Common Sense Mathematics

Ten years from now, what do you want or expect your students to remember from your course? Rather than the particular mathematics chosen for the curriculum, what really matters will be how students approach a problem using the tools they carry with them – common sense and common knowledge. Using this text, students will work regularly with real data in moderately complex everyday contexts, using mathematics as a tool and common sense as a guide. The focus is on problems which arise from the news of the day and the topics that will matter to students, such as credit card debt, loans, tax and bills. By augmenting common sense and some mathematics with instruction on critical use of spreadsheets and the internet, students are provided with tools they can take with them beyond the classroom and into later life.

Ethan D. Bolker completed his PhD in mathematics at Harvard University, after which he became an instructor at Princeton University and an Assistant and Associate Professor at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania. In 1972, he became a Full Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He retired in 2014. While at the University of Massachusetts, he chaired the joint Mathematics and Computer Science Departments for twelve years. He earned the Chancellor's Award for Scholarship in 1979 and for Teaching in 2003.

Maura B. Mast became Dean of Fordham College, Rose Hill, in 2015. She is the first woman to be Dean of the College and the first Dean with a background in science and mathematics. Prior to moving to Fordham, she was Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Dr Mast has been recognised on several occasions for her teaching abilities. She has received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the University of North Carolina, the College of Natural Sciences Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence from the University of Northern Iowa, and the Science Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching, Research and Service from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is still an active researcher in the field of differential geometry.