M1030:Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning

"There is no getting out of it. Through and through the world is infected with quantity. To talk sense is to talk in quantities. There is no use saying the nation is large, -How large? It is no use saying that radium is scarce, -How scarce? You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and to music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves."

Alfred North Whitehead in his essay, The Aims of Education.

Course Description: Math 1030 is a non-traditional, application-based course centered around the use of mathematics to model change in the real world, and the effective communication of these mathematical ideas. The course is primarily intended for students from the Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Health Sciences, and the Humanities who seek only to satisfy the QA (quantitative reasoning - course A) requirement for the bachelor's degree and who, with the exception of a statistics class, will not take any further mathematics courses at the university. The purpose of the Math 1030 course is to develop skill in quantitative reasoning by examining how appropriate mathematical techniques can be used to analyze questions from many different areas. The mathematics covered in the course includes: ratios, percents, averages, estimation, basic financial mathematics, linear and exponential models of growth, basic geometric measurements and scaling. The course material is based on Chapters 1-4 and Chapters 8-10(Sec. A) of the text listed below.

Note: The Math 1030 course does NOT satisfy either a M1090, or a M1050-M1060 prerequisite for other courses.)

Course Work and Grading: Learning to use mathematics to analyze quantitative issues and to communicate technical information requires both the practice of basic techniques and the opportunity to apply these techniques to practical, open-ended, questions which may be examined using varied approaches. The coursework in Math 1030 emphasizes solving word problems that require the use of simple algebraic skills, tables, graphs, and formulas. In their work students examine the reasoning behind basic mathematical concepts, explore problems and questions presented from different perspectives, clarify assumptions made in word problems, and look for connections between the course topics and their own field of study.

Grading in the course will be based on assignments (quizzes/homework) given roughly every two weeks, 1 group project requiring a typewritten report, 2 midterms, and a comprehensive final exam. The goal is to offer students frequent feedback on their progress in the course through assignments that are graded and returned to the students, to provide opportunities to try out the course concepts in broader contexts through group projects, and to help students review and summarize their learning over the semester through a midterm and a comprehensive final exam.

Math 1030 Sections: For Spring Semester 2003 there are nine sections of Math 1030 offered through the Department of Mathematics, two sections offered through the Division of Continuing Education, and one section offered through the Educational Opportunity Program. Each instructor will develop a syllabus for their own section based on the above guidelines.

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