DIY Math

This is a mathematics course open to all topics and levels (unless participants come up with a compelling reason to focus during the course).  The main "pedagogical" reasons for such radical openness are:

(1) To give people one extra reason to take initiative in their own learning.  One might say "I've always wanted to learn about P vs NP", another might say "I've always wanted to learn precalculus" -- both are overcoming a mental and emotional hurdle.  I'm not suggesting that it's the *same* hurdle, but there are probably some similarities.  In the same way that a writer's workshop can serve writers with different interests, this "DIY Math" workshop can serve mathematics learners with different interests by providing a place to talk about their challenges and successes.

(2) To help people develop skills at co- or peer-to-peer teaching.  Ultimately people have to do their own homework exercises and so on, but one can also learn a lot in mathematics by helping others.  My "teaching philosophy" is that there are no stupid questions, even if there are a lot of dumb answers.  Let's see if we can get better at answering questions together.

There is no official text book, but participants may want to take a look at "How to solve it" (or other books) by George Polya.  Participants will get access to a new "beta" grade libre software platform being developed to support mathematical communication; we'll also have a mailing list available as a fall-back mechanism (and if you're interested in the course, please sign up for the list now to talk about your ideas or questions).