Holy Cross Mathematics and Computer Science

MONT 100N -- Modeling the Environment

Note: All information on this page, including especially the course schedule, is still under development; if there are changes, I will update this page and announce them in class.

Syllabus and Schedule

Course syllabus (.pdf)
Detailed course schedule, to end of semester -- updated October 12
Natural World Cluster Common Events:
- Field trip to Purgatory Chasm State Park, Saturday, October 21
- Showing of film, Containment, November 13
- Exam Week Study Break Get-together, December 11

Examples, Class Notes, Etc.

Why is it called the Montserrat program?
Modeling the World, our main mathematical text, updated 11/24
Laudato Si', Pope Francis' Encyclical Letter On Care For Our Common Home
Reading/Study Questions for Laudato Si'
Video: "The Hidden Meltdown of Greenland"
Video: "Greenland's Thinning Ice"
Video: "Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland's Ice Sheet"
Spreadsheet file: First.xls for Group Project Day 2.
A (bad!) bar chart, class 9/27
Another (bad!) bar chart, class 9/27
A (bad!) pie chart, class 9/27
Solutions for Problem Set 1.
Mathematical Modeling, class 10/6
The slope of a straight line, class 10/6
Trout length versus body mass data set, class 10/6
Trout data with linear model, class 10/6
Regression example, class 10/16
First stages of Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone -- summer 2014, classes 10/23, 10/25
Solutions for the mathematical problems on the midterm exam.
New York Times op-ed on Energy Star.
Fitting a logistic model, class 11/13.
CO2 emissions, New York Times, 11/13.
A structured population example (systems of difference equations), class on 11/20.
SIR Excel demo, class on 11/27.
Hare and lynx populations -- data from Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, 1845-1935.
Predator-prey model, class on 11/29
Solutions and comments for the Chapter 7 project.
A scene from Easter Island, class on 12/1
The Maya city of Tikal, class on 12/1
A Maya astronomical text, class on 12/1
Solutions for the mathematical questions from the final exam on December 15.

Assignments

Notes: In the following assignments,

"GB" means They Say, I Say by Graff and Birkenstein
"MW" means our main mathematical text, Modeling the World

First essay assignment, due no later than 5:00pm on September 8.
Group Project Day(s) 1 -- the Greenland ice sheet, due date TBD.
``Stage 2'' of the first essay assignment, due no later than 5:00pm on September 20. (This will involve a revision of your ``they say'' section, followed by an ``I say'' response.)
Problem Set 1: Chapter 1 Exercises (p. 17-20 in "MW" above) 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16. Due: Friday, September 22.
Group Project Day(s) 2 -- "number crunching" in a spreadsheet, due date TBD.
Problem Set 2: Chapter 2 Exercises (p. 35-39 in "MW" above) 3, 4, 5, 8, 11. Due: Friday, September 29.
Group Project 3, due: Friday, October 6.
Group Project 4 and data -- starting in class on Wednesday, October 18.
Problem Set 3: Chapter 4 Exercises (starting on p. 65 of "MW"): 4, 5, 6, 8, 12. Due: Friday, October 20.
Second essay, Due: Friday, November 3.
Group Project 5 and data -- starting in class on Wednesday, November 1.
Problem Set 4: Chapter 5 Exercises (starting on p. 84): 3,4,6,12; Chapter 7 Exercises (starting on p. 133): 2,3,4. Due: Friday, November 10.
Group Project 6, starting in class on Wednesday, November 15.
Information on the student-led discussions on Collapse for the final week of the semester. Important Note: I am not opposed to some substitutions between groups and/or rearrangement of this schedule if there are good reasons (e.g. major exams in other classes, a special interest in some particular topic, etc.) I'll leave any such negotiations up to you. But we will need to have the final schedule nailed down no later than Friday, December 1, and the general outlines do have to follow what is here -- no groups of size bigger than 4 or smaller than 3, two groups on December 4, one on December 6 and two on December 8.
Problem Set 5: Note: This is an entirely voluntary assignment; any points you score will be added to your Problem Set grade as Extra Credit. Chapter 7 Exercises: 12, 13 (b) only, 14; Chapter 8 Exercises: 8, 9, Due: no later than 5:00pm on Monday, December 11.

Information and Announcements

Day-by-day schedule has been updated to end of semester (see above).
After Thanksgiving break, we will start reading and discussing parts of Jared Diamond's book Collapse on Friday, December 1 -- Reading/study questions.
Information on the final exam (updated 12/6 with some additional information about the location of the exam, exam week office hours, etc.), to be given 8:00 am - 10:30 am on Friday, December 15. Solutions for practice problems. Important Note: The exam will be held in O'Neil 123 so that you will have individual desks to work at during the exam rather than having to make do with the seminar tables in Swords 209.

Downloading Information

The links for assignments and other handouts shown above with the notation (.pdf file) lead to documents in PDF format. To read and print these, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader (or some equivalent document reader software) installed on your computer.

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Last modified: December 15, 2017