Chris Pinner  

CW 113
e-mail: pinner@math.ksu.edu
Office hours:   MWF 10:30 and by appointment

Text:  Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, A Contemporary Approach,   7th Edition  by  Gary L. Musser, William F. Burger and Blake E. Peterson  (The book store will have a customized paperback version, but you can use any 7th edition.) 

Course Objectives:  The purpose of this course is to  help prepare you to be a teacher of mathematics at the elementary school level.  The primary objective is for you to obain a  mastery of  the basic  mathematical concepts that arise during the kindergarten through 8th grade years. Such mastery requires command of the subject material at a level above the one you will be teaching at. The emphasis of this course is more on content knowledge than on the methodology of teaching, which is dealt with in EDEL 473. 

As indicated in the standards, it is important that future teachers not only understand the basic concepts of the content areas they are going to teach, but also  be able to explain  the concepts in different ways and  be able to  relate them to the students' own experience. This will greatly facilitate  the students' learning experience and  stimulate their  problem solving ability. In this course I will make efforts to emphasize reasoning and mathematical discovery as opposed to rote memorization; to look at material you may have learned before from a different angle; to discover and prevent common mistakes that you and/or your students might make; and to use examples from daily life in order to make the mathematics more meaningful and enjoyable.
 

A.  Classroom Participation.  Attendance is mandatory  and will count as part of your grade as indicated below.

B.   Homework.  Homework will be assigned on a daily basis and collected once a week. Homework should be turned in to the labelled homework box. The lowest homework score will be dropped.   

C.  Online Quizzes.   There will be seven online quizzes worth 10 points each.  You may repeat these as often as you like.

D.  Exams.  There will be three 50 minute exams and a final exam. No calculator, notes or books will be permitted during the exam.  Exam dates are Feb. 25, April 1 and April 29.  The final exam  is Friday, May 15, 11:50-1:40 p.m..

E.  Grading.   Attendance (6%), Online Quizzes (10%), Written Homework (20%), Tests 1-3 (39%), Final Exam (25%)

* *  I f you have any condition, such as a physical or learning disability, which will make it difficult for you to carry out the work as I have outlined it or which will require academic accommodations, please notify me in the first two weeks of classes.  You may also wish to contact  the Academic Assistance Center, in  101 Holton Hall.

 Course Outline:

Chapter	Topics
Ch. 1:  Introduction to Problem Solving: strategy and approach -----3 classes	(1)  Inductive and deductive reasoning.  (2)  Pattern recognition.   (3)  Giving clear explanations.  (4)  Problem solving strategies.
Ch. 2:  Sets, Whole Numbers, and Numeration ----3 classes	(1)  Hindu-Arabic number system.   (2)  Set operations, Venn diagrams and their applications.   (3)  Number systems in other cultures.  (4)  Binary number systems and number systems in other bases.  (5)  Relations and functions in daily life.
Ch. 3:  Whole Numbers: Operations and Properties ----3 classes	(1)  Closure, Commutative, Associative, Distributive and Identity properties.  (2)  Division Algorithm.  (3)  Laws of Exponents.
Ch. 4:  Whole Number Computation: Mental, Electronic and Written -----3 classes	( 1)  Review briefly the standard algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.   (2)  Explore other algorithms and understand why they work.   (3)  Arithmetic in other bases.  (4)  Estimation and approximation.
Ch. 5:  Number Theory ---4 classes	(1)  Factors and multiples, divisibility, primes   (2)  Primality testing.  (3)  Factor trees and prime factorizations.  (4)  Counting factors, GCDs and LCMs.
Ch. 6:  Fractions ---4 classes	(1)  Develop models for fractions and their arithmetic.  (2)  Drill on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of  fractions.
Ch. 7:   Decimals, Ratio and Proportion, and Percent --- 4 classes	(1)  Representing numbers as decimals.  (2)  Converting decimals to fractions and vice versa.   (3)  Ordering decimals and fractions.  (4)  Decimal arithmetic.  (5)  Ratio and proportion.  (6)  Percentage and interest rates.
Ch 12:   Geometric Shapes ---3 classes	(1)  Vocabulary: square, rectangle, rhombus, kite, trapezoid, congruent, isosceles, etc.  (2)  Paper folding.  (3)  Symmetry  (4)  Angle  measurement.  (5)  3-dim shapes
Ch 13:   Measurements ---3 classes	(1)  Metric system and English system.  (2) Converting between different units.  (3)  Areas, Volumes and Perimeters.  (4) The meaning of pi.
Ch. 8:   Integers ---2 classes	(1) Models for negative numbers.  (2) Review properties of integers and operations on integers.  (3) Negative exponents.
Ch. 9:   Rational Numbers and Real Numbers, with introduction to algebra  -- 3  classes	(1) Summarize number systems and basic properties  (2)  Roots and and irrational numbers.  (3)  Understand infinite decimals