Faculty: Judy Holdener, Assistant Professor, Mathematics
Librarian: Minyu Zhou, Librarian and Technology Consultant
Course: Math 327 -- Number Theory Seminar
PRODUCTS:
The end products of this project will include a webpage and a series of handouts. The webpage, which will outline the primary (accessible) resources for research in Number Theory, will serve as a starting point for the students. The handouts will instruct students on how to search, retrieve, read, and present mathematical research papers. The handouts will contain exercises; they will be interactive and not simply informational.
Project Overview
The proposed project involves the integration of information literacy into an upper level Number Theory Seminar at Kenyon College. Unlike most areas of Mathematics, Number Theory contains many open problems that can be understood by a beginning undergraduate. Some of these seemingly simple problems have stumped the greatest of mathematicians for well over two millennia, yet they continue to entice the curious at heart. The goal for this project is to develop a new course (Math 327: Number Theory Seminar) that introduces upper-level math students to the process and nature of mathematical research by capitalizing on the lure of these well-known open problems. A significant focus in the course will be on the search, retrieval, and presentation of information. Students will learn about the different types of informational resources available to them in a hands-on way throughout the course.
Implementation
Prior to the start of the course, a webpage will be created that outlines resources for research in Number Theory. The page will serve as starting point for the students, containing links to the relevant journals that are available both on-line (e.g. The Journal of Number Theory) and in print (The American Mathematical Monthly) as well as links to the major search engines in mathematics research (e.g. MathSciNet). The idea is to get the students involved in literature searches as quickly as possible. On the first day of class, each student (or pair of students, depending on the enrollment) will choose an open problem in Number Theory to study. They will research the history and progress of their open problem and present their findings to the class during week three. In the mean time, the class will be trained on how to conduct efficient searches of the literature. Minyu Zhou will lead a workshop that covers:
Exercises will also be developed to supplement the workshops. These exercises, which will be implemented in the form of handouts, will provide students with a hands-on opportunity to learn the essentials of information access in the context of their chosen problem.
Throughout the course, students will be reading research papers relating to various open problems in Number Theory. The professor will determine the reading list for the first half of the semester. (The articles on this reading list will be carefully chosen to motivate and introduce certain preliminary concepts in Number Theory.) The reading list for the second half of the semester will be determined by both the students (to ensure that there is ample student interest in the topics covered) and the instructor (to ensure that the papers chosen are accessible to the students). Each student will be responsible for finding two relevant and accessible articles for possible coverage. Hence, each student will gain experience in finding and retrieving relevant research results, and in fact, they will be graded on the appropriateness of the articles they submit. Following the approval of the final reading list, each student (or pair of students) will be responsible for presenting his or her paper(s) to the class and leading the discussion. There will be no text in the course. The instructor will construct exercises relating the papers covered in class, and some of these exercises will require that the students do further searches of the literature.
Finally, in lieu of a final exam, each student will write a final paper on a topic related to the material covered in the course. The nature of the paper will vary from one student to the next. For example, some students will likely include original work in their paper; others will summarize results that are already known. In either case, the final paper will have the format of a research paper. Students will be expected to follow the proper protocol for citing sources, and they will be expected to write an abstract. Exercises will be developed in advance to educate students in such issues as understanding citations and the proper protocol for citing sources and communicating research results in writing.
Timeline and Budget
Preliminary planning of the webpage and the handouts will begin in the spring of 2002, however, most of the work will be done during the summer of 2002. The materials developed will be used in the fall, 2002 offering of Math 327.
An evaluation will be administered at the end of the course. Questions will be designed by Judy Holdener and Minyu Zhou to assess the value and success of the integration of information literacy in the course.