M6300 and M6893

The following proposal for revisions of two catalog entries was drawn up and approved by the ad hoc Math Department MNS Committee (consisting of: Professors Adkins, Baldridge, Bourdin, Cochran, Ferreyra, Madden, Neubrander, Perlis, Sengupta, Shipman, Sundar and Wolenski and Instructors Harhad and McAnelly). It was reviewed by the Math Department Graduate Studies Studies Committee and approved by vote of that committee on October 12, 2012.

Math 6300 should be removed from the catalog and replaced by 6893, which will have the following catalog entry:

6893 Seminar in Mathematics for Secondary Teachers (1-3) Prereq: consent of department.  Topics of interest to teachers of secondary school mathematics.  Formerly offered as Math 6300.  May be repeated for up to 6 sem. hrs. credit if topics vary.

Rationale: 1) It is confusing to have a course with number 6300 that is for secondary teachers, when 6301 is for elementary teachers and 6302 is for middle-school teachers. 2) Seminar/topics/independent courses are typically given numbers with a, “8” or “9” as the second digit.  This applies to Math 4997, Math 4998, Math 4999, Math 7999, Physics 4991, Physics 6991 (a physics seminar for teachers) Physics 7857, 7895, 7896, 7996, Chem 7800.  8 was selected as the second digit for this course because that numeral in that position is associated with seminars.  3 was selected as the last digit because that numeral is associated with the secondary level in other Math 6000-level courses.  The 9 in the third place is associated with courses that have flexibility in content.)

Comment: Courses M6301, M6302 and M6303 have explicit provisos (“intended primarily for participants in teacher-training programs”) that were absent from 6300.  Math 6893 also omits such a proviso.  The LSU Catalog stipulates that all 6000-level courses are "exclusively for teachers at the elementary, secondary, and junior college levels."