Re: [Fhsst-authors] Maths Examples, again

[Mark Horner]

Hi Sam

Sounds good.

You are going to have to find the fine line between illustrating 
concepts and burying them in noise. :)

My thoughts on the ordering (all from physics):

I am in favour of the first application of the concept being completely 
trivial and located where the concept is expained - in physics just plug 
in the numbers to get the answer type things. Maths is a little 
different but what you propose is in the same vein.

The worked examples, I think, should have a build up in complexity. For 
example (from physics), a plug-and-crunch question, then a plug-n-crunch 
question with only one difference (a change of units, a simple 
rearrangement of the equation etc) and then the more realistic 
questions, illustrating how they contain simple plug-n-crunch sub-questions.

Everything else is a bonus.

Cheers,

Mark


Sam Halliday wrote:
> hello everybody,
>
> i think i have solved the examples problem for maths. i don't want to
> clutter the main text with lots of worked examples... but examples are
> absolutely necessary for some explanations.
>
> so what i propose is that the examples are done like this:
>
>  - "examples" in the main text which are examples plain and simple. they
> show how something is an example of that section's generalisation and do a
> few calculations. these serve only to show how things work, not how to
> answer exam questions. they should just flow as if they really are part of
> the main text, but i might make an environment which is slightly shaded and
> smaller text.
>
>  - "worked examples" at the end of each section/chapter, which pose a
> problem and guide the student through the solution in detailed steps, like
> in physics. these are a lot bulkier than the "examples" and they are also
> more aimed at helping out for exam preparation.
>
>  - "exercises" at the end of each section/chapter, with solutions at the
> end of the book.
>
> what do people think?
>
> if this works out, ill see about working an implementation into the
> structure. at the moment i am still pulling all the material we have into
> the syllabus structure. and all worked examples are going into a file named
> "maths/examples.tex" until that (and this) gets worked out.
>
> cheers,
> Sam
>
>
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