For the Math 136H project, you learn about some theoretical or applied topic involving first-semester calculus that is not otherwise covered, or covered incompletely or tangentially, in the course. This could be an application suggested to you by a teacher in some science or other course; or a topic from the textbook or another book, or from a journal or magazine; or something you find out about on the web. (From time to time some suggestions will be made in class for possible topics.)  With the aid of Mathematica, you solve some problem or problems involving this topic and prepare materials—including the same or other problems—as if to teach the topic to another class member.

The materials you submit may be in written form or in the form of a web page—either form to be accompanied by a Mathematica "notebook" file—or entirely in the form of a Mathematica notebook.

This project is not intended to be a piece of original research.  Rather it is a piece of exposition through the preparation of which you learn something interesting or useful on your own and through the exposition of which you practice communicating mathematical ideas and/or techniques.
The mini-project may be completed as early in the course as you wish and must be completed before classes end.

Before settling on the topic, discuss with Prof. Eisenberg what you think you would like to do.You are encouraged to work in with one or two collaborators on the mini-project.

Calendar

???, by e-mail: proposal

Statement of proposed topic; with whom you're working; format of project (Mathematica notebook alone; notebook + paper; notebook + web page); list of some resources (printed, on-line, people)

Monday, May 5, 4:00 p.m.: all project materials

By the above date submit all materials for your project:

• The written (or typed, computer printed, etc.) part, if any;
   
• The Mathematica notebook -- both a printout and an electronic copy (on diskette, PC-formatted Zip disk, CD-ROM, or e-mail attachment); and
   
• Both the URL and printed version of the web page(s), if you are doing web pages as part of this.

Be certain to include a complete bibliography with full citations of all electronic, printed, and human sources that were consulted and actually used in the project, e.g., an instructor in another course who provided actual information. (If a human merely provided pointers to sources or suggestions as to topic, just give a separate acknowledgement rather than including him/her in the bibliography.)  No special format is required for the bibliography, but of course include author (if known), title, and publication data.

Grant of rights: Although it is not a requirement of the project, I would appreciate your granting U.Mass. and me non-exclusive "rights" to your work for use in teaching and teaching-related scholarly activities.  This means that:

• I, or other instructors here,. could, without having to pay you, freely use your work as a teaching resource;
• I could use your materials as examples of student work, in scholarly publications and professional presentations;
• neither I nor U.Mass. needs to pay you for such use of your materials; and
• you could still sell rights to the work to a third party, subject to the restriction that U.Mass. also has the right to use it without paying such third party.

If you do grant these rights, then by default credit will be given to you by name(s) in any printed or electronic version of all or parts of your work as may be made available to students or presented by me; if you do not wish to have such credit given to you by name, please explictly indicate that.

If you wish to grant rights, please simply write "grant rights" and sign your name at the top of the printed copy of your materials.  (If you are doing this project jointly, you both need to sign in order to grant these rights.)

If you are doing this project jointly, then you should each separately prepare and submit a confidential statement of effort that identifies just what aspects of the project you did and what aspects your partner(s) did, and your estimate of the relative percentage of the total effort that each of you contributed. (These confidential statements will not affect the grade on a joint project—indeed, you will both receive an identical grade—but are intended as a means for you to acknowledge your own efforts and to guide me in structuring projects in the future.)

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