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Master's Theses

Theses/Dissertations

2014

Mathematics

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Examination Of High School Students' Understanding Of Geometry, Brantley Grant Pierce Aug 2014

Examination Of High School Students' Understanding Of Geometry, Brantley Grant Pierce

Master's Theses

Not every student learns geometry instruction the same. Inside today’s classroom, one will find a diverse collection of students with different learning styles, background knowledge, and cognitive abilities. Students with high cognitive skills may sit next to those who struggle to maintain the material of a single subject. It is the job of an educator to accept the students as they are and guide them through a successful academic journey. This process is called Differentiated Instruction. Gregory and Chapman, authors of Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All, state that the term differentiation is a philosophy that allows instructors …


Hittingtime And Pagerank, Shanthi Kannan Jan 2014

Hittingtime And Pagerank, Shanthi Kannan

Master's Theses

In this thesis, we study convergence of finite state, discrete, and time homogeneous Markov chains to a stationary distribution. Expressing the probability of transitioning between states as a matrix allows us to look at the conditions that make the matrix primitive. Using the Perron-Frobenius theorem we find the stationary distribution of a Markov chain to be the left Perron vector of the probability transition matrix.

We study a special type of Markov chain &mdash random walks on connected graphs. Using the concept of fundamental matrix and the method of spectral decomposition, we derive a formula

that calculates expected hitting times …