite Mathematics, for Spring of 1999.
The committee once again discussed the course modules being developed for asynchronous courses by Peressini for high school teachers. There is a willingness to list these courses for 300 level credit with the understanding that they cannot be used towards satisfaction of the requirements for a mathematics major or minor and with a limit on the number of hours that can be used towards graduation. The committee would like to have a presentation on these matters. The Graduate Affairs Committee will also have to be consulted.
Sherbert presented a brief history of Math 247 as a course for majors. It started in 1983 as a course entitled Intermediate Analysis. It used a text by Taylor, Advanced Calculus for Students in Mathematics. In 1988 the text was changed to Vector Calculus by Marden and Tromba. In 1993 the course was revised, emphasizing problems and proof techniques, and renamed Fundamental Mathematics. Notes for the course were written by D'Angelo and West; the text covers a variety of topics with an emphasis on combinatorics and elementary analysis. The notes have since been published as a text. In 1995 Rotman taught the course from his own notes emphasizing topics in geometry and algebra; this has also since become a published text. Both versions are now taught. The committee discussed questions relating to the course, agreeing that instructors should continue to be allowed the option of what material to cover in this bridge to upper level courses. The West-D'Angelo version needs a less ambitious syllabus.z
Respectfully Submitted,
Elliot Weinberg, secretary