Syllabus: MTHT 490

NUMBER THEORY

Fall 2002

Instructor: John T. Baldwin

Texts: Holt and Jones: Discovering Number Theory; Flannery: In Code

There will be reading assignments and a few classes built off Flannery. Most of the course will center on the laboratories in Holt-Jones. We will also use some materials from innovative high school curricula.

First Meeting: 200 SEO

General Information:Class meets 5-7:30 Mondays in either room 200 SEO (computer room) or room 512 SEO. This is a course in number theory for high school teachers. We will cover much of the material of a typical undergraduate course in number theory (prime numbers, congruences, Euclidean Algorithm, Chinese Remainder Theorem). But we will be particularly interested in the relevance of number theory to our society (cryptography) and connections between this material and high school mathematics.

The home page for this class is at www.math.uic.edu/~jbaldwin; then follow your nose.

To access the applets (from the lab) type file:/home/x/dnt/index.html into your browser.

Materials: The course is built around discovery sheets that run both on the university computers and on your home/school machines. These work sheets are available as maple labs, mathematica labs, and web labs (java applets). Each chapter of the book has 3 versions; we use almost exclusively the web labs. We will work on these in every class period. A calculator may be used from time to time. Only TI-8X are directly supported.

Intended Class Organization. There will be homework assignments weekly, a midterm and a final exam. Homework will be accepted only on the due date, since it will be discussed in class that day. The grade will be based approximately equally on the weekly homework (lab reports and problems), the midterm, and on the final.

Each chapter of Discovering Number Theory will contain the following elements.

• Do the lab in class in a team of 2.

• Write up lab - teams of 4? To be discussed

• Get chapter summaries and homework assignment.

Office hours 2:00-3:00 W and F, 4-5 on Monday (usually), 7:30-8:00 PM Monday ; and by appointment. Tell me if other times are better.

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Please contact ODS at (312)413-2103 (voice) or (312)413-0123 (TTY).

Feel free to e-mail me at jbaldwin@uic.edu or phone to make an appointment to discuss any difficulties that arise.

Office: 417 SEO.

Office phone: 312-413-2149