Abstract

Citation

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Winkel, B. (2023). 2013-Brian_Winkel-Browsing_Your_Way_to_Better_Teaching. SIMIODE, QUBES Educational Resources. doi:10.25334/9JQJ-QB84

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Article Context

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Winkel, Brian. 2013. Browsing Your Way to Better Teaching, PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 23:3, 274-290

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We describe the use of browsing and searching (in libraries, on-line, inside sources, at meetings, in abstracts, etc.) as a way to stimulate the teacher of undergraduate mathematics, specifically in differential equations. The approach works in all other areas of mathematics. Browsing can   help build new and refreshing teaching materials based on how mathematics is used and explored in places other than mathematics. These ``other'' places are where almost all of our students will be going after they study with us and we (1) should know about their journey and arrival points and (2) understand the disciplinary approaches for those areas which sent these students to us in the first place for their mathematics studies.  We describe a personal browsing experience that spanned almost 40 years and proved to be very worthwhile in finding applications of differential to modeling LSD in the human body.