Jim Loats, Ph.D.   Professor of Mathematical Sciences

Metropolitan State College of Denver, Denver Colorado

Office Hours

Tues. 10:00 – 11:30 am, 1:00 – 2:00 pm;
Wed. 1:30 – 2:30 pm;
Thur. 10:00 – 11:30 am

Office Hours By Appointment
Mon. 1:30 – 2:30 pm;
Wed. 11:30 – 1:30pm; Fri. 10am-noon.

Other times can be available.  Email me to set up an appt.

New Office: AD400         Math Department Office: AD 400

Phone: 303-556-3109Fax: 303-556-5381         Email Address: loatsj@mscd.edu
Mail Address:    Campus Box 38, P.O. Box 173362, Denver CO 80217-3362

Education: B. A. Oklahoma State Univ., M. S. Ohio Univ., and Ph.D. in Logic & Set Theory, Univ. of Colorado Boulder
Areas of Interest: Mathematics Metropolitan State College of Denver.

  Follow these links to materials for my Spring 2010 courses.

MTH 1610 Integrated Mathematics I

MTH 3650 Foundations of Geometry

MTH 4600 Seminar in Problem Solving


Metro's Rural Mathematics Project GEOMETRYcourse will be meeting on-line Tuesdays, Thursdays 4:00 - 5:30pm for 5 weeks in Spring of 2010. Opening Saturday in Alamosa is February 6th and closing Saturday is March 13th.

On campus I work with the Center for Urban Education, a group of Metro faculty, staff, DPS teachers, administrators and members of the community who are interested in being part of the improvement in learning for K-12 students in west Denver schools. Follow this link for more information.

I'd like to introduce you to the books I have co-authored:

Algebra Unplugged is a fun, easy to read, non-text for beginning algebra. It is a lively introduction to the concepts of algebra for readers who like to laugh while they learn. It has lots of stories that explain the basic ideas well but without any of those annoying exercises. A great gift ... after you finish reading it yourself. If you are a teacher, experiment with recommending sections of the book to your students. While many of us (especially math teachers) learned math by listening to our teachers and doing problems in the textbook, often some of us learn best by reading well crafted and interesting explanations. This book has those explanations! That was our main reason for writing it the way we did.

Calculus For Cats provides a vivid introduction/review of the topics in beginning calculus using silly stories and analogies involving cats, mice and other animals. Its style is similar to Algebra Unplugged - both supply all the words that are missing from most math textbooks. Some readers who had already taken calculus, reported gaining insight about what it was all about! Enjoy.

Some other items that are available:

On October 9, 2009 at the Fall 2009 CCTM conference I gave a talk on "What is real number?" The link is to the power point for that talk. And here is a rough draft of my spoken parts in that talk.

Here is a link to the History of Mathematics class web site that I co-teach for UCD each summer. In addition to the course materials that we use in teaching the class, you can also see many cool classroom implementations that our teachers created - a great resource if you'd like to bring History of Math to life in your middle or high school classroom.

This page of Principles of Mathematical Thinking is one of the best descriptions of my goals for math students of all ages.

Here is the set of questions from NCTM that has been very helpful to me in learning to teach a student-centered classroom.

Here is a collection of materials that I have assembled for teachers of mathematics.

  And if you need to take a break, check this link.

The best way to reach me is by using the email address: loatsj@mscd.edu

Thanks, Dr. Jim