Math 699 Course Outline - Spring 2021

Course Number, Name and Weight

MATH 699, Master of Mathematics for Teachers Capstone, 0.50 units

Coordinator Information
Mike Eden, MC 6242, x.48510, [email protected]

Prerequisites
Consent of department. Normally, MATH 699 will be open to students who have completed 3.0 units.

Calendar Description
The capstone course is designed to give students an opportunity to showcase the knowledge they
have gained and to provide a forum for bringing that knowledge into their own classroom. In this
course, students will design a mini-course on an approved subject in mathematics.

Offering Schedule
Normally Winter and Spring.

Marking Basis
Credit/No Credit
All projects will be evaluated by an Editorial Reviewer. The credit/no credit evaluation will be
granted by the Editorial Reviewer.
Participating students will also receive (and complete) a Peer Review.

Course Website
Math 699 will appear within the Waterloo Learn environment.

Textbook
There is no required textbook for Math 699.

Evaluators
After your project proposal has been accepted, every student will be introduced to their Editorial Re-
viewer. Your Editorial Reviewer will be responsible for your credit/no credit evaluation in Math 699.
Should you choose to opt in to the peer review process, you will also receive (and provide) one peer
review.

Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is important in the MMT. As teachers, we expect you to maintain at least as
high a standard of integrity as you would expect of your own students. It is your responsibility to
understand where these boundaries lie. For example,

• reusing material that you produced in another course without consulting your instructor and
acknowledging this reuse would be considered an academic offence,

• reproducing the work of others, including mathematics, without giving credit to the author or
creator is an academic offence
The University has resources to help with this that can be accessed here:
https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/integrity-students.
MMT instructors and program personnel are happy to discuss any concerns that you have.
Text matching software (Turnitin ) R will be used to screen submissions in this course. Please re-
fer to the University Policies page on the table of contents in LEARN for more information about
Turnitin .
R

Project Requirements

• Students create a mini-course on a single mathematical enrichment topic. The course created
will be roughly three one-hour lessons that include both teaching and problem solving.

• An “enrichment topic” means a topic that is outside of the union of the curriculum documents
for a generic jurisdiction. For example, teaching calculus to Grade 10 students would not count
as an enrichment topic.

• The mini-course can be aimed at any level from Grade 9 to Grade 12 (or college for college
teachers).

• The mini-course can be approached from a number of different angles, including an historical
angle, a contest preparation angle, etc.

• We encourage you to create a written mini-course (eg. course notes, lesson plans, problem set
with solutions) rather than a multimedia mini-course, because of the time investment required
in the latter. We will not prevent you from doing a multimedia version, but won’t encourage
you in this direction.

• It is hoped (but not a strict requirement) that all written work is completed in LaTeX.

• It is hoped (but not a strict requirement) that students use the APA citation style.
See the University of Waterloo’s resource http://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/MMT?hs=a
under the tab Cite/reference for further direction regarding the APA citation style. The Avoid
Plagiarism link gives many examples on how to cite and paraphrase properly.

• Students are to submit a maximum of 30 pages of written work; roughly 18 pages of course
notes (lessons), 3 pages of problems (student exercises), 9 pages of solutions. Please note that
Editorial Reviewers will not read (and thus not evaluate) past the 30th page of your project
(with the exception of Appendices and/or Bibliography).

• Students may propose a different type of idea for their capstone project, but acceptance of this
will depend on many factors, including suitability and availability of supervisors, and is not
guaranteed.

The capstone project is intended to be an independent project. While there will be

some support available to students working on their projects, the intention is that the
projects be completed largely independently and that students consult outside sources
for help.
Project Elements

• The Project Proposal identifies the topic, target audience and presentation format that you have
chosen. You will be asked to provide a detailed outline which includes a course description, a
list of student learning objectives, exercise examples and identifying source material. View the
document Proposal Example.pdf to see an illustration. Modify the document Proposal Form.tex
and submit the corresponding pdf file. You are also required at this time to indicate whether
or not you will be participating in the voluntary peer review. Please answer yes or no to this
question at the bottom of the Proposal Form.
The Capstone Coordinator’s evaluation of your proposal will be left for you within the course
dropbox in Learn.
The due date for Project Proposal submission is Friday, 21 May 2021.

• The First Edition is a complete version of your project. A second, revised edition will be re-
quired later. Use the quality of a typical high school mathematics textbook as a standard. For
a marking rubric of sorts, see the document Editorial Guidelines.pdf.
Some projects from a previous offering of this course will be made available in the “Project
Examples” folder as samples.
An Annotated Bibliography provides content summaries of your source material. This First Edi-
tion will include an Annotated Bibliography. See the section Source Material within Proposal
Example.pdf or view past Capstone projects in the Project Examples folder for illustrations of
an Annotated Bibliography.
In LaTeX, a bibliography can be created and stored separately in a .bib file. While not nec-
essary, this approach to creating your bibliography is much easier than doing so manually and
also simplifies your document citations. Students may refamiliarize themselves with creating
Bibliographies in LaTeX using the Math 600 resources at:
http://cemc1.math.uwaterloo.ca/~math600/wp/3-4/
The due date for First Edition submission is Friday, 16 July 2021.
In addition to submitting to the course drop box, you will email your Editorial
Reviewer (and if participating, your Peer Reviewer) a copy of your First Edition.
Please note that your Editorial Reviewer and your Peer Reviewer do NOT have access to your
course drop box.

• If you are participating in the Peer Review, you will receive a random classmate’s First Edition
on or before Friday, 16 July 2021. You will be expected to edit the writing, and verify the
mathematics. Expectations are contained in the document Peer Review Guidelines.pdf. Modify
the document Peer Review Form.tex and email the corresponding pdf file to the classmate whose
project you have reviewed.
The due date for Peer Review submission is Friday, 23 July 2021.

• The Final Edition should take into account editorial suggestions, peer suggestions if applicable,
additional research and your own revisions. The Final Edition will also include an Annotated
Bibliography.
Submit your Final Edition to the course drop box and email it to your Editorial Reviewer.
Final Editions are not sent to Peer Reviewers.
The due date for Final Edition submission is Friday, 6 August 2021.
Project Timeline

Week Submissions and Evaluations Due Date

(11:55pm Waterloo time)
2 Submit Project Proposal and Source Material Friday, 21 May 2021
Indicate if you will participate in the Peer Review
View the document Proposal Example.pdf
Modify the document Proposal Form.tex and submit pdf
10 Submit First Edition and Annotated Bibliography Friday, 16 July 2021
(Submit to the drop box and by email to your Editorial Reviewer)
(Also submit your project to your Peer Reviewer if participating)
11 Receive Editorial Review and possible Peer Review Friday, 23 July 2021
11 Submit Peer Review, if participating Friday, 23 July 2021
View document Peer Review Guidelines.pdf
Modify the document Peer Review Form.tex and submit pdf
13 Submit Final Edition Friday, 6 August 2021
(Submit to the drop box and by email to your Editorial Reviewer)
14 Receive Editorial Reviewer Approval (credit / no credit) Friday, 13 August 2021