Anatomy of Algebra 00 Introduction
Channel: Anatomy of Algebra
Date: 2020-08-13

This video sets up my new series, Anatomy of Algebra. No algebra here, just background about the course this series relates to.

I'm teaching a first-year "Legacy" course in the UNM Honors College this semester, Legacy of Algebra. Since we're all online anyway, I'm looking for ways to make our—starting with my—work touch the outside world, something I haven't done much with my math teaching yet.

It's a bit tough to imagine getting new students into this subject, the multifarious and long-reaching influence and development of "algebra, not just as spectators but participants, without our usual staple of in-person meetings. My normal style is Socratic and student-centered. So as you'll see, a prepared lecture is not my usual bag here.

There's a lot of great stuff out there to read, even a lot more than I found when I first put the course together in 2010 or so. But still, I hope a more personal message, pitched at where students are likely to be, may help them find enough interest to dig in. 

That's too why I'm here on YouTube, and making a simple talking-head instead of simply recommending some of the more accomplished math popularizers who ply their wares here. Not that I could make something as polished as they do. But I hope my style is seen as "heck, I could do better than this", thus encouraging participation. 

If you're still reading and in this course, I hope we enjoy our time together and that I can make "Legacy" as important for you as it was for me so long ago. If you're not in this course, glad to have you too. In my other life, it has long felt like an important commitment to "put stuff out there" for people to find. Lord knows I've learned a lot more than I ever could have hoped, here on the Tube. 

Hope you enjoy the series!

Actually, this written description is more to the point than the video itself. I'm still learning the spoken word.