Course Director:
Walter WhiteleyTeaching Assistant/Marker:
Lily MosheA nice set of resources for Sketchpad comes from Key Curriculum Press: Sketchpad Resources. One link from there is a site designed for use with the Ontario Curriculum is the SketchMad web site created at Queen's University. This part of a larger effort to provide good support for the use of Geometer's Sketchpad in Ontario Schools.
A second resource is Spherical Easel, a java based program which replicates the constructions of Geometers' Sketchpad for the sphere. It can be used on the web, or downloaded as a program for your own use, from the web site: merganser.math.gvsu.edu/easel/.
The Course Outline is now on the web.
Texts:
We have one text for the course. We will begin working from the text by the second class, working through the first 10 chapters in the fall semester, as well as working with other materials.David
Henderson and Daina Taimina: Experiencing Geometry: Euclidean, Non-Euclidean with Strands of
History (Prentice Hall), 2004;
You can also use the 2nd edition: David
Henderson: Experiencing Geometry(Prentice Hall), 2000, which may be available used.
Some other reference will be put on reserve:
You are also encouraged to develope your own `model spheres' for explorations at home. Some suggestions and examples were offered during the first few classes.
Every assignment should end with a page (or so) of your current questions, or responses to an ongoing dialog with the instructor and the tutor, provoked by previous questions. (See the handout on evaluation standards .)
At this level (third year or higher) 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! It is an important objective of the course to develop you skill at asking 'geometric' questions - and knowing what to do after you have asked the question! In the marking scheme, there will be a deduction of one grade point, if you fail to include this last page (or pages) of questions/dialog/responses.
Projects
Student should start to think about possible projects for presentation near the end of thecourse. In early December, I will ask for a written response about the topics you are planning to work on.The dialog at the end of your assigments is likely to lead you towards a possible project. If there is a question that you really want the answer to (or at least a better understanding of), that can usually be shaped into a nice project. Take a chance and at least ask your question. Keep in touch about this.
Interesting Geometry Web Sites