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How the lessons are used:

C&M lessons are designed to give students an opportunity to apply what they have learned to real world problems. A typical mathematics homework problem may ask a student to find the volume enclosed by a function rotated around the z axis. The C&M version of this problem involves calculating how long a city's water supply will last if the water level in the storage tank is defined by a certain function. By using real world examples, students learn that math is something more than a bunch of formulas that can be forgotten shortly after class. This perspective places "doing" at the top of the learning list. Students are encouraged and expected to approach the course materials as they deem best.

Each individual lesson within a C&M course is divided into three parts, named Basics, Tutorials, and Give It a Try. When a student is assigned a new homework, rather than listening to a lecture, the students go directly to the computer to begin the Basics, investigating the concepts and skills on their own or with a group.

The Basics have carefully explained examples of each concept that the lesson is teaching. This is where a lot of the new vocabulary is introduced.

In the Tutorials, there are more in-depth examples, and the student is encouraged to interact with the examples. One of the benefits of using a tool such as Mathematica is that the student can simply change a few numbers and watch the examples change drastically. This allows the student to examine theorems more closely that would only be touched on, not experimented with, in a textbook class.

The homeworks for a lesson is selected from the Give It a Try notebook. The problems are similar to those in the Basics and Tutorials, but in this case, the answers are not given. The instructor assigns certain problems from the Give It a Try section for individual and/or group homework. The student and/or group completes the assigned problems using the Basics and Tutorials as a reference and by interacting with other students, the mentors on hotline, and the student's individual mentor. Although the Basics and the Tutorials introduce the concepts and skills there are several approches students take. Many students read and investigate all of the material discussed in the Basics and Tutorials and then apply this information to the questions in Give It a Try. Other students begin with the homework questions in the Give It a Try and then investigate relavent explanations as they need them. Our goal is understanding the material.

After finishing the electronic lessons, students will then do a Literacy Sheet (LitSheet) for the lesson. The LitSheets are designed to test the students' understanding of the lesson and their ability to do the problems by hand. Because of this, they are less involved as the computer problems. Typically, the LitSheets consist of 10 to 12 problems that cover hand calculations and explanation of concepts.