Learning Math

CSCI 0200 F25

Your Affinity Vegetable



Take 3 minutes to think and write on your board:

If you were a vegetable, which vegetable would you be and why?

Culinary vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers are ok.

Your Affinity Vegetable



1. Split into teams

2. Go around, say your name, and share:

If you were a vegetable, which vegetable would you be and why?

Your Affinity Vegetable



3. Team leader: lead your team in finding a delicious dish that incorporates all of your vegetables.

Be ready to share!

Today


  • Survey! Excitement, angst, questions.
  • Logistics.
  • How we learn and why this class is the way it is.
  • If time: more on the syllabus, mathematical writing.

Sources of Excitement!

I am really excited to do some stuff with formal logic as well as the combinatorics units.

I enjoy writing proofs because I like working it out and making sure I have the correct answer.

I’m just excited to be able to take my comp sci abilities deeper, be more dynamic and do more things.

I’m confident that if I put effort and time into the class, I can understand the material and do well.

I am excited by the flipped classroom because I learn code better when I can take my time and find my own way to approach the problems.

Sources of Angst

I am nervous that I will not have the proper background to excel in this class.

Drawing a blank on some math notation - I’m easily intimidated by notation.

I think this class will likely be different from any math or comp-sci classes I’ve taken in the past, so I do not totally know what to expect.

The tests, and the fairly high requirements for an A

I am a bit nervous about exams because I tend to second guess myself in exams that involve math.

Our Roles in the Learning Community

In this class you’re likely to see ideas that you feel confident about and ones that confuse you. Furthermore, the ones that confuse you might not be the same ones that confuse your classmates.

This means that there will be opportunities for us to play different roles in our learning community.

Scenario

You’re working on a problem in a pair; you feel confident about the solution but your partner seems lost.

How can you engage with your partner in a way that helps both of you nurture your understanding?

Writing Time Again (3 minutes)



What’s something you are especially good at?

Were you ever not good at it?

How did you get good at it?

Around the Class


🥗🥬🥕🍉🥑🍅🍇🥝🥔🍍🍊🍌🍈🥭🍎🍒🍠🍓🍑🥒🍋🍆🌽🫑🍏🍐🥦🌶

  1. Your name and affinity vegetable
  2. Your superpower! Something you are especially good at.
  3. How did you get good at it?


🥗🥬🥕🍉🥑🍅🍇🥝🥔🍍🍊🍌🍈🥭🍎🍒🍠🍓🍑🥒🍋🍆🌽🫑🍏🍐🥦🌶

Image credit: Josh Brake, with inspiration by Andy Crouch.

With AI….



Now I don’t have to…





Now I am no longer able to…



Now I can…





Now I have to…

GenAI and Learning Math


“I have had positive experiences with genAI in learning and maintaining mathematics. I used it sometimes last year during high school to generate problems, explain confusing concepts/topics, and testing my solutions.”

“genAI is helpful if you are using it as a tool to learn or help you further knowledge, for instance generating practice problems to practice math concepts. But with this there is definitely a fine line with this type of learning.”

In This Class


Big picture: I want you to grow in your unassisted ability to think mathematically, and to demonstrate that growth to me through assessments.


  • genAI prohibited on quizzes or in the mathematical writing components of lab reports.
  • genAI strongly discouraged on warmups.
  • genAI ok on coding components of lab reports and general studying outside of class.

My advice for general studying is that you limit your use of AI to generating practice problems (though I don’t really recommend that either, and I will give you plenty of problems).