Individual Projects:

1. Commercial or Term Paper
   
   1. Decide whether you want to give a commercial or write a paper. They are worth the same number of points, but a term paper is less fun for you, and more work.
      

      Sign up for a due date on February 8^th, regardless of which type you're doing.
      Those who do their commercials, or hand in their papers, by March 8^th will be graded out of 105 points rather than 100.
      

      Reasons to give a commercial instead of turning in a paper:
      

      • The days we have one are more fun for everybody--we have a nice break.
      • It's easier to convey enthusiasm verbally, and you can include all sorts of special effects: videos, slides, music, web sites, posters. Hence, you're likely to have more fun doing it. Also, I grade on presentation as well as content, and it's easier to jazz up a talk than it is to jazz up a paper.
      • It's not as nerve-wracking as you might think--it's only for a few minutes, after all.

      Shyness is not really a reason to do a paper instead of a talk: we can come up with ways to lessen the pain of a talk.

      Once you decide which you want to do, sign up right away! Don't wait until you know what you want to talk about!
      

   2. Start thinking about things you enjoy, find interesting, care about, and would feel comfortable talking about. Choose it regardless of whether you can see any connection between your topic and mathematics. Your topic can be virtually anything: something related to your major, a controversial issue or cause that you feel strongly about, a food you love, a favorite activity of yours.
      

      Come talk to me about your topic (or lack there of). First of all, I have plenty of ideas. Second of all, I'd like to keep track of the topics peole are doing to avoid too much overlap.
      

      Try not to pick a topic that's too obviously connected to math.

   3. Once you've picked a topic, start thinking about how math is connected. Come talk to me about what you're thinking, or if you're having troubles. The best talks and papers do not discuss merely statistics or arithmetic, but something beyond that.
   4. Start researching your topic, and learning any necessary background math.
   5. Allow plenty of time. This assignment is worth 12% of your grade, and is graded not only on content but also on presentation. It's best if you start thinking of topics right away. Certainly, you should plan on spending a minimum of 2 weeks on it.
   6. Whether you give a talk or write a paper, your goal is the same. You're trying to sell something that you already find interesting to your colleagues, and show how math is connected to it, in a natural way.
      

      Present it at the level of your colleagues. Anything that they might not know about, start from scratch explaining.
      

      This is your chance to have fun, be creative, bring something of yourself into a math class.
      

2. Activities:
   This is another opportunity, beyond the commercial or paper, for you to explore any aspect of math that interests you, and to encourage you to think mathematical thoughts. It is more versatile than the commercial or term paper: you can explore an idea in the same way that you do for the commercial/term paper, but you can do other activities as well.

   I'm including a list of a few possible activities below, but feel free to bring other ideas to me.

   These activities are worth 5% of your grade. To get the full 5%, you need to receive 100 points. You can get those 100 points any number of ways: you could do several small activities which add up, or you can do one large one.

   Moreover, you can do however many you want to. If you get more than the 100 points possible, your extra points will count as extra credit. While they are not weighted as heavily as the first 100 points, they can mean the difference between an A- and an A! (Just don't do these to the exclusion of your other responsibilities, like homework!)

   If you choose not to do any of these activities, it will be impossible to get an A, and very difficult to get an A-.

   Please do these throughout the semester, rather than saving them for the end of the term! (You don't want to be doing them when the weather gets nice, after all!)

   Below is a brief list of some possible activities. I will be handing out a more detailed list, with point ranges, in class.
   

   • Read some mathematical literature, and write a short paper discussing the mathematics (and other aspects, if you wish):
   • Create some mathematical art and write a paragraph or two about how you used math. I'd love to display any visual art or poems, and if you could think of a way to display original music, I'd do that too!:
   • Watch any one of many (popular!) movies involving math, investigate the math some, and discuss it, and its treatment in a short paper. For ideas, see the web site mathmovies.
   • Check out a Life by the Numbers videos from the library.
   • Investigate the voting method used in Cambridge MA, and write a brief description of how the method works,giving your own examples. Consult this website.
   • Investigate approval voting, and whether it is more or less fair than other voting methods. One resource with discussions from both sides is the following website.
   • Find an optimal route for some situation: students have done things ranging from the postman for their small neighborhood to a day trip through Disneyland.
   • Read one of the many Scientific American articles by either Martin Gardner or Ian Stewart. Then look up a couple of their references, and write a paper discussing the topic.
   • Investigate the mathematics behind an article you read in a magazine or newspaper.

1. The class as a whole will vote on several topics of interest to you, and I will combine the results into a preference schedule. Your group will then choose the topic you find most interesting and thoroughy analyze the election. Your group will then jointly write a paper explaining the election, how you analyzed it, who won, and why you chose to analyze it the way you did. You will explain it in a way that is understandable to someone who has not ever learned about voting methods.
2. I will supply you with a map and some travel times, and your group will need to suggest routes and discuss whether they are the best possible or not.