Writing Projects for Mathematics Courses: Crushed Clowns, Cars & Coffee to Go

This volume is a collection of writing projects suitable in a wide range of undergraduate mathematics courses, from a survey of mathematics to differential equations. The projects vary in their level of difficulty and in the mathematics that they require, but are similar in the mode of presentation and use of applications. Students see these problems as real in a way that textbooks problems are not, even though many of the characters involved (dime–store detectives and CEOs) are obviously fictional. The stories are sometimes fanciful and sometimes grounded in standard scientific applications, but the mere existence of the story draws the students in and makes the problem relevant.

The book is the combined effort of four instructors who have used writing projects in their own courses. They provide an easy-to-use, widely applicable set of course materials that instructors can adopt and adapt to their own courses.

An extensive set of class-tested projects is included along with:

? implementation notes which highlight student difficulties,
? information about project solutions, and
? advice for grading writing projects.