What do you like best about this course?:

The combination of lecture with in-class practice of problems made it so there were few occasions in which I left class with questions remaining.

I really enjoyed the active learning activities that we did. Each of the practice problems and mini quizzes helped reinforce what we learned and helped me have a better sense of what problems I understood and which I needed to review again.

As a math major I love Calculus and the professors own love and enthusiasm for the topic made the course one of the best I have taken at Rutgers.

The instructor explains the concepts very clearly with effective examples. He also does a great job answering student questions and clarifying any topics that may be confusing.

Matt is very enthusiastic.

the instructor put so much efforts to make sure we understand the stuff and the best thing is that he wants to make sure we absorb all of the in-class knowledge at the end of each class, which is really responsible.

I like how the professor would engage the students and would always be receptive to questions. I also liked how I never was afraid to ask questions or felt stupid for asking.

Everything is good.

How interactive everything was. Everything that was being taught, was easily understandable because we were constantly practicing them in class, at home, and through small assessments.

I liked the active learning aspect of the course, I felt like being able to do the problems in class let me figure out what I really needed to work on and what I knew.

we have a lot of practices that helped me a lot to understand the materials.

Everything

The professor was excellent. He genuinely wanted students to learn. I appreciated his efforts. I also found that his class was engaging because of the problems we would receive at the end of each lesson. They were somewhat difficult problems that involved really understanding the material we learn in class so it got me to pay attention more. I really enjoyed the overall format of the class because it made me less lazy. It challenged me but at the same time allowed me to REALLY learn the material. I think the professor was very fair and it was actually refreshing watching him teach us. Professors with enthusiasm and effort like his allow me to feel more open to learning. Honestly, I think he is better than A LOT of the current full time mathematics professors at Rutgers; some of those professors are extremely lousy and do not deserve their positions. If I was on the administrative team... I would hire him in a heartbeat.

This course helped me gain the foundations and understanding to take on more challenging upper level math courses. It broke down many concepts I couldn't understand and linked them back up in a more defined manner.

If you were teaching this course, what would you do differently?:

Maybe shift the class towards being slightly more lecture based but I think the course worked well as is. Also, the Matlab component did not really aid in the understanding (outside of visualization), which I think is a result of the inconsistent software usage in Rutgers courses.

It was frustrating to wait until the last 5 minutes of class to get practice problems that sometimes took over 10 minutes to complete. The class period is already long enough. I didn't like staying after to complete a problem that could have been given to us just a few minutes earlier. I also think the Matlab assignments should have been due on Fridays. Having the Matlab assignments due the same day as our quizzes made it hard to find time to study. Some of the Matlab assignments took several hours to figure out so I would put off studying to work on them. If they were due on Fridays instead of Wednesdays we would have had more time to focus on one thing at a time.

I honestly don't think I would do anything differently. I really enjoyed all aspects.

Matlab assignments weren’t helpful since the assignments were intended to be done in order but we were skipping around. Seemed like there was important information explained in other assignments that we didn’t do

I would teach more examples.

I do not think the matlab thing really helps us because we never really learn about the basic principles and how to code in matlab and the HW just present the code and ask us to modify it, which is really harder than writing it by ourselves because we need to figure out what are the coder's thoughts. Besides, I believe that there is another way to organize the readiness assessments. It would be better for posting them online before everyday's class and then asking us to submit it at the beginning of the class.Because this book, honestly speaking, does not organize its thoughts very well and when we read about this book we feel so confused. Additionally, although we read about this book, we still do not know what the instructor wants us to know so we do not do good in RA. If the instructor can put the RA in advance, we can at least know what he want us to know and for the other confusing part, we can make it clear in the class because this instructor is clear enough.

I probably wouldn't give readiness assessments.

Maybe I wouldn't assign matlab, and have more workshop style assessments.

While I really liked the active learning, I would do more example problems before giving us time to work on our own. I think if we were shown how to do one basic and one advanced type question before having to do them on our own it would've worked out a little better

none

nothing

I was not really pleased with the readiness assignments he gave us because they were unnecessary. I do not think we need to be tested on material based on the book that he still needed to teach us. Some students like myself have minor dyslexia and reading from the book does not necessarily help me grasp concepts very well. The professor even explained that some parts in the book were confusing yet still tested us on it. Maybe an alternative is to make readiness assignments based on concept videos to watch as homework as well? I also think some of the Matlabs were unfair. We should be tested on applying our knowledge on the CONCEPTS we've learned so far to the Matlabs; I think using intensive calculation-based numbers defeats the purpose. Furthermore, sometimes the professor gave us a problem when there were 5 minutes left in class... I do not think this was fair.

Since there was a very restricted time limit on so many aspects, I wouldn't have made the course any different than the professor. He did a great job teaching and helping us practice the material.

In what ways, if any, has this course or the instructor encouraged your intellectual growth and progress?:

While Differential Equations is not my particular area of interest, it has proven to be useful in considering other kinds of problems, such as alternate means of comparing the relation between two factors in an experiment.

So many ways. I want to be a high school math teacher so every class I take I'm always learning classroom management and teaching techniques from the teacher even if it isn't an education class. This class deepened my love of calculus and my want to be a teacher. The professor is inspired, engaging and implemented many different learning techniques.

Reading before class begins.

The quizzes and practices in this class. I have never done so much quizzes and in-class practices in this university.

active studying helps me a lot.

He has shown me the importance of active learning in classrooms, and obviously helped me improve my knowledge of differential equations.

This class encouraged my growth because the Instructor not only knew what he was doing but he knew how to teach it to the class well. Mr. Charnley is hands down one of the best instructors I've had at Rutgers because his teaching style was very easy to follow and made difficult concepts easier to grasp.

good

This class constantly made me actively learning. Since we would have quizzes every day, I retained information better and when it came time for the midterms, I was not cramming or stressing prior to the midterms because all these quizzes and work problems really prepared me well. This is the first time in a while that I felt confident studying for a mathematics exams. On the first day of class, I remember writing that i wanted to gain my confidence for learning math back and getting over math test anxiety — I definitely did. I'm very thankful for Mr. Charney for helping me heal and get over this mental obstacle. As a human to human influence, this has really re-encouraged me to be more hopeful in this path. (:

I feel more driven to understand the concept of computational mathematics rather than just plug and chug. Matthew helped break down formulas and concepts which I struggled in. He helped relate things we learned in class to real life scenarios and put his heart in making sure we understood the concept. Great professor!

Other comments or suggestions::

The course was well taught and ultimately more enjoyable than I would have suspected.

I really enjoyed this class and would recommend this summer section to anyone. It was fast passed but our professor broke it down to seem a lot less scary. I never felt afraid to ask questions or for help. This has been my favorite math class at Rutgers thus far. The professor made me not hate going to class on beautiful Friday nights, that takes a very good teacher.

If you do one more example after the explanations of the context will be better

For the quiz section of the grade add more quizzes or make it worth less, I think it's a little off balanced that the mini quizzes, practice problems, in class activities, and readiness assessments, and the Matlab's both account for the same amount of the grade but both areas had many more opportunities to make up for a bad assignment.

great class.

no

Suggestion: Spend more times on showing students examples rather than giving them problems to try in class before the hand-in practice problem.

No other comments or suggestions.