We have designed and classroom tested many activities that you can use along with this textbook. In order not to give away the things that students are expected to discover during these activities, each activity appears in the book only as a prompt that self-study students or students who must miss a class can use on their own to mimic the experience of the in-class activity. In the subsequent section of the book is a short summary of the things we would hope a student would learn from the activity, but not a solution to the activity.
Dot Product: Instructor's Guide
We have chosen, at this time, not to include a proof that the dot product is distributive. If questions arise, you may want to read the following paper on this subject:
- Tevian Dray and Corinne A. Manogue, The Geometry of the Dot and Cross Products, JOMA 6
(June 2006). (MathML version; published version)
If your students are already familiar with dot products, then you will just want to do a quick review of this material (and offer this section as reading for those students who are rusty).
An excellent way to review the material in class is to ask the small whiteboard question:
“On your small whiteboard, write something that you know about the dot product.”
You can find more information about this Dot Product Review activity on our Activities Website.
Note: The activities are part of a separate website. If you click on the link above, you will need to use the “Back” button to return here.
