MATH 450 Homepage

• Course Description:
  
  MATH 450 - Mathematics Capstone Seminar (1 hour), Prerequisite: MATH 421 and MATH 431 (may be concurrently enrolled).
  
  • Integrate previous mathematical coursework and prepare and present mathematical research, both orally and in written form.
  • Consider the relevance of the Christian worldview and a Biblical ethical approach to the fields of science, mathematics and technology.
  • Introduction to professional and graduate opportunities available to mathematics graduates.
  
  
• Typical Day in Math 450:


• 10 minute math quiz on topics ranging from calculus to abstract algebra. Our GRE text gives place to start reviewing. I may announce in class what the topic is for the upcoming quiz, so, stay tuned.


• 40 minute of Lecture, discussion, or both on topic as given in Syllabus.


• exception to rule: you take the MFT test at some point and we have presentations on Reading Day.

Required Course Materials:

1. Cracking the GRE Math Subject Test, ISBN: 9780375429729, 4th edition (beware there are multiple covers, I include ISBN in hopes of us having same text, I got the ISBN from our bookstore info page).


2. Mathematics Through the Eyes of Faith by Russel Howell and James Bradley. This text surveys important questions of foundations and philosophy as they relate to Christianity and Mathematics. We will spend several weeks discussing this text. It is written by Mathematicians and it is unusual in that it approaches this topic in a scholarly fashion. Too often those who speak about this are either ignorant of true modern Mathematics or true Christianity.


3. A Russian Teacher in America by Andrei Toom. When I was a teenager I had an opportunity to see Haiti and to learn what life outside the comfort zone looked like. Perhaps this article helps all of us see beyond our usual educational customs. I hope this article provides some balance to much of what your own education has taught you about "education". To me, this article is a sobering challenge to teach better. However, what I mean by "better" is by no means conventional thinking these days!

LaTeX (for mathematical documents):

1. overleaf website (formly writelatex.com) this website is amazing. Although a local installation is faster, this allows us to share and jointly edit LaTeX documents.
2. just draw the symbol and it finds the LaTeX code for you, this is a nice idea!
3. the polynom-package for slick long-division in LaTeX, not w/o bugs, found error in calculus II notes as consequence.
4. LaTeX help wiki. Lot's of nice code.
5. LaTeX, more from a typesetting professional viewpoint.
6. on matrices in LaTeX.
7. LaTeX graphics, this looks tenable, start here when I try again.
8. advanced graphics tinkering in LaTeX, I'm not there yet, I may never get there...
9. LaTeX Beamer tutorial, slick LaTeX-based slides.
10. Tikz introduction article: would be nice to learn...

Career and Networking:

• American Mathematical Soceity this is a good place to look for networking opportunities and data about math as a profession.

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Last Modified: 8-10-17