MAT 4953: Problem-Solving Seminar
What is it?
The problem-solving seminar (MAT 4953) is the place to be for anyone who loves a good brain workout. Student participants challenge each other to solve puzzles, brain teasers and, eventually, competition-caliber problems. The atmosphere is friendly and invites free exchanges of ideas; it is vastly different from the traditional classroom experience.
The course is run as a seminar in which the instructor (Prof. Eduardo Dueñez) serves mainly as a moderator (but you can always count on him to provide help, insight, encouragement, and even gentle prodding to try out some of the harder problems). Over time (since Spring 2007) the course has enrolled some of UTSA's brightest and most motivated students. Alumni of the seminar range from freshmen to graduate students, and include not only mathematics and mathematics education majors, but also physics, computer science, electrical engineering, and biology and premedical students.
Promotional fliers:
What about the problems?
While we discuss brain teasers and puzzles, the eventual focus is on the exploration of the ideas involved in solving mathematics problems. However, most of the problems discussed do not require knowledge of college-level mathematics, but only a solid understanding of basic math, such as arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. Students are encouraged to work in collaboration with others and actively fill in any gaps in their knowledge and learn the tools needed to tackle whatever problems they find interesting. The choice of problems is largely up to the students (barring straight-from-the-book routine exercises). Plenty of problems to choose from are put forth for preliminary discussion before the participants zero in on those they find interesting.
For a sample of the type of problems we discuss, you may want to look at the exam problems from the 2007 UNO competition.
The Putnam exam
Seminar participants are very much encouraged to participate in the W.L. Putnam Mathematical Competition, which takes place the first Saturday of December every year. Prof. Eduardo Dueñez is currently UTSA's liaison to the organizing committee of the Putnam competition. Students are encouraged to work up their mathematical stamina and tackle Putnam-caliber problems as part of their participation in the seminar.
Under the supervision of Prof. Dueñez, UTSA students entered the Putnam competition in 2006 and 2007. The 2007 results were very favorable, with UTSA ranking 145 out of 516 North American higher-education competing. UTSA featured this achievement in a story:
http://www.utsa.edu/today/2008/06/putnam.cfm
The Tensor-SUMMA library
Thanks to the generous support of a Tensor-SUMMA grant from the Mathematical Association of America, students enrolled in the seminar have free access to a small private library. Its titles include books on problem-solving techniques, problem collections, and other reference materials.
The course web site
The seminar used to have a dedicated web site. Since the fall of 2008, however, the online component of the course is hosted at UTSA's Moodle server. (Only currently registered students can log in to the Moodle site.)
Previous page: Teaching
Next page: The Putnam Exam