MOSAIC Calculus: Workbook

Author

Daniel Kaplan

Published

September 16, 2024

Preface

\[ \newcommand{\dnorm}{\text{dnorm}} \newcommand{\pnorm}{\text{pnorm}} \newcommand{\recip}{\text{recip}} \]

This workbook is a companion to the MOSAIC Calculus textbook. The workbook follows the textbook on a chapter-by-chapter basis. The workbook has three sections for each chapter:

  1. Reading questions designed to be approachable to a person who has read the chapter for the first time and is able to use the chapter as a reference. A few reading questions ask for calculations, but most are about the relationship between concepts. Attempting the reading questions will help guide you on a second reading of the textbook chapter. Multiple-choice reading questions provide instant feedback. This isn’t to help you find the correct answer but to help you better understand the question.

  2. Review questions are typically at a more technical level than the reading questions. They are useful for checking your progress after a second reading of the chapter, or reviewing concepts at the end of a Block or before an exam. (Your instructor won’t necessarily pose exam questions based on the review questions!) All review questions are configured to give instant feedback to help you distinguish between topic you have already mastered and those for which gaining mastery is still a work in progress. Many review questions provide formative feedback in response to a wrong choice.

  3. A primary purpose of Exercises is to guide you to spend “time on task” studying a topic. Reading and re-reading chapters is a good start to learning, but reinforcement comes from attempting to answer questions. Sometimes feedback is provided, often for the first question in a series to help orient you to what the exercise is about.

In many chapters, some of the exercises are denoted as “Activities.” Some of the activities can make good in-class group work. Others provide opportunity for a more open-ended approach, or are meant to prompt discussion either in class or in a study group. Only occasional feedback is provided.

You will encounter three main types of interactive components among the questions and exercises. First, interactive computing is built in to each document using an “active R chunk” environment that runs in the browser. This means that you do not need to install any software (other than your browser!) to be able to work the computations. Active R chunk lst-index-rchunk is an example. Take note that when you first load a chapter or sub-chapter, the browser will do some work which will take a minute or so (for those with suitable internet connectivity). After the first such experience, the process will generally be faster the next time and you may eventually not even notice the delay.

Active R chunk 1

Try editing the contents of Active R chunk lst-index-rchunk, perhaps to change the color to magenta. Beginners are prone to making mistakes in writing R expressions; stick with it and you’ll get better, especially as the syntax becomes more familiar.

Another interactive feature of this workbook is multiple-choice questions like Figure fig-index-rchunk.

Figure 1
  1. What time is it when the sky first starts to brighten?
sunrise       sunset       noon      

question id: index-question-1

In many questions, one or more textboxes is provided, like this:

question id: index-essay-1

The following is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO NOTE.

For many purposes, e.g. reviewing or handing in your work, you will want to save a document with the contents of your active R chunks, your essays, or your multiple-choice selections. There are two ways to do this.

  1. Print the contents of your browser tab to a PDF format. This will capture the appearance of the entire section. You may want to store the resulting PDF file on your own computer, or upload it to an instructor’s portal for grading. So long as you don’t print the PDF to paper, the environmental consequences of the print-to-PDF method are inconsequential.

  2. Use the “collect your answers” button at the bottom of each sub-chapter. This will place a text string in your clipboard with the contents of your active R chunks, multiple choice answers and essays. Now comes the important part: What to do with the string that is now in your clipboard?

Submit the string on a web portal provided by your instructor. Many course-support software systems provide a mechanism for this. The string is in a hard-for-a-human-to-read format, but it can readily be processed by software by your instructor. The system for collecting and processing is powered by a author-oriented R package called {devoirs}. In many circumstances, the instructor may find it advantageous to set up a portal using generic facilities such as a Google Forms document. (Instructors: See the {devoirs} package documentation.)

No answers yet collected