PREP 2014 Question Authoring - Archived

WeBWorK Problems for a Contemporary (General Education) Math Course?

WeBWorK Problems for a Contemporary (General Education) Math Course?

by Nicholas Nguyen -
Number of replies: 0
Dear all,
I'm currently writing problems for a contemporary mathematics course at the University of Kentucky (UK).

This course is a general education course open to students who have taken two years of high school algebra, and its goal is to showcase a variety of topics where mathematics and problem solving can be applied to real life problems. Currently, the course is divided into four topics:
-Voting theory (using math to come up with voting methods and discuss their advantages and flaws)
-Codes and cryptography (basic group theory and modular arithmetic and their applications to security)
-Compensation (fractions and procedures for distributing objects to people who cannot agree on their value)
-Graph theory (graphs, drawing graphs, and their uses in visualizing and modelling problems)

The course uses WeBWorK for its homework component. Students have reacted positively to the instant feedback WeBWorK provides. My colleagues have written problems for the course last year, and this summer, I am contributing my own problems based on what my students have told me they wanted to see.

I posted some of the problems I wrote on the PREP2014 WeBWorK course in the problem set "Contemporary Math" for anyone to look at. Right now, there's a Knaster's method problem, and a problem that uses the Adjusted Winner method, along with some graph isomorphism problems.

If anyone is offering a similar course and would like to see or share problems, feel free to add them to the Contemporary Math set. I would be interested in helping others with their problems and for others to look at mine and see if there's any problems or improvements. I have also received permission to post some of the problems my colleagues have written for the course at UK.

-Nicholas