5450.06
Geometry for Teachers Summer 2006.

Course Director: Walter Whiteley
Office: South 616 Ross
Telephone: 736-5250 Extension 33971
E-mail: whiteley@mathstat.yorku.ca
WWW: http://www.math.yorku.ca/Who/Faculty/Whiteley/menu.html
Office hours: TBA (currently by appointment)
Lectures:Monday 6:00-9:00, Thursday 6:00-9:00 Ross S525

Course information

Click here for the Course Outline

A page of web resources on Geometer's Sketchpad

Texts: We have one text for the course, as well as supplimentary material. We will begin working from the first text at the second class, but will not cover all of this text.

Some other materials will be on reserve at Steacie Library, or available for borrowing from the instructor. You are also encouraged to develope your own 'model spheres' for explorations at home. Some suggestions and examples were offered during the first classes. Samples will also be available in the Undergraduate Math Lounge Ross: North 537. I expect to have a supply of small plastic spheres and small plastic tori, which, with a yogurt container, will make a good hands-on tool for exploring spherical geometry. The cost of the plastic materials is $1.00 for the sphere and $1.00 for the torus). Perhaps the second Monday, we will even have a 'construction gathering' to cut off the extraneous 'hangers' on the spheres (with a metal saw), and shape the containers into good 'spherical rulers' (great circle drawers) with a sharp knife and some sandpaper. [If you are looking on your own, they are in the 'Crafts' section of stores - for making hanging decorations!]
An alternative simple model is an old tennis ball and elastics.

We will be using Geometer's Sketchpad during the course. All in service teachers should have direct access to a copy of the program through their schools, as the Government of Ontario did a mass purchase for the entire provincial system (including all teachers in publically funded schools) last spring.
For this class, we will use the program in the Steacie Labs (Steacie T107A), starting on May 8. To use these machines, all students enrolled in the course will need to have activated a 'Steacie Lab Account', using the MAYA system. See me during class for instructions on how to do this.

First Week of Classes (under construction) including:
First Assignment : Due May 4 (the second class)
Second Assigment : Due May 8
Warning about Assignments: Every assignment should end with a page (or so) of your current questions, or responses to an ongoing dialog with the instructor, provoked by previous questions. (See the handout on evaluation standards .)

At this level (graduate course) I hope your own curiousity and questions about the mathematical material are bubbling to the surface. I strongly encourage you to ask 'What if ... ?' about any or all of the material. I assume that any good assignment will leave you with more questions and a sense of other possibilities when you 'finished' than when you started! In the marking scheme, there will be a deduction of one grade point, if you fail to include this last page of questions/dialog/responses.

Projects By mid June students should have communicated with me about possible projects for presentation near the end of the semester. Keep in touch about this, via your responses at the end of the assignments.

Here are some web sites to explore:

Interesting Geometry Web Sites
Back to Walter Whiteley's Home Page