Meets:3:30 - 4:30 TT Room: Madeleva 249
Instructor: Charles Peltier
Office:214 Madeleva Phone 4498 (H: 232-4951) email cpeltier@saintmarys.edu
Office Hours: M 1-2 T 10-11 W10-11 TH 2:30-3:30 F 10-11 or see/call me for an appointment
Texts:
Brown and Churchill, Complex Variables and Applications,7th edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2004.
Peltier and Snow, The Proseminar and the Senior Comprehensive Project in Mathematics: Student Guide, Saint Mary's College, 1998.
The Proseminar and the Senior Comprehensive Project are intended to give you experience in learning mathematics independently and in presenting to others the material you have learned (see the Student Guide). This syllabus gives dates and references specific to this year's seminar.
Brief description of procedure:
During the study of the seminar topic, students will prepare and present material, assign problems related to their sections, learn and discuss the material in all of the sections, and contribute to a critique of all the presentations. The schedule will be on the syllabus for the current year.
Pairs of students will work as teams to present rwo-day blocks of material from the text. In tthese presentations they will cover the main points of the material, with explanations, examples, etc. going beyond those of the text. Outside references should be used in preparing these presentations, since amplification and interpretation of the text presentation is required (Brown & Churchill alone will not contain sufficient detail for preparation); a number of books are available in the library.
Each student should speak the same amount of time. While the actual format is left to the students (in consultation with the instructor), each student should include some theory or proof in her presentation; that is, it is not advisable to have one student present all the theorems and the other present all the examples.
Each team will assign problems from its block of material; these problems should go beyond calculations into development of the theory. All students will hand in the problems at the class after the block is completed). The team assigningthe problems will hand in an answer key. There will be two dates on which each student will be expected to present a problem or block of problems (chosen from the assignemd problems) to the seminar. These presentations will occur on September 29 and November 17..
Each team will be expected to meet with the instructor (having read the material) at least a week prior to the beginning of their presentation to discuss their plan; they should meet again with instructor at least three days before beginning their presentation to deal with any questions or difficulties that might arise. It is the team's responsibility to contact the instructor to schedule these meetings.
Students will choose their partners for the first round of presentations; the instructor will make the assignment for subsequent rounds.
On the days she is not presenting, each student is required to be an active participant in the seminar: by reading the text material; by asking questions (to assist the presenters in communicating effectively); by participating in discussion prompted by questions (including any asked by the presenters); by recall of her own section of material when it is relevant; by discussing, completing, and handing in the assigned problems; and by completing the student response form for each team. The response forms are available on the Blackboard site and should be submitted electronically within 24 hours of the completion of the presentation. The instructor will prepare a summary of the responses for each presenter.
Preparatory work for the Senior Comprehensive Project is also a part of this course. Each student must arrange with an advisor for direction of her work and submit the Advisor agreement form by the stated deadline (see below). There will be several opportunities for presentation of a first talk for a student who wishes to complete the project early. Any student who is student teaching during the Spring semester is expected to complete two comprehensive presentations during the Fall semester.
Writing
The paper for this course will be an introduction to the topic of your Senior Comprehensive Project. It will be due November 17. More details here.
Some important points and clarifications:
Some other matters (related to preparation for second semester):
Important dates during the Fall semester:
Important dates during the Spring semester: [These are latest acceptable dates - earlier is better]
Blocks & dates for material in Brown & Churchill
| August | 23 Introduction and scheduling | 25 Block 0: C Peltier |
| September | 30 Block 0: C Peltier | 1 Block 1: |
| 6: Block 1 | 8 Block 2: | |
| 13Block 2: | 15Block 3: | |
| 20Block 3: | 22 Comp Advisors (9/23)Block 4: | |
| 27Block 4: | 29 Problem Day | |
| October | 4 Early Start presentation | 6 Comp topic (10/7)Early Start presentation |
| 11 Early Start presentation | 13 Block 5 | |
| 25 Block 5: | 27Block 6: | |
| November | 1 Block 6: | 3 Block 7: |
| 8 Block 7: | 10 Block 8: | |
| 15 Block 8: | 17 Paper due Problem day | |
| 22 Early Start presentation | T-Day - no class | |
| December | 29 Early Start presentation | 1 Early Start presentation |
| 6 Early Start presentation | 8 Early Start presentation |
Back to Proseminar I home page
Last update 8/9/2005