Cost estimation for building a substantial home (low end vs high end)
The Final Project is a short presentation that you create and post in the Class Discussion. The presentation
must have a quantitative aspect; it must include information of a quantitative nature. No matter what you
are majoring in, an ability to communicate and work with quantitative information will enhance your career.
The goal of this project is to practice and improve that ability in the form of a short presentation.

Your grade for this project does not depend on demonstrating math skills. Critical thinking, creativity, the
generation of original material (text, photos, graphics, computer-generated media of any kind), and the
accuracy and clarity of quantitative communication are the most highly valued elements for this project.
Again, regardless of your major, these skills are a necessary part of succeeding in the real world. As you
decide what to do for this project, pretend that this is somehow part of the job you would like to have
after graduating. Perhaps you want to pitch an idea to a team you’re working with on a much larger project.

Principal Criteria
There are three principal criteria for this presentation:

That you spend some time furthering your current math-related knowledge and understanding or skills.

That you present your knowledge and understanding, and/or demonstrate your skills in a professional
manner.

Most importantly, that you include quantitative information. For example, any use of numbers, physical
units, changing units, charts or diagrams (preferably that you make) labeled with the proper units and
numbers, scientific notation or powers of 10, ratios, linear or logarithmic scales, any relevant formulas,
statistics, or calculations.

Possible Final Project Topics
You may already have a math-related topic of interest that is not covered in this course. Or you could go
further into something that we covered in the textbook or that was only briefly covered in the modules.
Either way, you will need to learn more about the topic on your own and present what you have learned. The
best option is to explore and describe how math is used in your major, giving specific examples.

Another option is to complete an original statistics project. For example, you might go out and collect your
own data (either physically or by using the Internet) and then use Excel or the spreadsheet in Google
Documents to process the data. Your focus could just be on the presentation of descriptive statistics, as
presented in Module 8 (that would be a worthwhile exercise for several different majors), or you could come
up with a hypothesis and collect data to support it — or refute it. Statistical correlations are easy (and
fun) to do if you are competent in using a spreadsheet, such as Excel or Google Spreadsheets.

For 3D, animation, or visual effects majors, some more advanced topics are scripting, topology, texture
mappings, and non-linear geometry. Any computer arts major could learn more about the mathematics related to
computers and computer applications. Some computer-related mathematics topics include linear or matrix
algebra and Boolean algebra.

Remember, anything is fine as long as you use quantitative information as part of your communication.
Preferably, you will choose something that you are interested in and that will benefit you in some way in
the future. Ideally, you will take on a topic that develops your knowledge and skills in your major, and get
a bit of guidance from your instructors in your core courses.