Mathematics in Applied Contexts

Catalog description

Math is everywhere and yet many people think that they can avoid it in their everyday lives if they don’t want to directly study it. This course tells a different story by familiarizing students with the mathematics embedded in the media they see every day with the goal of helping them become more capable and critical readers of this information. We will investigate how math impacts many aspects of journalism, evaluate the arguments of those who critique the way math is represented in lay literature, and explore the media directly to find examples of appropriate and inappropriate mathematical arguments. During this course we will read from a broad range of sources, looking at arguments from scholarly articles, blog posts, and various online articles that speak to the issues we are studying. Within the ten weeks of this course, students will develop important critical thinking skills that expand their capacity for evaluating mathematical concepts in applied contexts.