In our department, large introductory math courses, such as calculus, linear algebra, and discrete mathematics, come together with little satellite courses called "advanced investigations in *", where *is the main course.
Students who want to explore the subject in depth register for the main course and the satellite course. Example: in main Calculus I, students learn the definition of a continuous function, in Advanced Investigations in Calculus I they also learn the proof of Intermediate Value Theorem.
The main course is worth 3-4 credits while the satellite course gives them only 1 credit. Example: if a student gets B+ (4.0) in Calculus I (4 credits) and A- (4.5) in Advanced Investigations in Calculus I, the average grade will be
I know that this arrangement is not perfect because it requires to create an extra course, but it is a little course and it takes little effort to teach it.
Will it work for you?
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
2 years ago
Our department teaches two very large first-year "Mathematical Methods" courses (600-ish students) to Engineering students. The syllabus is dictated by their (future) needs and covers a huge array of topics, but none to any great depth.
For resourcing reasons, we cannot put on a separate course for the 10-15% of students who might go on to study Maths or Physics, but we feel that a breakneck tour through a huge number of mathematical methods is not an ideal start for these students.
We are exploring methods of adding (optional) depth to this course to better serve this small subset of the students. So far we've tried having optional "explore by yourself" sections in the weekly tutorial sheets, and we've tried having out-of-class optional "enrichment lectures", but neither of these has worked really well.
So my question is: given the constraints outlined above, what are possible methods of adding optional mathematical depth to an Engineering maths course to better serve future Maths students?
I know that this is rather vague and wishy-washy, but I'm really after anecdotal experiences from people who have tried this sort of thing.