Hi Mike,
Pre-class camps like this are a great idea, for all sorts of reasons. They
also happen not only in political science, but also in many policy schools
and, at a much more advanced level, in Economics programs. A lot of the
math is the same in my experience.
At Princeton as a graduate student I was asked to start a math camp, and
was in part inspired by the excellent Harvard program. Since that time,
other instructors have enhanced that program, available here,
http://q-aps.princeton.edu/classes/politics-math-camp. My experience then
was that the social aspects amplified productivity and learning throughout
graduate careers. But I couldn't randomly assign people, and even if I
could Gary would be mad about the standard errors...this said I don't loose
sleep about the inference that a PhD program benefited from having a math
camp.
One thing I have noticed about math camps is a function of the necessarily
compact nature: non-mathematical nuts and bolts required by those that want
to use tools related to those they learn in math camp get a bit lost. By
these nuts and bolts I mean learning rudiments of workflows entailed in
working with latex and using script based statistical programming, like
what many of us use in R and Stata. Princeton has a programming boot camp,
and at Harvard I'm lucky to have some smart folks teaching semi-regular
classes on some particular topics. Another thing I have noticed is that
there is often little reason to introduce some of these nuts and bolts only
at the Graduate level. Indeed, contributors to this list have at times put
out resources meant to help on the front end.
I combined these observations to produce one effort posted here, which is a
component of a program here at Harvard for undergraduate RA's. It draws on
efforts from throughout our community, and graduate students here and at
other places have benefited from it.
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/undergradscholars/pages/research-resources
Feel free to contribute ideas to this effort, though hopefully your game
theory students will find it ironic, and hence contribute (based on a mixed
strategy).
best,
Dustin
Dustin Tingley
Paul Sack Associate Professor of Political Economy
Government Department
Harvard University
http://scholar.harvard.edu/dtingley
Director, Undergraduate Research Scholars, Institute of Quantitative Social
Science
Director, Program on Experience Based Learning in the Social Sciences
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/peblss/
Contribute to ABLConnect
http://ablconnect.harvard.edu/
Contribute to the Research Reservoir:
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/undergradscholars/pages/research-resources
On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 7:38 PM, Dave Vannette <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> Stanford's political science department also offers a 'math camp' for
> incoming PhD students, here is the link to a recent syllabus:
>
> http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Math%20Camp%20Syllabus%202011.pdf
>
> Best,
> Dave Vannette
>
>
> --
> David L. Vannette - PhD Candidate
> Department of Communication
> Stanford University
> Phone: 616.502.4828
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Web: http://davidvannette.com
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 6:51 AM, Michael Paul Fix <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > We have recently revamped our PhD methods requirements at Georgia State
> > and have found that our students are, in many cases, in need of a math
> > refresher. I was curious if other department do some type of "Math Boot
> > Camp" prior to the start of first semester. If so, do you make this a
> > requirement or optional? What materials do you cover? What sort of time
> > frame? And any other additional advice you might think helpful.
> >
> > Best,
> > Mike
> >
> > Michael P. Fix
> > Assistant Professor
> > Department of Political Science
> > Georgia State University
> > 38 Peachtree Center Ave., Suite 1005
> > Atlanta, GA 30303
> > Phone: 404-413-6155
> > Fax: 404-413-6156
> > Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> > http://www2.gsu.edu/~mfix/
> >
> >
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