Questions tagged [homework]
For questions concerning homework, such as good problems for specific topics, amount and difficulty of homework, grading homework, cheating
70
questions
85
votes
13answers
10k views
How to assign homework when answers are freely available or attainable online?
I find that making homework meaningful is becoming increasingly challenging. Let us suppose that I am planning for next semester's first-semester or second-semester calculus course at my university.
...
59
votes
4answers
5k views
Is it worth grading calculus homework?
I am a young math educator. I've TAed four semesters of calculus for various instructors. Some instructors have required me to grade selected problems in homework sets. Another required me simply to ...
33
votes
4answers
2k views
Are there any benefits to having an entire course's homework problems available from day one?
I am designing a course for the upcoming fall semester, and I am tossing around an idea in my head. While planning which topics to cover each week and how to set the pacing of the course, I figured I ...
29
votes
10answers
10k views
Is this homework problem on counting triangles within a 4x4 grid too vague?
My six-year old daughter was given this maths problem for her homework:
Given a regular square grid of 4 × 4 dots, how many different triangles with one dot in the middle can you draw?
We were ...
22
votes
8answers
791 views
Is it good to have solutions of homework published?
At a course at the university, the students have to do homeworks every week which will be graded and discussed in exercise groups.
Is it a good idea to put "official" solutions of the homework on ...
21
votes
7answers
780 views
How to give homework for integration techniques?
When I was a freshman in Mathematics we learned the usual integration techniques (lots of standard integrals, integration by parts, substitution, partial fractions,…). As homework we simple got a ...
19
votes
4answers
2k views
Students' Messy Sheets: The Big Problem of Exams and Homeworks
Students' messy exam and homework sheets (which are messy because of a bad handwriting or an irregular logical argument in proofs) cause many serious problems. e.g.
Reading their arguments takes ...
19
votes
5answers
359 views
Is required reading of the text effective, and how can it be assessed?
This will likely depend on the class, of course. But I've asked calculus students in the past if (a) they regularly read the textbook and (b) whether this is helpful for them and (c) whether they like ...
19
votes
8answers
7k views
What's a good policy for accepting late homework?
There are a lot of ways of handling late homework submissions, of which I've only tried a few. The general policy I've settled on is something like the following.
Homework must be submitted at the ...
19
votes
1answer
2k views
How much time to spend on a single question?
When I was self-studying as an undergraduate, I would spend up to two weeks working on a single problem or trying to understand a proof in Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis. I realize now ...
18
votes
3answers
3k views
"But I copied that from a book-reference you gave! How can that be wrong?", or how can you grade homework which is solved poorly in some book?
Sometimes when assigning homework, it is possible that the homework can be found in some books or lecture notes, sometimes even referenced by yourself.
As long as the proofs and arguments there are ...
18
votes
3answers
961 views
What are the minimum criteria when checking homework for completion only?
I know that some instructors collect homework and "grade that on the basis of completion" (e.g., item #2 on this answer). In fact, I tried this myself for several years, based on advice from my mentor ...
18
votes
5answers
343 views
Can homework play a substantial role in the assessment of understanding in university math?
Ideally, I'd like my students' grades to be based on more than just exams, because I think that certain tasks, such as writing proofs, aren't best performed in a test environment. Using homework for ...
16
votes
7answers
3k views
Motivating students to take homework seriously without grades
Next semester I'm teaching a course where I want to grade a significant chunk of the homework for completeness without checking whether the answers are right, and separately post the answers and ...
16
votes
5answers
2k views
Overload of Calculus homework assignments
I am a new calculus teacher in a high school for gifted students. I am the youngest teacher, I am not in my home country, and this country particularly values age and experience, so I have little room ...
16
votes
4answers
490 views
Making solutions to all problems freely available
I teach at a community college, almost all physics but also a math course now and then. My current practice is that I assign homework worth a very small number of points (1 point per problem, as ...
16
votes
4answers
569 views
Is extra credit appropriate?
It is very tempting to assign extra credit problems that are (a) substantially more difficult than others on the problem set, (b) ask for the history of something we discussed in class, or (c) are ...
14
votes
4answers
437 views
When Euclid was used as a textbook, what exercises did students do?
Until fairly recently, it was common for students in school to learn Euclidean geometry from a translation of Euclid. I get the impression that ca. 1700 this would have been in college and only for a ...
14
votes
2answers
680 views
How is calculus possible in a small number of very long class periods?
This summer, I am teaching 8-week calculus courses that meet a total of 16 times in 210 minute class periods. This sounds insane to me since Return of the King is only 201 minutes long, but it is the ...
14
votes
3answers
327 views
Research/Anecdotes supporting WebWork, MyMathLab and other computerized, immediate feedback HW
When I was a student in college (very recently), my college had implemented a program called WebWork to give immediate feedback on homework problems. Other systems like MyMathLab exist as well.
...
14
votes
1answer
375 views
How to deal with students copying?
In university courses with compulsory homework, I quite often find students copying their work from others. Now, you can simply ignore this since they are responsible for their learning. If not, ...
13
votes
3answers
933 views
What are the pros and cons of having students choose which HW problems are looked at?
I am considering a new HW policy that I haven't seen elsewhere. Each week the student must turn in $n$ problems, of her choosing. There will be no HW score beyond documenting whether the student is ...
13
votes
3answers
417 views
Worksheet: Homology in Intro Lin Al
I am about to start grad school and I am trying to think seriously about teaching [you know, before I get swamped with my own coursework]. I wrote a hypothetical worksheet for an introductory linear ...
13
votes
3answers
271 views
How to keep track of your old exercises in a heavy proof based course?
In a typical course (proof-based, for the context of this question) I have about 50 exercises that I might want to use when I teach the course again. Each exercise might be used in the same way as ...
13
votes
3answers
255 views
Reusing homework exercises from previous terms
I am teaching a course for sophomore-level math majors this quarter, and next quarter, I'll be teaching the same thing. I haven't been in this situation before, and I'm wondering to what degree I can ...
13
votes
2answers
869 views
online homework vs paper homework
Some professors assign online homework in lower level courses, such as through services like WeBWorK or WebAssign. Online homework has some clear advantages for instructors. However, in my experience, ...
13
votes
3answers
188 views
How to effectively run large exercise groups?
The Question
Quite often one is faced with the task of running a large exercise group (think 40+ students in the room). What are some strategies to make the most of the (limited) time for the students?...
12
votes
4answers
648 views
Is it morally acceptable to complete math homework with a program oneself has written?
I've been trying to introduce my younger sister to programming, and one of the things I said was basically that once you know how to program, you can have a computer solve equations for you as long as ...
12
votes
4answers
360 views
Collaboration on math homework assignments?
There is considerable evidence that pair programming, when
executed properly, both increases the
accuracy of the code produced and enhances the learning of both participants.
I wonder if anyone has ...
12
votes
2answers
249 views
Assigning students to write solution sets
Next year, I will be teaching a very challenging second year "multivariable calculus and calculus on manifolds" course, and will assign a large number of difficult problem sets. I am thinking of ...
12
votes
2answers
185 views
Benefits of students grading each other's (or their own) homework or quizzes?
I was wondering if there is any benefit to having undergraduate students swap homework and quizzes and grading them, with solutions that I provide.
I was thinking it might be helpful for them to ...
12
votes
3answers
249 views
Quizzes (with questions known in advance) instead of homework in a graduate mathematics class. Good Idea or Bad Idea? Pros and Cons?
I'm teaching a graduate course in mathematics next semester. I'm planning to have a midterm and a final exam. But I'm thinking about having weekly (or once-every-two-weeks) in-class quizzes instead of ...
11
votes
4answers
644 views
Should homework be graded in an undergraduate math course?
It seems like the internet has made it very difficult to prevent cheating -- simply looking up the solutions to textbook problems -- on undergraduate math homework. So there is a danger that grading ...
11
votes
1answer
332 views
How cheating on homework affects student questions
I am teaching Calculus 2 and 3 this semester from a common text, and a significant number of my students are handing in perfect homework assignments that are clearly copied from Chegg, et al. As ...
11
votes
2answers
779 views
Middle / High School Math Teachers and LaTeX
All of the middle and high school math educators I´ve encountered choose not to use LaTeX in preparing their documents or presentations. I would assume that most of them had to use the program in the ...
10
votes
7answers
2k views
Do you have an efficient way to view student responses to remote assignments allowing them to type math symbols and steps? (Middle + High school)
Asking for a friend, this seems generally useful given #distanceLearning right now. Below is her message in a quote block followed by my response.
I am using Google Classroom, G-sheets, G-Docs, G-...
10
votes
5answers
2k views
Advantages on repeating question in student's answer
I see a lot of students who repeat the whole question (i.e., before starting with anything which has some content, they write down all assumptions, claims, etc.) in their answers in homework or exams. ...
10
votes
4answers
273 views
Problems sets for instruction
What resources are available for any grade level K- 12 that are aligned with the Common Core Mathematics Standards and Mathematical Practices that have sets of problems or problem banks that can be ...
10
votes
4answers
409 views
Effective Method for Reviewing Homework in Class
I teach algebra at a community college. I assign homework which counts for 2 points. After going over the HW, I give the students a quiz (worth 20 points) with problems similar to the HW.
I spend ...
9
votes
2answers
191 views
Generating system of equations with unique solutions
I have a similar problem addressed in System of Equations Generator. What I need is an automatic way of generating a system of equations with unique solutions, but the equations are not exclusively ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
How does a take-home exam differ from a homework assignment?
I've taught several upper-level courses recently, and have considered giving take-home exams to reduce the time pressure in the classroom.
However, their homework already consists of proving various ...
9
votes
2answers
564 views
What's the point of exercises without answers?
What is the point of exercises for which answers aren't provided? (That is to say, what is the pedagogical justification for such exercises? - Edit by someone other than original poster.)
Commentary ...
8
votes
4answers
292 views
Is it convenient to classify problem by level of difficulty?
When leaving homework to students, should we state that there is an excercise with a special level of difficulty?
I have seen this done in a lot of physics books, and some books on mathematics have ...
8
votes
1answer
117 views
Grading in a way that lets students have a good and formative experience
This fall, I'll be a reader (i.e. homework grader) for the first time, and the course is a second-level linear algebra course, which is likely the first proof-based course most of the students will ...
7
votes
3answers
355 views
Is it appropriate to assign an extra credit homework question on the "next" session?
I am a new teacher teaching mathematics (College Algebra, Calculus, etc.) in a college. My wife has made an interesting suggestion that I would like to have a discussion here:
Is it appropriate to ...
7
votes
2answers
253 views
Do any tools exist that convert "pretty print" equations into "inline text" equations?
Context: I am an assistant professor of mathematics at a small school in the US.
Many of my courses have homework assignments administered by WeBWorK. A small minority of students struggle mightily (...
7
votes
2answers
247 views
Ethics of looking at other proofs before submitting work
I am in my third year of undergraduate math, and now that classes are becoming more proof-based, many of my homework questions are proofs of relatively basic concepts that can be found with a quick ...
7
votes
1answer
323 views
Asking for Final Drafts of Homework
I'm planning to ask my students (first-year college calculus) to turn in some problems in a "final draft" form: rewritten from scratch, in linear order, with exactly the necessary steps included. I ...
7
votes
1answer
189 views
Where can I find example of Lagrange multipliers and constrained optimization?
I want give some extra homework about Lagrange multipliers and constrained optimization. I am interested in examples that are complex (for example, those having more than two variables and more than ...
7
votes
1answer
410 views
Is there a repository with K-12 math exercises and problems written in LaTeX (English or Spanish)?
I've been searching for a repository or a database with math problems (K-12 levels) written in LaTeX, but with no luck. Neither in Spanish (my student's language) ...
