MATH 306 - Mathematics of Democracy

Credits: (3)

Instructional Method: Three hour lecture.
Prerequisites: Credit for any MATH or STAT course or a passing score on a placement test approved by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
How do Congressional districts get their shapes? This course tells the story of the problems of counting everyone in the US Census and apportioning members of the House of Representatives to the states, and then discusses the legal restrictions and political decisions that guide the process by which Congressional district maps are drawn, culminating in students drawing their own redistricting plans for Virginia. Different voting methods, such as ranked choice voting and Borda count, are also discussed. All concepts are approached through a computational thinking lens so that students will learn to manipulate large data sets with software packages such as Matlab and GIS programs.

Note(s): Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning designated course. Does not meet the requirements of the Mathematics major.