## Colorado State University — Pueblo, Fall 2014 Math 495, Independent Study/Capstone Seminar:Communicating Mathematical Ideas

Here is a shortcut to the course schedule/homework page.

Class meetings: W 8-8:50am in PM 221

Instructors: various mathematics department faculty, including

Prerequisite: Upper division standing and declared mathematics major or minor, plus successful completion of three approved upper division mathematics courses or successful completion of two approved upper division mathematics courses and co-requisite of one additional upper division mathematics course. (Non-approved courses include Math 360, Math 361 and Math 362.) Or approval of (an) instructor.

Description: This one-credit seminar is intended for junior and senior mathematics majors and minors. Its major objectives are:

• Experience in independent reading in and learning of 'new' mathematics
• Learning some tools of mathematical exposition, including LaTeX
• Practicing written and oral exposition of mathematics
You may be wondering: "What is this LaTeX"?

One answer is that it is to today's global scientific communication what Latin was the European intellectual community from the Middle Ages until at least the 18th century: understood and accepted by everyone, hard to get along without, the default tool for publication of [nearly] all new results....

Another answer is that it is a program which enables users to create documents with very sophisticated typesetting — particularly of mathematical formulæ and diagrams, but also including automatically generated references, indices, tables of contents, etc. — very simply (well, after you learn the basics ... as we will in this class!). For example, the code

\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2}dx = \sqrt{\pi}
in LaTeX produces the output $$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} e^{-x^2}\,dx=\sqrt{\pi}\quad.$$ So: a little cumbersome, not at all WYSIWYG [="What You See Is What You Get"], but powerful!

Required assignments will include:

• Attendance at all seminar sessions and assigned special lectures (e.g., Math/Physics Club Talks)
• 3-5 "small presentations" (in the seminar — so, among friends) such as solutions of assigned "homework" problems
• A final project

Final Projects: will consist of a 15-20 minute presentation on an approved topic and a 3-5 page write-up of that presentation (using LaTeX). Project topics might be an interesting topic or technique from another upper division mathematics (or science) class, a topic you find in an expository mathematics journal, a topic from the history of mathematics, an interesting connection between art and mathematics, etc.

Participation will be a large part of the class, so that attendance will be mandatory!

Grades to be determined by quality of participation in the course, based on attendance, quality of presentations and other assignments, and quality of the final project.