As part of your Concept Portfolio, the Problem Sets are an opportunity for you to show your understanding of a mathematical topic from the course. The problem sets include both a rough draft and peer reviews in small groups before the final drafts are submitted at the end of the quarter. This is intended to help you feel confident and give you time to solidify your understanding of the concept you are covering.

The information below describes what is expected for the final drafts of the Problem Sets. Other pages describe the Peer Reviews and Rough Drafts, the Portfolio Summary, and the Portfolio Reflection.

Overview

Objective: Your goal with this project is to explain the main ideas of a concept we have learned and to walk through the steps of how to complete some mathematical tasks (examples/problems/exercises) associated with this concept. Some suggestions for topics are given in the instructions section below. This is a chance for you to infuse a little bit of yourself into the mathematics we are learning!

Audience: The audience of your project is other students who are studying these concepts. You can think of the concept guide as a short study guide you would give a friend or classmate for how to understand and remember the main ideas of the topic.

Medium: You can choose what medium to use for presenting the topic and the associated example problems. Be as creative as you would like! Some suggestions for mediums are given in the instructions section below.

Minimum Requirements: Each problem set should have two sections.

• Section 1: Main Ideas of the Topic. This is the lesson/lecture portion of the project where you explain the main ideas of the topic you are covering. How you do this can be informal and casual, like if you were describing the concept to a friend, but it should be mathematically accurate. Include anything here that you need to understand or know about in order to complete the examples in the next section.
• Section 2: Example Problems. This is where you show how to do the mathematical examples/exercises/problems related to your topic. You need to present a minimum of two examples, and your examples should be different than the ones we have already covered in class. You should state the example, then demonstrate the steps of the solution. Additionally, you should explain whyyou are doing the steps so someone would know how to execute the example on their own.

The information in both sections can be informal and casual, but it must be mathematically correct. The peer review process will help you check your math and make sure that what you are presenting is accurate. However, your concept guide can be less formal than a textbook! Specifically, your audience is other students, so you can be relaxed/funny/interesting/unique in your explanations.

Instructions

1. Choose a mathematical topic for your problem set. I recommend choosing topics that are challenging for you! You will need to present at least two completed example problems as part of each problem set, so keep that in mind when you are choosing a topic. Each problem set corresponds to certain weeks of class material, and your topic choices should be from material covered near that time period.

2. Choose a medium for your problem set. You can choose any medium you like as long as you can meet the requirements of explaining the main ideas of the concept and showing the steps and rationale of at least two example problems. Additionally, your problem sets can use different mediums if you would like, or you can keep it consistent. Here are some medium ideas:

   • Make a set of PowerPoint slides (or use a similar type of slideshow program)
   • Create a poster (either digital or physical and submit a photo of what you make)
   • Record audio with some accompanying visual or written document
   • Film and edit a video
   • Write a Word document (or use any kind of word processor)
   • Combine pieces of the above ideas
   • ...or whatever you come up with!

   You will need to be able to submit your concept guide as either a file attachment, a photo, or a link to where the project can be viewed online. You can do whatever you'd like as long as you meet the basic project requirements!

3. Start working on your problem set! Remember, each problem set should have two sections: the lesson/main ideas, and the examples (a minimum of two) with explanations of the steps.

Tips for Success

• For section one of each problem set, you should include some of your own ideas/insight about the topic.Simply restating the mathematical rule or concept will not earn you full points. Instead, you should also include your own interpretation of the concept such as suggestions for how to remember the main ideas, common errors or things to watch out for, or analogies and casual explanations of the topic.
• For section two of each problem set, you should use new example problems that differ slightly from what we have seen in lecture videos or homework assignments. You can use outside resources to find your example problems, but think about changing the numbers in some way to make the problem your own.
• Remember, you will get feedback between your rough and final drafts!There is time to add to your rough draft to make it even stronger and fix any mistakes or misunderstandings in your project, so you have permission to be brave and try things out with this project! My hope is that this assignment provides opportunity for you to show your personality and be creative :)