In this course we will cover higher order approaches to understanding
geometry. We will stick to the structure of the book, Four
Pillars of Geometry by John Stillwell. Roughly speaking the four pillars are axioms, algebra, transformations and projective geometry. Emphasis, where possible, will be given to applications to high school teaching with many hands-on activities.
Prerequisite(s): Confidence in Euclidean Geometry through some angles
in circles theorems. Completion of MTHT 411 will suffice.
The book is available electronically through the UIC library
Students are welcome to use a laptop during class. We will be making extensive use of Geogebra. This free, downloadable software is a combination of a graphing calculator, a spreadsheet and something similar to geometer’s sketchpad. Geometer's Sketchpad is an ok substitute but eventually you will appreciate the algebraic and numeric advantages of Geogebra. We will be sharing work on Googledocs and/or writeLatex. UIC Google accounts are free and easy to get at here. Students may go to Writelatex.com to learn about writeLatex, but this will be demonstrated in class. No knowledge of LaTex is required for the class.