Workshops
The following workshops are not restricted to math students – anyone wanting/needing a refresher in any of the particular math topics listed below is welcome.
Workshops on additional topics can also be created. Does your course involve a quantitative component relying on prerequisite math skills? If so, please contact Tina Balfour and maybe a workshop can be designed to meet your class' specific needs. You can also request a workshop.
All workshops offered by Mathematics and Statistics Learning Support (MaSt) are free to registered Laurier students. Workshops are available on the Waterloo and Brantford campuses.
Part 1: Making the Grade in Your Math Course
Why is studying math different from studying other subjects? Why is studying math at university different from high school? We'll discuss these questions, as well as specific strategies for studying math and for developing good time management skills.
Part 2: Writing a Math Exam: Test-Taking Strategies
Knowing the content of a course is only part of what's required to write a math exam. Tips for preparing to write your test and for actually writing the test itself will be discussed.
Each of the following workshops are offered a number of times during Fall and Winter terms. All workshops take place in room LH1018-A, Lazaridis Hall
Part 1: Working with Functions
Do you remember the difference between a function and a relation? Is there a difference? Come out to one of these workshops and we'll review function basics, including domain and range; graphing and transformations; and inverse functions.
Part 2: Understanding Exponentials and Logarithms
What does a "logarithm" actually represent anyway? Attend this session to review the exponential and logarithmic functions and use relevant properties to simplify expressions and solve equations.
Part 3: Working with Trigonometric Functions
We will review right-angled trigonometry and discuss trigonometric functions. Fundamentals covered include degree versus radian measure, special angles and their sine, cosine and tangent ratios, and using the CAST (cosine, all, sine, tangent) rule to help determine such ratios of angles outside the 0o to 90o interval. Relevant properties/identities will then be used to simplify expressions and solve equations involving trigonometric terms.
A Review of Trigonometry
We will review the fundamentals of trigonometry. Concepts covered include those necessary to solve triangles: Pythagorean theorem, as well as "Soh Cah Toa", sine and cosine laws. This review material will be especially useful for those working with vectors.
A Review of Integration
Come out to this workshop to review the key integration formulae and techniques covered in your first year calculus course. This refresher has been designed for students in MA104, MA201, MA205, and ST230/259/260, but all are welcome to attend either session!
A Review of Proof Structures
This refresher has been designed for students in MA215, MA222, MA238 and MA250, but anyone needing to review the core concepts from MA121 is welcome. Various methods of proving conditional and biconditional statements (as well as reminding you what these are!) will be covered.
Help! I have to take Stats!
This seminar has been created to prepare students having to take a statistics (also known as research methods) course as part of their program requirements. In particular, it is directed to students in BA programs with no 100-level math course requirements.
The workshop will review such fundamentals as simplifying numeric expressions (involving fractions, exponents and roots), solving equations, and using formula with examples taken from the study of statistics.