Related papers: Difficulties with Learning and Teaching Calculus
Here I share a few notes I used in various course lectures, talks, etc. Some may be just calculations that in the textbooks are more complicated, scattered, or less specific; others may be simple observations I found useful or curious.
The amount of published research in Physics Education Research (PER) shows, on one hand, an increasing interest in the design and development of high performance physics teaching strategies, and, on the other hand, it tries to understand…
This article discusses epistemological problems in the philosophy of mathematics and issues concerning the reliability of the mathematical literature.
With the increasing amount of data globally, analyzing and visualizing data are becoming essential skills across various professions. It is important to equip university students with these essential data skills. To learn, design, and…
In this article we describe special type of mathematical problems that may help develop teaching methods that motivate students to explore patterns, formulate conjectures and find solutions without only memorizing formulas and procedures.…
Quantum computing is a highly abstract scientific discipline, which, however, is expected to have great practical relevance in future information technology. This forces educators to seek new methods to teach quantum computing for students…
In this paper, we present a series of mathematical problems which throw interesting lights on flamenco music. More specifically, these are problems in discrete and computational mathematics suggested by an analytical (not compositional)…
The author describes some of his experiences as a mathematician cooperating with diabetes specialists.
An important goal of graduate physics core courses is to help students develop expertise in problem solving and improve their reasoning and meta-cognitive skills. We explore the conceptual difficulties of physics graduate students by…
I discuss some problems related to extreme mathematical realism, focusing on a recently proposed "shut-up-and-calculate" approach to physics (arXiv:0704.0646, arXiv:0709.4024). I offer arguments for a moderate alternative, the essence of…
This article seeks to encourage a mathematical dialog regarding a possible solution to Beals Conjecture. It breaks down one of the worlds most difficult math problems into laymans terms and encourages people to question some of the most…
Learning to use math in science is a non-trivial task. It involves many different skills (not usually taught in a math class) that help blend physical knowledge with mathematical symbology. One of these is the idea of quantification: that…
Can AI solve all math? What do we actually mean by doing mathematics? How do we communicate mathematics? What is mathematics beyond problem solving? This essay is my attempt to answer these questions.
Much of the controversy about methods for automated decision making has focused on specific calculi for combining beliefs or propagating uncertainty. We broaden the debate by (1) exploring the constellation of secondary tasks surrounding…
Over 15 years of teaching, advising students and coordinating scientific research activities and projects in computer science, we have observed the difficulties of students to write scientific papers to present the results of their research…
The substantial gender gap in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce can be traced back to the underrepresentation of women at various milestones in the career pathway. Calculus is a necessary step in this…
If spreadsheets are not erroneous then who, or what, is? Research has found that end-users are. If end-users are erroneous then why are they? Research has found that responsibility lies with human beings' fast and slow thinking modes and…
The introduction of generative artificial intelligence applications to the public has led to heated discussions about its potential impacts and risks for K-12 education. One particular challenge has been to decide what students should learn…
We often add arithmetic to extend the expressiveness of query languages and study the complexity of problems such as testing query containment and finding certain answers in the framework of answering queries using views. When adding…
This is a very basic introduction to some notions related to logic and complexity.