Group Projects

Why Group Projects?

In this class, there will be a number of group projects. I know that not everyone enjoys working in groups, and that sometimes it can be particularly frustrating when fellow group members don't do what they are supposed to do. But despite these shortcomings, I've still chosen to use them in this class, and I'd like to give you a little bit of information why.

Many students assume that the reason professors assign group work, is that the stronger or more experienced students will help the students who know less or understand the material less. And while research experiments have shown that some students do benefit from hearing detailed explanations from their peers, this is not the primary reason that working in groups can benefit students. One of the biggest benefits of group work is actually the other way around: a number of research studies have shown that when you have to give elaborate explanations to fellow students, you learn significantly more. So it is actually the students who do the most explaining that gain the most from group work.

Another issue that often comes up with group work, is that students are concerned how the actions of other students in their group will impact their grade. In this class, when you complete group work, you will have to interact with other students and help them with their answers in order to get full credit. If you don't do this at all in your group, your grade will be quite low. However, if one of your group members does not complete their work, or doesn't respond to your tips on how to improve their answer, this will NOT affect your grade. It is your responsibility in the group to complete your own work, to give other group members feedback, and to respond to the feedback of others, but it is NOT your job to make them do their work. In fact, here is the rubric that I will use on each project in order to determine your grade:

Project Grade (out of 100%):

• correctness, detail, and clarity of your final Prover answers: 30%

• correctness, detail, and clarity of your final Explainer answers: 30%

• correctness, detail, and clarity of your feedback to other group members on their answers: 25%

• Did you respond to all the timely feedback given by other members of your group on your own questions? 10%

• Did you meet all group deadlines? 5%

As you can see, it would be impossible to get a good grade if you just posted your initial solutions and then did not participate in the group discussion; but if another group member does not do their part, this does not affect your grade at all.

Of course, if you have a group member that is not responding to questions, not doing their problems, and/or not giving you feedback, this can also negatively impact how much you get out of the group project, even if it does not affect your grade directly. So if this happens to you, please let me know as soon as possible. If there is a problem with one group member repeatedly not doing their share of the work, and the other group members request it, I will move that person out of the group, and replace them with another member if possible. This is usually not necessary, but I have sometimes had to make such changes when one group member was not pulling their weight, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you have trouble in your group that you are not able to resolve yourselves.

How to Find your Group

Here are the steps for initially joining a group:

1. Go to the "Group Projects" button in Blackboard.
2. Go to the "Group Project Discussion Board and Submission" link and sign up for a group. I recommend that you sign up for the first group on the list that still has room for more members (e.g. If group 1 is full, but group 2 still has room for two more members, I recommend signing up for group 2 instead of being the first member to sign up for group 3).
3. When it is time for a project to begin, go immediately to the group discussion board to volunteer to be group leader, or to follow instructions from your group leader.

How to Volunteer to be Group Leader

Every group needs a group leader. You can decide as a group to rotate through this role for each project, or to have the same person be the leader for the whole semester.

The group leader gets 10 extra percentage points on their group project grade. To volunteer to be group project leader:

1. Go to the group discussion board for that project (for example, Project 9) and volunteer by writing a new thread telling your group members that you'd like to be group leader.

2. If more than one person volunteers, whoever posted first gets to be the leader (unless you discuss it among yourselves and agree on a different arrangement).

3. Once the group leader has been determined, it is the group leader's job to assign each person in the group a roughly equal number of problems. Problems should be assigned so that each student gets a good range of different types of problems, which usually means that no one gets two consecutive problems. For example, one distribution of work might look like this:

   Student Name	Problems
   Student 1	1,5,9,13
   Student 2	2,6,10,14
   Student 3	3,7,11,15
   Student 4	4,8,12

   Notice that here not all students have exactly the same number of problems, but it is as close as possible, and each student has problems from the various different parts of the project (i.e. Student 1 did NOT just get problems 1-4).

   When assigning problems, the group leader will outline deadlines for each part of the project over the two weeks during which the project will take place. For example, one such set of deadlines, for a project that starts on 2/2 and has a final deadline of 2/16, might look like this:

   	Deadline
   initial solutions (including both Prover and Explainer work) must be posted to group discussion board	2/8 at midnight
   each group member must have posted their initial comments on each problem, by giving feedback on the initial solutions posted by their group members on the discussion board	2/12 at midnight
   each group member must submit revised solutions as Word attachments to posts on group discussion board, and each group member must have responded to any questions posted by other members which were directly specifically at them on the discussion board	2/15 at midnight
   group leader combines the work of all group members into a single Word file and submits it under the group Assignments link	2/16 at midnight

   The group leader is also responsible for copying and pasting final work from each group member on the discussion board into the final file and submitting the final draft at the end under the "Group Assignments" heading.

How to Begin a Project

All projects have two parts, and run for two weeks.

During Part A of each project, each group member writes up solutions (both the Prover and Explainer steps) to a set of problems assigned to them individually.

During Part B of each project, the group's job is to discuss the solutions posted during Part I of the project on the group discussion board and to revise the Prover and Explainer work for each problem until it is completely clear and correct. At the end of this week the final project for the whole group is uploaded.

Group projects will be listed on the class Assignments page. At the beginning of the week in which a group project first begins, go to the "Group Projects" button in Blackboard, and then go to the "Group Project Discussion Board" from there.

1. The group leader will assign problems to each member of your group.

2. For Part A of the group project, you will:

   
   

   For each problem that you have been assigned, type up your solution in Microsoft Word (version 2007 or higher for Windows and 2011 or higher for Mac), and post that file on the group discussion board for the project number by the deadline assigned by your group leader that week.

3. For Part B of the group project, you will:

   1. Read the solutions submitted by all the other members of your group.

   2. For each of those solutions, type up a response to the discussion board post where the solution was attached, either confirming that you agree with the solution exactly as it is, or giving feedback on how the solution (both the Prover and the Explainer parts) could be improved. Just as with the regular discusison board, be sure to provide substantive math detail in your posts to other students.

   3. If other students comment on your work, respond to them with questions if needed, or to clarify why you did what you did if you disagree with them. Keep discussing the problem on the discussion board until you are certain that you know how to do it correctly (both the Prover and the Explainer parts)

   4. If other students respond to your comments with questions, answer them.

   5. For any comments you receive to your own post, revise your original explanation and post your final solution by the deadline given by the group leader, by posting your final version as a Word file attachment to a post on the group discussion board, clearly labeled so that the group leader knows it is your final version.

Instructions for How to Complete the Project

The projects in this class will have you playing two different roles.  During the projects, we will simply say something like “Student 1 now plays the role of the Prover” and that student should read the instructions for the Prover here.    

You will use a Project Report Sheet to write down all of your work for each project.  Each group will share a single sheet, and submit the final typed project on this sheet as a whole group at the end of each project.  These sheets have two main columns: the leftmost one is for the Prover, and the rightmost column is for the Explainer.  Be sure to follow the instructions on these sheets and to fill them out completely – failure to follow directions can cause you to lose points off your grade. 

For each problem, your group will write a solution out STEP-BY-STEP, writing one line at a time. 

Here is a short summary of the two roles:  (See the example that follows to get a better idea of how these roles really work.)

• The Prover: In the Prover role, you will write out each line of the proof for the given question, or otherwise work out the steps needed to solve the problem given in the project itself.   You should only write out one step at a time, and each new step should go on a new line. 

• The Explainer: In the Explainer role, you will write a single sentence or two in English that explains the reasoning behind each Prover step, to the right of that step. 

Click here to see a sample student project for a single problem!

Files you will Need (more to be added as the semester progresses)

• Group Project Report Sheet Write all your answers on this sheet using Microsoft Word (version 2007 or later for Windows or version 2011 or later for Mac)

• Sample Student Project This will give you an idea of how your answers should look as a group.

• Project 0

• Project 1

Announcements:

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Contact Information

Email: cwladis@bmcc.cuny.edu, profwladis@gmail.com
(Please send any large attachments to the gmail address, not to the bmcc address!)

Office: N598E

Office hours:
(fall 2023) Thurs 9am-12pm
These are virtual office hours. Text or call me on my office phone (212-220-1363) during this time.

Phone: (212) 220-1363 (email is always the fastest way to reach me)

Address: Claire Wladis, Mathematics Department, BMCC / CUNY, 199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007