Probability Theory - Math 170A/1 - Spring 06

Reading Assignments

Subject to Change

The reading assignments is a significant component of this course, namely 10% of your final grade, as much as the writing assignment. Learning theory tells us that it is better to be exposed to concepts multiple times, and in multiple forms. The weight given to the reading assignments is to encourage this.

Instructions and motivations.

• Complete each reading assignment (listed below) before lecture.
• Write a blog entry. The blog entry has two parts:
  1. Difficult Answer the question "What was the most difficult part of the material for you?". Note that "nothing" is not an acceptable answer. If nothing challenges you, then you should think about the material at a deeper level and generate some honest questions.
  2. Reflective Write something reflective about the reading. This could be the answer to the question "What was the most interesting part of the material?" or "How does this material connect to something else you have learned in mathematics?" or "How is this material useful/relevant to your intellectual or career interests?" or something else.
  Answer the above two parts separately, labeling each part clearly according to Difficult and Reflective.
• The blog posting is due by midnight on the evening before each lecture (i.e. on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights). The point here is to get you to reflect on what you have read before you listen to me lecture on it. This approach is based on a pedagogical theory called "Just-In-Time Teaching".
• Many, but not all of your responses will be graded, according to the following scheme:
  0 points: No blog submission on time.
  1 point: Submission of both parts, Difficult and Reflective, on time, but posting Difficult is irrelevant, or does not sufficiently show that you have done the reading.
  2 points: Submission of both parts, Difficult and Reflective, on time, and part Difficult shows you have done the reading and thought about it.

  An example of a good (2 points worth) posting is: having read section 1.10 in the text:
  

  1. Difficult In Solution I, I understand how (and why?) they define the events A and B, and I think I do understand how they conclude "A if and only if B", but why does that mean that A=B?, because the way they defined A and B makes me understand that they are different.
     In the Remark,what is meant by smaller sample space? What are the different sample spaces and why should there be different ones anyways?
  2. Reflective This was a good example to see (even though I do not yet fully understand it) that and how probability problems can be looked at very differently to get two seemingly very different ways to solve the problem.

Section and/or Page(s)	To Be Read for the lecture on
0.1, 0.2, 0.5-0.7	voluntary ... for your interest, no blog entry due
0.3, 0.4, p.15 (bottom) - 23 1.1, 1.2	4/5/06
1.3, 1.4	4/7/06
1.8, 1.9	4/10/06
2.1 (skip last paragraph), 2.7	4/12/06
2.2, 2.13	4/14/06
3.1, 3.2	4/17/06
3.3, 3.12	4/19/06
4.1, 4.2	4/21/06
Nothing	4/24/06
4.3	4/26/06
4.8, 4.9(a)I,(b)	5/1/06
4.10	5/3/06
4.4, 4.9(c)	5/5/06
5.1	5/8/06
5.2, 5.11(a), (b)	5/10/06
5.3	5/12/06
5.4	5/15/06
5.5 until p.179, line 10 (stop at conditional expectation), 7.1 until p.291, Example 4 exclusively	5/17/06
Rest of 7.1	5/22/06
7.2	5/24/06
7.4	5/26/06
8.1	5/31/06
8.2	6/2/06
8.3	6/5/06
8.4	6/7/06