Math 355

Spring 2014

Project Guidelines

The topics for either the individual project or for the group project can be virtually anything mathematical.  I expect you to use your own interests and resources to choose a topic.  Ideas for topics can be found in your textbook, through other classes, and on the web.  Past contest problems for the Mathematical Contest in Modeling may give you some good ideas - students in past semesters have found it a good source of projects for either the group or the individual project.  The web page for the contest is http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/.  The problems are fairly in-depth and might be overkill for this course, especially for the individual project.  You might want to look at the high school contest problems for ideas that you can expand on for appropriate and tractable projects (note that the high school problems are generally too low level if not expanded upon).

For each project you will do both a report and a presentation.  The presentation should contain the big ideas, including an outline or overview of the method(s) used to solve the problem, and the results and the implications of the results.  However, the presentation should not include most of the mathematical details, even though those details are often where the bulk of the time in solving a problem are.  This is typical of most mathematical presentations.  In contrast, the paper report will be significantly longer, as it should contain the material presented as well as the mathematical details.  The report will include a justification for why the project is interesting or should be done, an overview of what the project is trying to measure or calculate, the procedure used to solve the problem, including the mathematical details, a summary of the results in both mathematical and real-world terms, and, if appropriate, a discussion of the likely sources of error, the error expected, any additional variables to include in a future modification of the solution, or reasons why variables were excluded in this solution.  The report is not a printout of the Maple or Powerpoint presentation, nor is the presentation a reading of the report.  They are fundamentally different formats, and need to be prepared separately.  The grading rubrics that I will use to grade the projects will be provided prior to the project due dates.

Project presentations will be done in class.  Groups for the group project should be between two and four people, inclusive.  You may choose to present either your individual or group projects at the Student Academic Conference (SAC).  If you choose to do so, I will multiply your project grade by 1.10 (increasing it by ten percent).  SAC applications are due on February 28, and the SAC is on April 15.  Note that this means that if you choose to present your group project, you must have the topic chosen earlier than required for class, and the project must be finished before the class due date. 

You are expected to attend and actively listen to the project presentations of your classmates.  Note that I typically include questions on projects on the Final Exam.

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