Week 1:
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Assignment #0 - Know how to access the Remote Desktop and how to access the WOU Terminal Server from any computer in the world

Assignment #1 - Read course syllabus

Assignment #2 - Check E-mail & Complete E-mail assignment - Due In-class Wednesday, Sept 26

If you have not received an e-mail from me by 5pm tonight, send me an e-mail from your WOU student e-mail account and request the e-mail assignment from me.

If you added the course today, send me an e-mail from your WOU student e-mail account and request the e-mail assignment from me.

Assignment #3 - Life Project Part 1 - Find a Job

Find at least 3 job listings that you will qualify for when you finish school (if you're planning on grad school, assume that you've made it through that too). Think about your dream job. The job listings you find should include at least the following information -- Not due yet

• Job title
• Location (city, state, country, etc)
• Salary/wage

Assignment #4 - Math in current culture - Round 1

There are two steps to this assignment:

Step 1: Find something containing math that happened this week (I want it to be current).  The math part should be more significant than "the article has numbers in it".

Option 1: A link to an online news article, video or piece of pop culture containing math
Option 2: Scan in a news article, or other hardcopy of something containing math

Step 2: In Moodle, make a new "discussion" in the forum titled "Math in Current Culture - Round 1".  Explain what the math part from your article is, and what it means (3-15 sentences). Use complete sentences. Include the link to your article. -- Due by 8:00am, Monday Oct 1

Assignment #5 - GPA Calculation

Calculate your GPA in Excel.

If you are a freshman and don't have any credits yet, put in the classes for this term, guess what grades you'll get, and calculate your GPA from that

Finish Assignment #3

Finish Assignment #5

Assignment #6 - Intro to Stocks

Pick 5 companies with publicly traded stock to watch for the next few weeks and record their info in the following template: Stock Template

Fill out the boxes for the "Company Info" and "Tracking the price over time". Do not worry about filling out the "Buying info" and the "Selling info"

Make sure that your worksheet is organized so that you understand it (rename your tabs).

Reading Assignment -Read about Loans

Some things that you should look into:

• Compound Interest
• Subsidized Loans vs Unsubsidized Loans

Week 2:
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Finish Assignment 3 -- Due In-class, Wednesday, October 3

Print out a list of your 3 job postings, including the title, salary, location, and the link to the place where you found it (or a photocopy of the job listing if you found it on a paper copy).

Submit Assignment 5 -- Due by 11:59pm, Tuesday, October 2

1. Rename your Excel file "GPA Calculations - [Last name, First name]" Use exactly this format, see the example below:

Example: My file would be "GPA Calculations - Cotton, Avery"

2. Compose an e-mail to the e-mail address listed on my webpage: http://www.wou.edu/~cottona

Be professional. Send me a real e-mail (You should address the recipient, send some text in the body about what the recipient is about to see / why it's important / etc, and list the sender).

Use "MTH 105 - GPA Calculations" or something similar as the subject line. This clearly and concisely states gives the reader context about what they are about to see (i.e. the class that it is coming from and the nature of the e-mail)

Make sure to attach your file

Assignment #7 - Responding to Math in current culture - Round 1

Step 1: Log into Moodle and read at least one of the posts from the "Math and current culture - Round 1" Forum, (both the article) and the student's reflection.

Step 2: Choose one of the articles that you read, and give your own short reflection on the article as a response to the student's post (click reply specficially in their discussion thread). Use complete sentences. (6-15 sentences). You may talk about the article, and/or what the student said. You are free to disagree with a student's opinion, but be civil (flame wars are a quick way to earn negative points for this assignment).

Note: You will not recieve credit if you respond to a post that already has 3 replies -- Due by 11:59pm, Tuesday, October 2

Assignment #8 - Enticing Bonus Offer vs Fees and Small Print

There is a lot of extraneous information (welcome to real life). It is your job to sort through the information and decide what is important to solving the problem, and what is not. You do not need to print out the linked document, but you will need to answer the questions on a piece of paper that can physically be turned in (your answers may be typed, or hand written). If you make calculations, you should show your calculations (and the work that goes with them). You should also have explanations to explain why you made those calculations. -- Due In-class, Wednesday, October 3

Assignment #9 - Life Project Part 2 - Budgets

Build a yearly “budget” for your life right now (you may make up numbers a little bit if you’d like.  I’m not here to spy on your finances.  Or, you may make it as real as you’d like, since that will provide the most relevant results that would be interesting to you).

Hint:  First, start with a monthly budget.  Then multiply by 12.  Then include things that you would need to do less often than once per month (ie, once per term, once per year, etc).

The truly important part of this assignment is to go through the process of making a budget (and probably researching to find out HOW to make a budget).

Week 3:
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Assignment #10 - Interest Homework

We'll get started on this in-class. It will be important to use Excel to do this, or you'll have to repeat literally hundreds of calculations with a slightly different starting value. -- Due In-class, Wednesday, October 10

Assignment #11 - Price Comparisons Homework

We'll get started on this in-class. It will be important to use Excel to do this, or you'll have to repeat literally hundreds of calculations with a slightly different starting value. -- Due In-class, Monday, October 15

Assignment #12 - Math in current culture - Round 2 - Due Tuesday, October 16

Log in to Moodle (similar to last time), and make sure that you follow the instructions for the Round 2 forum post.

Reading Assignment - Loan Consolidation

Search the internet and read about Loan Consolidation. Any time that you look something up, you should read at least two sources. Wikipedia might be an okay place to start, but look at the sources.

Week 4:
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In-class Assignment - Intro to Loan Consolidation

We did this in class and built an excel worksheet to do some of the calculations. There is nothing to submit for this. Pretend that we want to pay it off in exactly 10 years.

Assignment #13 - Loan Consolidation Homework

We did a few parts of Number 1 in class. Your homework is to finish the rest of question 1, and all of question 4. Skip the other questions, we'll talk about them on Wednesday. For question 4 Parts a-d, pretend that we want to pay it off in exactly 10 years.

Assignment #13 part 2 - Finish the "Loan Consolidation Homework" packet from last time.

Week 5:
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Study for exam

Hold onto the Loan Consolidation homework so you can study from it, and turn it in at the end of the exam on Wednesday.

Do the midterm; directions are on the cover sheet (please follow them carfeully) - Due in class today

No other homework

Week 6:
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You got the Job!

Assignment #14 - Life Project Part 3 - Budget with a job

Update your budget to reflect this new stage in your life

Do not get rid of your "current budget". That was good information, just for a different stage of your life. Copy the tab, and make two new tabs labeled "budget with job" or something similar.

Since you know how much your job pays, incorporate your income into your budget.

Make sure to update this with the things that will apply to this new stage of life now that you've moved out of the dorms and aren't eating from the campus dining hall. To get ideas of things that you might need to incorporate, search online.

You may temporarily omit your living cost. We'll talk about this next time, after you've found a place to live.

Assignment #15 - Life Project Part 4 - A Place to Live

Way back during week 1, I had you find 3 jobs. Pick your favorite from the 3.

Since you know where your job is located, find a place to live in this new town. There are two parts to this:

Find a place to rent: Maybe you don't want to be tied down. Maybe you don't have the start-up cash to buy a house, and don't want a loan (after what we learned about loans). Whatever the case, you'll want to get some background info on the place that you choose to rent, and save the link so you can find it again.

Find a place to buy: Someday, you may want to put down some roots and own some property. You'll want to get some background info on the property, and save the link so you can find it again.

Things we did today

• buying a home
• loan rates
• credit scores
• fixed rate loans versus adjustable rate loans
  • how to calculate paying off a loan with an adjustable rate
• income taxes
  • How to find the info from the federal government and your local state
• sales taxes
  • How to estimate your sales tax an include it in your budget
• How does a $100 bonus payment affect a loan? Does when you pay the bonus $100 make a difference?

Update your budget based on our discussions in class today. You will want to take our new tab and turn it into two tabs:

• One tab with your job and buying a place to live
• One tab with your job and renting a place to live

Week 7:
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Assignment #16 - Annuities Worksheet - Due Wednesday, Nov 7

We did this in-class, but if you didn't finish it and turn it in, submit it on Wednesday

Assignment #17 - Where are you going to use math? - Due Monday, Nov 12

Talk with someone in your field about where you are going to use math later in life.

• Your advisor
• A faculty member in your department
• A mentor at an internship

Find an actual example where someone in your field used math including the numbers and the calculations. (This is sort of like the Math in Current Culture assignments, except that it's finding math that is used in your field, and it doesn't need to be current).

Week 8:
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Assignment #18 - Percent Investigation - Due Wednesday, Nov 14

We did this in-class, but if you didn't finish it and turn it in, submit it on Wednesday

Assignment #19 - Life Project Part 5 - Job Market Sours!

We've been carefully trying to build a budget for several weeks. You've been trying to make sure that your expenses are less than your income so that you can afford life. Life may not be perfect, but with a fair amount of money coming in from your job, things are probably working out pretty well for you as you plan for retirement. Save the file and copy the sheet for this new assignment.

What happens if the company has to have massive layoffs and you get cut (or if you don't get that awesome job right away)? Do both of the following for this assignment (make a tab for each):

1. Work at minimum wage: You may work the minimum wage job for as many hours per week as you'd like. (In real life, perhaps you're working several minimum wage jobs). You may work more than 40 hours per week, but since they are different jobs, you're not getting paid overtime; you're getting paid the minimum wage for wherever you've moved to (this may require you to do some research to find out what the minimum wage is in your new state/country). Re-work your budget on this new plan. Also, calculate how many hours you're working to make this budget work out.

2. File for unemployment: Find out how much money you would collect and adjust your budget to make it work. You may apply for any other programs (ex: food stamps, etc) that you would like to help you make ends meet. Re-work your budget on this new plan.

In-class Assignment #20 - Expected Value

This was completed in class

Gather together all of your "Life Project" assignments digitally into one folder on your H drive. I will be coming around next week and/or dead week to check on these assignments and give you points.

Bring a set of headphones or earbuds for Monday that you will be able to plug into the computers.

Week 9:
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In-class Assignment # 21 - Self sufficiency

Often in life, there will be things that you don't know how to do. Today, we're going to identify resources that you can use to learn things on your own. Go to http://www.khanacademy.org/ and work for the entire period. Your goal is to earn 50,000 points by the end of the period.

In-class Assignment #22 - Stock Wrap up

Complete the directions in the linked PDF. Submit questions 4, 5, and 6 by-hand in class today.

Some other things we did:

• Learn about Conditional statements in Excel
  • =if(x,y,z)
• Learn about Nested Conditional statements
  • =if(x,y,if(x,y,z))

Week 10:
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In-class Assignment #23 - Dead week wrap up

Complete the directions in the linked PDF. Assume that the student needs only 86 more credits to graduate. When you finish, copy your sheet into a new workbook. Then, e-mail me the workbook with the single sheet so that I can check your work.

If you do not finish today, you have a little more time. Ultimately, it is due at 11:59pm, Thursday, Nov 29.

Finish the "Dead week wrap up" from last time. Here is a template to help you get organized: template - Due at 11:59pm, Thursday, Nov 29

Send me an e-mail with the subject line "MTH 105 - Life Project" and attach all of the files from your Life Project folder that you made back on Nov 14 - Due today, Wednesday, Nov 28, by 11:59pm

Week 11: Finals
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-- FINAL EXAM --

Monday: 8am - 9:50am

Location: MNB 110 -- the computer lab that we've been in all term

-- FINAL EXAM --