Welcome
Getting started
This website holds all of the content for the (COM4002M-A) Mathematics and Problem Solving module at York St John University. The course is divided into several topics, one for each week of the course. Each topic is broken down into multiple sections. Each section has a short video lecture and questions and challenges for you to complete. Each week there will also be a live lab session with the lecturer. You should complete each section before that week’s lab session. During the lab we will build on what you have learned.
There will not be a lecture for this course as all lecture content will be available on this website. You are expected to use the lecture slot on your timetable, or an alternative time, to watch the online lectures for the week and complete the questions. Instead, during the lecture slot, I will be running a regular “office hour”. This is for anyone to drop in and ask any questions they may have about any aspect of the course.
| Week | Topic | Lab Date |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction | 25/09/2020 |
| Week 2 | Numerical Systems | 02/10/2020 |
| Week 3 | Modular Arithmetic | 09/10/2020 |
| Week 4 | Algorithms | 16/10/2020 |
| Week 5 | Propositional Logic | 23/10/2020 |
| Week 6 | Set Theory | 30/10/2020 |
| Week 7 | Graph Theory | 06/11/2020 |
| Week 8 | Proof | 13/11/2020 |
| Week 9 | Maths to Code (Reading Week Bonus Lecture) | 20/11/2020 |
| Week 10 | Descriptive Statistics | 27/11/2020 |
| Week 11 | Probability | 04/12/2020 |
| Week 12 | Inferential Statistics | 11/12/2020 |
Outline of the course
Each week this course will introduce a new area of maths. This will build towards the practical session where we will be using the maths we have learned to solve a real-world problem. On the way, you will be presented with problems to solve to develop your understanding of the material.
Labs
Labs will be run online via Microsoft Teams. You will be added to the Teams group for this module. As well as attending scheduled lab sessions online, you can use this group to ask questions and discuss the course content with your peers. I will attempt to answer most questions via Teams so that everyone can see the answers.
Support
This course is being run by David Gundry. You can contact me over Microsoft Teams. If you need to, you can also contact me by email at d.gundry@yorksj.ac.uk. If I give an answer by email to a question that I think might be helpful for the whole group, I’ll post it to the Teams group.
Assessment
This course is 100% assessed by coursework. The assessment will present you with a number of problems that you have to solve. Many of the problems will require you to use a programming language. Throughout the course we will be using Java, and it is recommend you use that.
For more details see the Assessment page.
Coding
You will apply your mathematical knowledge to problems requiring programming in the Java programming language. You will be taking the Introduction to Programming module alongside this one. That module will focus on teaching you how to use Java. In this module, you will have a chance to apply what you are learning.
For more about how to use Java in this course, see the Coding section.
Some of the content is also available for Python.