Math 170: Math for Beginning Programmers

Calendar for Winter 2014 -- Section MMN 3-5:15 W
Grading for Math 170
Winter 2014: Topics and Links
Winter 2014: Lecture Notes
Winter 2014: Worksheet Selection
Winter 2014: Test Selection

The following sectons of this "page" represent a synopsis of the syllabus for this course. Proposed Class: Math 170: Math for Beginning Programmers

Proposed Class: Math 170: Math for Beginning Programmers

Philosophy:

This course should present the mathematical material that one could reasonably expect a beginning programmer to "bring" to her or his first programming class, and no more than that. To that end, the material covered in this course does not include the advanced topics that may be required for advanced programming classes. A general listing of the topics to be covered is:

Basic properties of mathematical operations (order, parentheses)
Number representations (exact, approximate, accuracy, limitations)
Integer specialties (modular division, greatest common factor, least common multiple, factorial, Fibonacci sequence)
Number bases (conversion and condensation/expansion)
Boolean Logic (truth tables, de Morgan's Laws )
Subscripts (list and matrix)
Set Theory (is/is not a member, subsets, the null set, union, intersection, Venn diagrams)
Functions (parameters and arguments)
Descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, quartiles, percentiles, range, variance, standard deviation, linear regression)

Notice that there is neither reference to more complete treatments of some topics (such as Roman, Egyptian, or Chinese numbering systems) nor reference to more advanced topics such as graph theory, probability, conditional logic, etc.

Course Parameters

Number:	170
Name:	Math for Beginning Programmers
Credits:	3
Contact Hours:	45
Modality:	Blended: 22.5 hours in class, 22.5 hours on-line
Length:	10 weeks: 2.25 hour in class each week
Textbook:	none identified at this time
Assessment:	To be done each of the first four semesters that the course is taught and then once every two years thereafter. The assessment is to be based on a comprehensive final covering each of the objectives given below. The final will be constructed to have one question for each objective with those questions similar to each of the example questions given below. The final will be graded by the instructor but a random sample of 20% of the tests will be blind graded by another member or members of the department. If the blind grading confirms the instructor's grading to the 90% level, then the instructor's grading will be used for assessment. If there is a discrepancy between the two gradings then all of the non-sampled finals will be blind graded as above and those grades will be used for assessment. Each objective will be considered satisfied if the pass-rate for the objective's question is 75% or higher for all students receiving a C+ or better.

Course Outcomes

Recognize and appropriately apply basic properties of the order of operations and the use of parentheses.
Recognize and appropriately deal with various numeric representations and their limitations.
Recognize and appropriately apply the integer topics of modular division, factoring, greatest common factors, least common multiples, factorials, and Fibonacci sequencing.
Represent values in different number bases and correctly convert from one number base to another.
Recognize and appropriately apply Boolean logic along with the construction and use of Truth Tables.
Recognize and appropriately apply subscripts in 1, 2, and 3 dimensions.
Recognize and appropriately apply basic set theory including Venn diagrams.
Recognize and appropriately apply the terminology and use of functions, both as one variable functions and as multi-variable functions.
Recognize and appropriately apply basic descriptive statistics.