Getting Started: How to Prepare for the First Day of Class

Welcome to Math 2B: Introduction to Applied Linear Algebra at Foothill College with Jeff Anderson. For more about Math 2B at Foothill College, please see Foothill's Math Department website. In the space below, I provide you with electronic copies of our course resources for my Math 2B courses.

Resources for the current quarter

Course Syllabus:       Jeff Anderson’s Winter 2025 Course Syllabus

Meeting Schedule:   Winter 2025, Math 2B M/W 1:30PM, Portfolio Meeting Schedule
Example Learning Conference Meeting Schedule

Math Discord: Winter 2025, Math2B Discord Channel

Flipped Learning:         Winter 2025, Math 2B Flipped Classroom Activity List (v09/22/2024)

Content Calendar:        Winter 2025 Math 2B Beginner Calendar (.pdf)
Winter 2025 Math 2B Intermediate Calendar (.pdf)
Winter 2025 Math 2B Advanced Calendar (.pdf)

Course Emails: Winter 2025 Jeff’s First Welcome Email (Sent on Wed 08/28/2024)
Jeff’s Add Code Email (Sent on 04/06/2024)

General Learning Resources

Course Webpage FAQs: Jeff’s Course Website FAQs
Attendance FAQs: Jeff’s Attendance FAQs
Flipped Learning FAQs: Jeff’s Flipped Learning FAQs
Grading FAQs:       Jeff’s Grading FAQs
List of Final Deliverables for Your Learning Portfolio (updated on 12/13/2024)
Team Learning FAQs: Jeff’s Team Learning FAQs
Add Code Policy: Jeff’s Add Code Policy

Conquering College: Lab 1 Prompt
Lab 2 Prompt
Lab 3 Prompt
Lab 4 Prompt

Learning Reflections: Mid-Term Learning Self Evaluation Activity ( .docx ) or ( .pdf ) - due at start of week 6
Final Learning Self Evaluation Activity ( .docx ) or ( .pdf ) - due during final meeting

Final Course Eval: Fall 2024, Math 2B, Final Course Evaluation (Google Forms Survey)
A. Once you complete this survey, please take a snapshot of the confirmation page.
B. Show your snapshot of this page to Jeff to confirm you’ve finished this work.

More Linear Algebra:   Applied Linear Algebra: How to Keep Learning Guide (v09/22/2024)
Take Math 2BL at Foothill College in Winter and Spring 2025 (.pdf)
Take Engr 11 at Footihll College in Winter or Spring 2025 (.pdf)

Course Learning Objectives

Many previous students have asked me what I plan to test on. To answer this question, I have a drafted list of all topics that might be covered on in-class quizzes. I plan to ask you to demonstrate deep conceptual understanding of the ideas we study. For more about the exact content I want you to study and master, please watch our course videos. To access a master list of the videos we use in this course, please click on the link below:

Anderson’s Master List of Applied Linear Algebra Videos (.pdf)

To access more information on the type of questions I want you to be able to answer in each individual lesson, click on the link below:

Math 2B Lesson-by-Lesson Content-Specific Learning Objectives

This list should give you a very good idea of the ideas you might want to focus on in each lesson of this class while you are writing your lesson notes. Also, as you prepare for your in-class exams, you can use this list to focus your attention on the most relevant topics that we study in this class. 

Math 2B Content Learning Resources

In Math 2B, we will study the 6 fundamental problems of applied linear algebra. Below I include links to all of my lesson notes that I have written for this course. May you have as much fun reading as I do when I write.

Math 2B: Learning Portfolios

Please click the button below to download and read my first draft description for our Math 2B Learning Portfolio Practice.

Math 2B: Exam Resources

Timed exams don't reveal anything meaningful about learning. Instead, timed exams measure a students ability to successfully leverage test-taking strategies, manage anxiety, and solve problems under pressure. I also find that timed exams are good predictors of racial and socio-economic factors instead of genuine learning. None of this is necessarily directly correlated to a students actual learning in my class.

At this point in my teaching career, I am focused on building a much more meaningful mechanism to measure student learning. For interested readers, I provide a much more thorough discussion of how I think about learning in the Math 2B course syllabus. In that document, I highlight some of the major aspects of learning that I plan to measure as I collect evidence that I’ll use to assign a final grade.

I am currently focused on helping my students document their learning via a learning portfolio. To assess and guide each student, I plan to look at a sample of that work. I will use my experiences evaluating that sample as part of the evidence I collect in assigning final grades in this class. Please stay tuned : I plan to show great examples of student portfolios from this class in the future. The principles of my

With all this said, I spend many years using student performance on in-class timed exams as a proxy measurement for authentic learning. Below are some of the artifacts of that practice. Contained in these exams are some interesting problems. My hope is this will help my current and future students decide on some problems to study more deeply as they put together their learning portfolios.