PURPOSE:

To prepare students to teach mathematics at the secondary and junior college levels. Mathematics teachers and prospective mathematics teachers at the secondary level are a principal audience for this degree.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:

All pertinent regulations set forth in the Graduate Studies Bulletin and the Bulletin of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics must be observed. The student must consult the departmental Director of Graduate Studies prior to beginning his/her graduate program so that proper records may be established within the department. It is the student's responsibility to be informed about current degree requirements. It is the joint responsibility of the student and the student's advisor to maintain communications and to track the student's progress toward meeting those requirements.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

To be admitted to the program, a student must have completed a bachelor's degree with a 3.0 GPA over the last 60 hours of all course work and should have a good background in mathematics. A student need not have majored in mathematics to be admitted. However, it is expected that the student has completed at least 9 hours of mathematics at the junior or senior level, preferably in courses such as abstract algebra, linear algebra, advanced calculus, differential equations, or geometry.

The program requires 33 semester hours of course work with at least 24 semester hours at the 5000 level or above, and including:

A minimum of 21 semesters hours in mathematics with at least 15 semester hours at the 5000 level or above. A 3-semester hour Master's tutorial. The program may include up to 9 semester hours of elective course work approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

FORMAT:

This will be primarily a distance education program; the courses will be offered online through WEB-CT and it will be possible to complete the program in that format. It will also be possible to take on-campus courses as an alternative to the web-based courses.

ONLINE COURSES:

MATH 5331: LINEAR ALGEBRA WITH APPLICATIONS, Two semesters of calculus or consent of instructor. Systems of linear equations, matrices, vector spaces, linear independence and linear dependence, determinants, eigenvalues; applications of the linear algebra concepts will be illustrated by a variety of projects.

MATH 5332: DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS. Prerequisite: MATH 5331 or consent of instructor. Linear and nonlinear systems of ordinary differential equations; existence, uniqueness and stability of solutions; initial value problems; higher dimensional systems; Laplace transforms. Theory and applications illustrated by computer assignments and by projects.

MATH 5333: ANALYSIS. Prerequisite: two semesters of calculus or consent of instructor. A survey of the concepts of limit, continuity, differentiation and integration for functions of one variable and functions of several variables; selected applications are used to motivate and to illustrate the concepts.

MATH 5382: PROBABILITY Prerequisites: Two semesters of calculus and one semester of linear algebra, or consent of instructor. Sample spaces, events and axioms of probability; basic discrete and continuous distributions and their relationships; Markov chains, Poisson processes and renewal processes; applications.

MATH 5383: NUMBER THEORY Prerequisite: two semesters of calculus or consent of instructor. Divisibility and factorization, linear Diophantine equations, congruences and applications, solving linear congruences, primes of special forms, the Chinese remainder theorem, multiplicative orders, the Euler function, primitive roots, quadratic congruences, representation problems and continued fractions.

MATH 5385: STATISTICS. Prerequisites: Two semesters of calculus, or consent of instructor. Data collection and types of data, descriptive statistics, probability, estimation, model assessment, regression, analysis of categorical data, analysis of variance. Computing assignments using a prescribed software package (e.g., EXCEL, Minitab) will be given.

MATH 5386: REGRESSION AND LINEAR MODELS. Prerequisites: Two semesters of calculus, one semester of linear algebra, and MATH 5385, or consent of instructor. Simple and multiple linear regression, linear models, inferences from the normal error model, regression diagnostics and robust regression, computing assignments with Matlab, R, Minitab, or SAS.

Courses under development:

MATH 53XX: GEOMETRY/TOPOLOGY

MATH 53XX: MODERN ALGEBRA

MATH 53XX: MATHEMATICAL MODELING

MATH 53XX: TECHNOLOGY IN MATHEMATICS CLASSES

COMPLETION OF THE PROGRAM:

The Department of Mathematics will offer at least two of these courses each semester during the academic year, and at least one course during the summer sessions. It will be possible to complete the program in two years by taking two courses each semester for two academic years, and one course in the corresponding summer sessions.

For more detailed information on MAM program, please contact Dr. Garret Etgen: etgen@math.uh.edu