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Project Grading:

Your project will include two main components: an in-class presentation and a written paper. Both of these are important parts of the project, and neither should be neglected in favor of the other. Both should exhibit your long and deep thought about your topic.

The in-class presentation is designed for your peers, so you should make it accessible to someone who is not familiar with your topic, but who has been involved in our class. Remember that they will be evaluating your presentation, so make sure it is understandable to them. The presentations will be 15 minutes, which is not a lot of time. You should practice your presentation so that you know it will go smoothly. All of your group members should participate in the presentation and should be prepared to answer questions about any aspect of the project.

The written portion should contain more detail than your in-class presentation. It should clearly present the mathematics involved in your project, and anything else that is important to your project. For example, those who are making models may want to talk about how they computed the various shapes involved in their models. You should be sure to explain the significance of your work (why did you select the models you did and what do we learn from them). Be particularly careful about how the 2D-3D analogies can be used to understand your 3D-4D objects. Be sure to cite any sources you used. Some projects may require longer reports than others, depending on the material, but I would expect that you would write between 6 and 10 pages.

You will be graded on the following things:

Originality:20%
Quality of Writing:15%
Quality of Presentation:15%
Mathematical Content:15%

Originality: This means that you should include something of your own in your project, both in the written and oral parts. This can be interpretations or speculations, but it must be something you thought of, not just repetition of material from class or your sources. For example, it can include things like methods of how you figured out the coordinates of your model, or how you determined the color-coding to use, or whatever.

Writing: This includes grammar, punctuation, spelling, flow, economy of thought, etc.; all the things you normally have to worry about when you write a paper. Just because this is a math course doesn't mean you can be sloppy in your writing habits. Since these are short papers, every sentence should count.

Some of you may wish to produce web pages as part of your project. These can count as the written portion, but I will apply the same standards to this written work as to a printed report. It should be carefully crafted to get your point across without excess of flash, glitz, noise, or poor writing.

Presentation: Your in-class presentation should be professional and planned out ahead of time. While you may think 15 minutes is a long time, it isn't. You will only be able to present three or four major ideas, so choose them carefully. Give your presentation organization as much thought as you would a written paper. Remember, you can't go back and erase it once you've said it!

Mathematical Content: Since this is a math course, your main subject should be the mathematics of dimension. You can certainly talk about the background and other aspects of your topic, but remember that the majority of your paper should be about how dimensions play a role in the topic. The more connections you can make to the material of the course, the better your project will be. Your paper and presentation should express your level of understanding of the mathematical material, so if there isn't any mathematical content, I will have to assume you don't have a high level of understanding of it.



[HOME] Math 53 (Spring 2001) web pages
Created: 24 May 1999
Last modified: 14 May 2001 07:39:54
Comments to: dpvc@union.edu
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