Exploring Discrete Mathematics SummaryMonday - Friday, July 21 - 25, 2008This week, Bree, Allen, Andy, and Ted finished revisions on the Catalan numbers project. Much time was spent improving students activities, solutions, and teacher notes of different methods that leads to the sequence of Catalan numbers (paths, pennies, polygons, tableaux, trees) as well as refining activities that showed bijections of these different methods. The culminating activity of deriving a closed formula for Catalan numbers was rewritten and made more accessible to the intended audience. Ted volunteered to present the Catalan numbers project during Friday's working group sharing time. Vicki, Brian, and Armando revised the Day 3 activity of the Sicherman dice project and cleaned-up other aspects of the lesson to provide a more attractive final product and increase other teachers interest in implementing the project in their classes. A clearer objective was written and a bibliography was included. Brian volunteered to present the Sicherman dice project during Friday's working sharing time. All of the members of the Discrete Math working group are anxious to teach both projects in their classes next year, share their reflections on the working group site, and motivate interest in the projects among their math colleagues and other mathematics communities. |