Basic Requirements for Math HTML Projects

  1. Freshmen will pick one partner, if possible, to collaborate with.
  2. Since presentations dates are Tue. Dec. 3—Thu. Dec. 5, presentation order is not considered critical, but will normally proceed in the order listed.
    1. For Geometry the topics are biographies of famous Geometers. Creating a web page as specified below is part and parcel of this project.
  3. All partners and topics must be selected by Friday, November 1, 2002 or will be assigned.
  4. Students will create an HTML file. The file must be formatted as discussed below. It should be about 2 or 4 pages in a format (font size, text density, and style) similar to the 15 numbers and 8 statistics lectures already available.
  5. Students will present their topic to the class in a 6 to 8 minute presentation. This is a presentation. Reading of your web page is not allowed. Powerpoint and such may not be available.
  6. Most biographies are for people not done before. Those which were (Pythagoras, Gauss, Dedekind, Riemann, Hilbert) might check with last year's presentors for their paper and critique. Many were worse than the web page the year before which may be available online. Plans have been to make copies of each appropriate presentation for each student. Important project material will be tested on semester exams.
  7. Your presentation should focus on 3 to 5 specific questions concerning your topic. E-mail these to calkins@andrews.edu before Nov. 15 for approval. Be sure to answer these questions.
  8. All necessary additions, corrections, and final alterations shall be made to your web page by Friday, Dec. 13, 2001 and stored in the PC in SH100 in the directory \calkins\www\math\biograph.
  9. All information collected should be "common knowledge", that is widely available in most common sources. Thus references are not required and are actually to be avoided in the final product. However, good research principles dictates that you retain such information at least until the project is completed, accepted, and graded.
  10. File changes, if from a prior year, should not be frivolous but adhere to the file format requirements listed below. Even more so than reading, this was the biggest problem last year. Roughly 50% of the web page should focus on their mathematics, 25% on how their work related to others, leaving no more than 25% to cover personal aspects.

File Formatting Requirements for these Projects

HTML files are "flat ASCII" files, otherwise known as text files. They thus differ from many word processor files which may have "control" or other "unprintable" characters. The following are requirements and not guidelines—failure to follow them will severely impact your final grade assignment. Some may seem capricious and arbitrary, but are present to ensure long-term preservation and availability over a wide range of operating environments and presentation formats.
  1. Your file will be named either "bioxxxxx.htm", where xxxxx is up to a 5 letter abbreviation for the person's last name or the topic. Only lower case letters may appear in the file name. Do not change the name of the file if one is given you. The file name will thus not exceed the former DOS "8.3" file name format. If any additional files are used, they must adhere to this naming convention, except the last "x" in the file name above may be replaced with a digit.
  2. No JAVA, JAVAScript, TCL, CGI, or other similar HTML language extensions are allowed. No FRAMES are allowed. You should focus on the content, not endlessly on such distractions.
  3. Focus on content and structure, especially emphasizing facts to remember.
  4. Double-check your spelling and your facts---we intend to!
  5. Only GIF/JPG files for special characters already in http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/webtexts may be used. Any other graphics files must be original work with all rights transferred, OR a link established to a reliable source. Reliable means likely to be there for the next 50 years as well as correct/accurate. An ALT="[graphic description]" entry must be included for each graphic.
  6. No background colors are allowed. Students tend to pick dark colors which do not show up well on the data video projector. Also, no specification for text/link color is allowed (no white text!).
  7. Several links to relevant web resources should be provided.
  8. "Records" should not exceed 99 characters, thus ensuring editting to be a one dimensional process.
  9. HTML tags shall all be in upper case so they can be easily ignored while editting the text.
  10. File heading, footing, and table tags should be specified exactly as displayed below. The files should thus not take on a C program nature, where white space detracts from the content.
  11. Other specifications may be added as necessary.

File Preamble

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Biography of xxxxx</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<A HREF="biotoc.htm">Back to the Table of Contents</A>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Biographies of Mathematicians - xxxxx</H1>

Tables for important facts

The most important facts to remember should be blue-boxed exactly as below.

<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BGCOLOR=LIGHTBLUE CELLPADDING=5><TD ALIGN=CENTER>
The most important facts to remember should be blue-boxed exactly as below. </TD></TABLE><P>

File Postamble

The file should conclude with the following information. You may enclose project, yyyyy, and zzzzz with links to your version of the paper and your corresponding home pages. xxxxx is replaced by part of the mathematician's last name. This should appear below last year's entry–do not replace. Use one line per year, with breaks not paragraphs. If prior students no longer have an AU account, remove their link.

This project was prepared and presented by students yyyyy and zzzzz in 2000.

<HR><UL>
<LI>e-mail: <A HREF="mailto:calkins@andrews.edu">calkins@andrews.edu</A>
<LI>voice/mail: 269 471-6629/ BCM&S Smith Hall 106; Andrews University;
        <A HREF="http://www.andrews.edu/x-location.html"> Berrien Springs</A>,
<LI><B>classroom:</B> 269 471-6646; Smith Hall 100/<B>FAX:</B> 269 471-3713; MI, 49104-0140
<LI><A HREF="http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/index.htm">home:</A> 269 473-2572; 610 N Main;
        <A HREF="http://www.andrews.edu/x-location.html"> Berrien Springs,</A> MI 49103-1013
<LI><A HREF="file:///c|/calkins/www/math/biograph/bioxxxxx.htm">URL</A>:
        <A HREF="http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/bioxxxxx.htm">
        http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/biograph/bioxxxxx.htm</A>
<LI>Copyright ©2002, Berrien County MSC. Revised on or after November 15, 2002.
</UL></BODY></HTML>

Syllabus Assignments Numbers Stat. Intro. Geometry Biographies