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Dina Yagodich

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  1. Bernoulli substitution

    Entry #180
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    I was searching for a good scenario to demonstrate the type of problem that a Bernoulli substitution would solve... only to find out that it was more a cool exercise that three different mathematicians played around with, rather than modeling something real.  I now wonder what is the benefit...

  2. Follow up on Kool-Aid scenario

    Entry #179
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    As students are completing the third section on their own, I'm getting many panicked emails -- that they are getting weird, large or small numbers.  I tell them to graph it to see if it matches what they think should happen.  And "real life is not as pretty as fake problems in...

  3. Weeks 2 and 3

    Entry #178
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    Week two -- I warned students to watch the 'how to solve separable equations' video I had posted prior to class.  In the workshop class, we worked on the 'Dog drug' scenario.  I broke them into groups of 4 and told them to dig in! As I experience every year I do this --...

  4. Week 1 went well!

    Entry #177
    Dina Yagodich
    2 comments

    The students completed the first two scenarios in the remote class on the hotel population -- without new guests being added and then with new guests being added.  They had to complete the 'with new guests being added' with 5 different initial values to show a nice family of curves...

  6. Half way through Week 5

    Entry #171
    Dina Yagodich
    2 comments

    Somehow this semester is just zipping by - it's hard to believe we are in the middle of Week 5! The adapted 1-111 Spread of Information is uploaded to the Google Drive I've shared here -- this was mentioned in my Week 2 Blog post:...

  7. Week 2

    Entry #168
    Dina Yagodich
    1 comments

    It's the end of week two! The end of week one was focused on direction fields -- I tell students about the following links: Slopes (for Apple...

  8. Spring 2020!

    Entry #167
    Dina Yagodich
    1 comments

    I'm fresh off of the JMM meetings where I helped with one of the Minicourses on SIMIODE.  I met some great new people and reconnected with old friends (not age, but how long I've known them.)  This is a great community - I'm always learning new things.  I also came back...

  9. Week 2 - How it's going!

    Entry #140
    Dina Yagodich
    1 comments

    I've had three classes so far this semester (managed to get a snow day in week 1...).  Here's an update. Day 1: M&M modeling and basic definitions, Precalc/Calc I/Calc II review  Day 2: Verifying Solutions and Initial Value Problems (IVPs), Basic Modeling, Direction...

  10. The day before school starts...

    Entry #137
    Dina Yagodich
    2 comments

    I've got my m&m's ready to go!  Just finished my syllabus (file:Yagodich_D_MA213-1_Spring_2019.docx not found), my course outline (file:MA213_Sping_19-1_Tentative_Course_Outline.docx not found) and my first quiz (file:Quiz1.tex not found).  It's a take home quiz...

  11. Welcome to Spring 2019!

    Entry #136
    Dina Yagodich
    2 comments

    I'll be posting a few ideas/thoughts that came out of attending the JMM (Joint Math Meetings) in Baltimore last week.  There are some changes I am going to make to my classes this semester from what I've learned.  But first, I would like to answer a question that I received...

  12. Approaching the midterm

    Entry #17
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    I am really enjoying the Lebl book -- there is no teacher solution, but when I was stuck on a problem, a quick email to the author got resolution.  I used the Schaums book for that section.  I really like the way the Lebl book handles homogeneous second-order linear ODEs as well as...

  13. This week in Diff Eq...

    Entry #16
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    I am teaching Exact equations and substitution methods this week.  I wasn't able to find a good modeling activity, so I won't be doing modeling specifically this week.  Next week I will be doing numerical analysis, so I hope to find a good modeling project. The textbooks I am...

  14. Day 3 of using modeling

    Entry #10
    Dina Yagodich
    0 comments

    Today I taught how to solve 1st order diff eqs using the integration factor.  This is one I derive because I think it's too magical to say "use mu = e^(integral P(x) dx)".  My favorite and most successful way of teaching this is to show the steps, say, "Hey,...

  15. Open Source for the first time

    Entry #8
    Dina Yagodich
    1 comments

    This semester, I have switched from Zill's book to an open source book.  I liked Zill - but it cost students over $200.  Since I teach at a community college where the class itself is only about $400, having a book half the cost of the course seemed excessive. The book I am...