Integers Polynomials and Rings: A Course in Algebra (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

About this book

This book began life as a set of notes that I developed for a course at the University of Washington entitled Introduction to Modern Algebra for Tea- ers. Originally conceived as a text for future secondary-school mathematics teachers it has developed into a book that could serve well as a text in an - dergraduatecourseinabstractalgebraoracoursedesignedasanintroduction to higher mathematics. This book di?ers from many undergraduate algebra texts in fundamental ways; the reasons lie in the books origin and the goals I set for the course. The course is a two-quarter sequence required of students intending to f- ?ll the requirements of the teacher preparation option for our B.A. degree in mathematics or of the teacher preparation minor. It is required as well of those intending to matriculate in our universitys Masters in Teaching p- gram for secondary mathematics teachers. This is the principal course they take involving abstraction and proof and they come to it with perhaps as little background as a year of calculus and a quarter of linear algebra. The mathematical ability of the students varies widely as does their level of ma- ematical interest.