Course Policies Math 401 Senior Seminar, Fall 2026

Overview

This course will be structured somewhat differently from most, if not all, of the math courses you have taken thus far in your career. We will not follow a textbook or even have a predetermined set of content that we will cover. Instead, there are three major areas of focus:

• You will have the opportunity to reflect on your mathematical experiences at Wheaton, how they have shaped you, and the ways in which you will continue to engage with mathematics after graduation.
• You will have the opportunity to practice, and refine, mathematical presentations, both short individual presentations and longer group presentations.
• You will explore some mathematical topics that do not fit neatly into the curriculum, both topics of your choosing through your presentations and book review, and a few topics from Number Theory and Voting Theory that I will introduce during class.

Many of the class meetings will be structured with group work and peer evaluations to help you refine and polish your presentations and papers.

This is going to be a really fun semester! I think we're going to learn a lot from each other.

Evaluation

Your final grade will be determined by

Class Engagement/Participation, including Canvas forum posts, informal class presentations, and potentially problem sets	35%
Papers, including your Pre-Wheaton Automathography, a Book Review, and your Wheaton Automathography reflecting on your entire undergraduate math experience	25%
Presentations, including a short Fun Fact Presentation early in the semester and a substantial Group Presentation on a topic you have researched toward the end of the semester	40%

Getting Help

Please come see me during my drop-in office hours! No appointment necessary! If you have a conflict and cannot make my office hours, please email me, and we can set up an appointment for another time.

The Honor Code

We operate under the Wheaton Honor Code for all of your academic work at Wheaton. This carries certain freedoms and responsibilities for both you as a student and me as a professor. I take this quite seriously.

Most likely, no Honor Code issues will arise this semester. If you are uncertain about whether a particular situation falls under the Honor Code, then please consult with me. However, if an Honor Code issue does come up, I will assume that you are prepared for the full consequences. Remember that you should write out, and sign, the following statement on all course work:

"I have abided by the Wheaton College Honor Code in this work."

Use of Artificial Intelligence

We will have a class discussion early in the semester to develop the policy for the appropriate use of AI tools and applications (such as Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, etc) in this course. Once we have established the policy, I will post it here.

Additional Resources on Campus

Wheaton maintains a document of Resources and Support - Fall 2026 that contains more information about available campus resources, such as Academic Advising, Accessibility Services, the Life and Career Design Institute, the Counseling Center, etc.