### Welcome to Matt Salomone’s Mathematics Home

Welcome to my newly-updated web home at matthematics.com .

I enjoy thinking, tweeting, and sometimes blogging about emerging issues in the teaching and learning of mathematics and quantitative literacy. Some of what you’ll find here includes:

Open Courses/Text Projects:

### The Infinite Series Sorting Hat

Looking for a way to keep all those convergence tests for infinite series straight? Looking for a cultural reference that some of your calculus II students will still find timely and relevant for a few more years? Look no further than the infinite series sorting hat.

Get the printable versions:

##### Assuming the first term of each sequence is n=1:
1. $$a_n = 4-4n$$ and $$a_{20} = -76$$
2. $$a_n = \frac23(n-1)$$ and $$a_{20} = \frac{38}{3}$$
3. $$a_n = 36-11n$$ and $$a_{20} = -184$$
4. $$a_n= -5 + \frac72 n$$
5. $$a_n=6 – \frac12 n$$
6. $$a_n = -70+9n$$
7. $$a_n = -5+9n$$
8. $$a_n = 22-4n$$
9. $$a_n = \frac{12}{5} – \frac25 n$$
10. $$2585$$
11. $$n = 5$$
12. $$a_n = 2\cdot 3^n$$
13. $$a_n= \frac{15}{2} \cdot \left( \frac25 \right)^n$$
14. $$a_n = 8 \cdot \left(\frac12\right)^n$$
15. $$a_n = 60 \cdot \left(\frac12\right)^n$$
16. $$a_n = -3072 \cdot \left( -\frac14\right)^n$$
17. $$a_n = \frac45 \cdot 5^n$$
18. $$a_n = \frac32 \cdot 2^n$$ or $$a_n = \frac32 \cdot (-2)^n$$
19. $$a_n = -160 \cdot 2^n$$ or $$a_n = -160 \cdot (-2)^n$$
20. $$a_n = 14\cdot \left(\frac12\right)^n$$ or $$a_n = -14 \cdot \left(-\frac12\right)^n$$
21. $$5115$$ (Note, problem should read “…of the geometric series.”)

There’s also a chance that the teacher uses $$(n-1)$$ more than $$n$$ in the answers to 1-9 and 12-20. If so, then the teacher’s answers can be simplified into these answers.

### Teaching on Twitch

What am I doing on the Twitch streaming site? Isn’t that where video gamers go to show everyone how good they are at video games by live-streaming their video gaming to the world?

Well, yes it is. But Twitch can be much more, even if it didn’t intend to be. So I’m using it as part of my teaching this fall.

### Supplemental Instruction: Resources and Links

For majors in mathematics and the sciences, success in their college degree plans is particularly impacted by their experiences in their first year. STEM majors who have a negative first contact with required STEM courses are at disproportionate risk of abandoning their major — or abandoning college altogether. So a little assistance in that first year goes a long way toward keeping students on track to successful completion of their degree. Supplemental instruction, and peer-cooperative learning programs like it, have proven to be an effective form of such assistance. Continue reading “Supplemental Instruction: Resources and Links”

### On Q: Coming Soon

This fall, I’ll be beginning production on a podcast titled On Q: A Higher Education for Quantitative Literacy. This podcast will be dedicated to amplifying the best ideas for how faculty, administrators, and staff across higher education can support the goal of building a more numerate society.

We’ll be interviewing scholars and educators on the front lines of this important educational movement on each episode. The theme of Series 1 will be “What Is Quantitative Literacy, Anyway?” and focuses on the many ways we can define this skill set, and the ways it reveals itself across the disciplines.

If you have an idea for Series 1 of On Q or would like to suggest a guest for the show (even if that guest is yourself!), drop us a line in the contact form on the show page. Follow us on Twitter at @onqpodcast .

### Math Thought & Practice (MATH 105)

Welcome to the homepage for MATH 105-W01 Mathematical Thought and Practice, taught online in Fall 2018.

Course activities will occur in four primary locations:

1. Knewton Alta ( http://knewtonalta.com )
• Adaptive, multimedia courseware and problem-solving assignments
2. Blackboard ( http://blackboard.bridgew.edu )
• Submit mastery quizzes, exams, and projects