Progress Report: At the End of Week 14 Entry #62 30 Apr 2016 12:55 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments We are drawing to a close of the semester. With only a short time left, and having just started Laplace transforms, I simply could not do any modeling problems this week. However, my students are definitely doing better when I do not lecture. Rather, in the lab environment where...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 13 Entry #61 23 Apr 2016 11:56 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments Finally! We are back to normal. The students were so ready to get back to modeling. They really seemed happy that the schedule allowed it. This week we did a spring-mass lab. It actually was quite good. The students had already solved second order differential...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 12 Entry #60 23 Apr 2016 11:53 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments I was careless because I simply did not realize the impact that this crazy schedule would have on my class. First, I really like to give 3 tests and a final. That used to take 150 minutes out of class time and leave me with one class during a testing week that can be review and one...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 11 Entry #59 23 Apr 2016 11:52 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments We have a common final that has one question on it involving modeling. That question has four options. Students pick one. The rest of the test looks like any other DE final--methods. We are supposed to cover first order, first order systems of two equations in two...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 10 Entry #58 23 Apr 2016 11:51 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 0 comments We could not have lab this week because Tuesday--our lab day--followed a Monday schedule. Let me explain my schedule for the past few weeks. I only meet my class twice a week. Because I was presenting at the ICTCM during Week 7, I replaced Friday, March 11th with a set of...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 9 Entry #57 23 Apr 2016 11:50 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments We used this week to explore systems of first order differential equations. This lab was geared toward using a CAS to graph and analyze such systems. It was far, far too long. I had to give the students an extra week to finish it. In the end, I think it worked. I...
Progress Report: At the End of Week 8 Entry #56 23 Apr 2016 11:45 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 0 comments This was our Spring Break week. I will keep you informed. Please contact me at rosemary.farley@manhattan.edu if you are a student or teacher and I will give you access to a Project area in SIMIODE where you can find materials appropriate to you from my Blog references.
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 7 Entry #55 23 Apr 2016 11:43 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 2 comments There was no lab this week because my colleague, Patrice Tiffany, and I attended the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics. I created videos to replace this class. At the ICTCM we presented Bring the Differential Class into the 21st Century where we talked...
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 6 Entry #51 05 Mar 2016 1:09 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 0 comments We started systems of differential equations today with a modeling first approach. First we considered a predator--prey model. The students were given the following information: a. Suppose that the prey population would grow at rate proportion to the amount present if not for...
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 5 Entry #50 05 Mar 2016 12:21 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 0 comments Week 5: There was no lab this week because there was our first test. The test grades were very high. One class had a mean of 86, the other. a mean of 94. It was a typical first test in that it included solving first order separable, linear, and exact DE. It included two...
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 4 Entry #48 18 Feb 2016 11:33 am Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments Week 4: I had to limit my lab to 50 minutes of a 75 minute period. I covered autonomous differential equations, equilibrium points and phase lines in the first 15 minutes. The students transitioned quickly from lecture to lab. I was happy about that. Mindful that our first...
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 3 Entry #45 13 Feb 2016 12:21 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 1 comments Once again, I devoted all 75 minutes to the lab. I did hand out a hard copy of the lab but I also posted a copy on Moodle so the students could download it if they wanted to do so. Most students did download the lab but they read from the hard copy and went back to the downloaded...
A Progress Report: At the End of Week 2 Entry #42 06 Feb 2016 12:41 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 2 comments Week 1: Our lab periods are on Tuesdays. Each lab assignment is due at the beginning of the next lab. In Lab #1, I modified the SIMIODE M & M Death and Immigration model but I used pennies instead. The pennies worked fine. The students really seemed to enjoy the hands on...
A Modeling First DE course Entry #41 31 Jan 2016 2:11 pm Rosemary Carroll Farley 0 comments I started a SIMIODE modeling first approach in my two differential courses for the Spring 2016 semester. Each meets twice a week for 75 minute periods, one of which is in a computer lab with the computer algebra system Maple available. This semester there are 7 sections of DE at...