There's no time like a global pandemic to (re)start a blog, right?
Hi! I'm Courtney Gibbons. I'm an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Hamilton College, and I'm writing from within my own personal cloud of panic about the shift from traditional classes to remotely delivered content to students spread across multiple time zones. When I glimpse a view of the horizon through the panic, though, I have to admit I'm a little bit excited by the challenge.
This blog, whatever it becomes, will be a place for me to record what I'm trying, how it's going, and -- inevitably -- some of the math we're doing along the way.
Tonight I'm testing out some Zoom features with mathematics educators that I know from the Twitter math world. I'm excited to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time and meet some new people through mutual connections.
What can you expect as far as the math for the next few weeks? Currently: I'm eight weeks into Modern Algebra (we're discovering why there's no algebraic quintic formula) and Number Theory and Applications (we cracked Enigma with group theory, just worked through the implementation of RSA and read about some of the flaws of its implementation, and started talking about primality tests and pseudoprimes). Modern Algebra is a Writing Intensive course, so my students complete weekly writing assignments (with partners) and a final paper (individually). Number Theory is a Speaking Intensive course, so my students had oral midterms earlier in the semester and... well, we were going to do a conversation midterm (a future blog post on that, I promise) but now -- who knows?
Students (past and future, but especially present!), if you're following this grand adventure and would like to contribute to the blog, I'm absolutely thrilled with that prospect!
Wishing you health, safety, and just enough excitement. -CRG
PS: just because I think I finally got MathJax working... \(\frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2}\)
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