Test sites for NSF education grant

[Rob Beezer]

A small group is preparing a National Science Foundation education
grant proposal to investigate how to make it easier for faculty to
adopt and integrate mathematics software into undergraduate
mathematics courses. Of course, we think Sage is a great vehicle for
this. We will propose creating a variety of curricular materials
revolving around Sage and typical undergraduate topics, and also
improvements to Sage itself that will directly address classroom needs
at the undergraduate level. If funded, we anticipate having stipends
and small grants for others in the Sage community to participate in
the project.

We are especially interested in individuals and institutions without
much prior use of Sage that would be interested in commiting to trying
out new materials in their courses, participating in evaluations with
their students, and providing comprehensive reports on their
experiences. A real plus would be physical proximity to one of the
members of the grant group (listed below). We also hope to achieve a
real mix of institutions represented: public/private, big/small, 4-
year/two-year, selective/open-enrollment, etc. Stipends would be
available to compensate for your involvement, and technical support
might also be available.

If you are interested please consider sending a short expression of
interest. Or maybe you have a colleague at your institution who does
not read the Sage lists, or know of a colleague at another
institution, and you can alert them to the possibility. Send replies
to Rob Beezer at <bee...@ups.edu>, or post general questions here on
the list. We will follow up with those where it seems the match is
good for the purposes of the grant. Of course, all of this is subject
to eventually having the project funded.

Rob Beezer, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
Jason Grout, Drake University, Des Moines, IA
Tom Judson, Stephen Austin Sate University, Nagodoches, TX
William Stein, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Kiran Kedlaya, UC San Diego (Fall 2010), San Diego, CA

[David Joyner]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 1:35 AM, Rob Beezer <goo...@beezer.cotse.net> wrote:
> A small group is preparing a National Science Foundation education
> grant proposal to investigate how to make it easier for faculty to
> adopt and integrate mathematics software into undergraduate
> mathematics courses.  Of course, we think Sage is a great vehicle for
> this.  We will propose creating a variety of curricular materials
> revolving around Sage and typical undergraduate topics, and also
> improvements to Sage itself that will directly address classroom needs
> at the undergraduate level.  If funded, we anticipate having stipends
> and small grants for others in the Sage community to participate in
> the project.
>
> We are especially interested in individuals and institutions without
> much prior use of Sage that would be interested in commiting to trying
> out new materials in their courses, participating in evaluations with
> their students, and providing comprehensive reports on their
> experiences.  A real plus would be physical proximity to one of the
> members of the grant group (listed below).  We also hope to achieve a
> real mix of institutions represented:  public/private, big/small, 4-
> year/two-year, selective/open-enrollment, etc.  Stipends would be
> available to compensate for your involvement, and technical support
> might also be available.

Can you give a few more details, such as which courses are
involved?

>
> If you are interested please consider sending a short expression of
> interest.   Or maybe you have a colleague at your institution who does
> not read the Sage lists, or know of a colleague at another
> institution, and you can alert them to the possibility.  Send replies
> to Rob Beezer at <bee...@ups.edu>, or post general questions here on
> the list.  We will follow up with those where it seems the match is
> good for the purposes of the grant.  Of course, all of this is subject
> to eventually having the project funded.
>
> Rob Beezer, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
> Jason Grout, Drake University, Des Moines, IA
> Tom Judson, Stephen Austin Sate University, Nagodoches, TX
> William Stein, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
> Kiran Kedlaya, UC San Diego (Fall 2010), San Diego, CA
>

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>
>

[Rob Beezer]

On Nov 23, 2:56 am, David Joyner <wdjoy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can you give a few more details, such as which courses are
> involved?

Hi David,

We plan to create (or help others create) some subject-specific
guides, so there is the possibility of doing a variety of (standard)
topics. Certainly calculus, linear algebra and some of the usual
upper-division topics where Sage has good support. We also hope to
make improvements to Sage itself where additional commands or more
consistent syntax will make it easier to use in the classroom. Topics
where there are already open-source textbooks are also likely to be
featured.

So if there is an area you (or anybody else) would like to propose as
being a good candidate for this sort of treatment, we'd certainly
entertain the idea.

Thanks,
Rob

[David Joyner]

This spring I am teaching a course on "Python and Coding theory",
which I suppose would qualify. (I used "Python" as opposed to "Sage" for
political reasons, in the name, but it will be Sage that we will use
for the most part.) I always use Sage in Differential Equations,
but is not easy to tell in advance what I'll be teaching. I usually get to
teach at least one semester of DEs though. It is possible that others
would want to know what courses you are supporting, which I
why I asked.

Good luck with your proposal!



>
> Thanks,
> Rob