Student quotes from MAT289.23 (now MAT 268):

This has been my favorite class in my math career at ISU.  It really made me feel I was on the cutting edge of the world of mathematics, with that I feel much more confident as a mathematician as opposed to just a teacher specializing in math.

The course definitely broadened my knowledge of mathematics and forced me to think outside of the box. Although the research that we did was not extensive, it was extremely challenging for me because I had never done anything quite like it before. As a student who plans to pursue higher degrees, this was an excellent course to begin my preparation for what graduate school might be like. I loved that we participated in the Research Symposium as a class because I may not have taken that opportunity on my own, and I now know how to prepare advanced mathematical presentations.

I really enjoyed the course.  I loved being able to research and was very pleased with what I found.  More importantly, I loved the challenges this course gave me.

It was a really interesting course, and I learned so much in so little time. We covered a vast array of topics, most of which I had never been introduced to. In fact, I don't think I ever would have learned about them if I hadn't taken this class. Overall, it made me more excited to be going into this field.

As I would like to someday teach mathematics at some level (and I have tutored in the past), I feel that the course provided some pedagogical tools that are not encountered in a typical mathematics course.  Because contemporary mathematics education desires teachers who present probing questions to the student instead of simply lecturing, a course such as MAT 289.23 taught us to become one of these questioning teachers and learners.  In other math courses, there is an expectation that the instructor either knows the answer or the method for obtaining the answer, so 289.23 provided a different type of learning experience.

I felt it helped me in figuring out how to generalize ideas in mathematics & helped me pursue goals in research but did not stress me out.

I learned to try and generalize everything, and even consider "what if we do this?"

I (now) have a deeper understanding of math concepts. I learned things that I don't think I would have ever learned had I not taken this course.

I never thought I would be this excited about math and research!

I expected that we would be doing research of other people's work in mathematics. I actually expected some kind of term paper assignment. I was pleasantly surprised that we got to conduct our own research.