MA 113, Sections 002-006 and 019-024, Fall 2016

Instructor:
Name: Prof. Benjamin Braun Email: benjamin.braun "at" uky "dot" edu.
Office: Room 831 in Patterson Office Tower Office Phone: 257-6810
Office hours:   Mon and Fri 10-11, Wed 11-12,
and by appointment. 		Homepage: http://www.ms.uky.edu/~braun

Time and Place of Lecture and Recitations:

Lectures meet on MWF.

Recitations meet as follows.

Information specifically concerning sections 002-006 and 019-024 of MA 113 is posted on this page. All other information for MA 113 can be found on the Fall 2016 MA 113 common web page. These pages together constitute the syllabus for MA 113. In sections 002-006 and 019-024 we will follow the grading scheme described in the common syllabus, with no alterations. You are responsible for carefully reading the common web page. Pay particular attention to the following items:

You may view your exam and assignment scores through the UK Canvas system at uk.instructure.com. Note that your total grade is not shown on Canvas, only your individual exam and assignment scores.

The Canvas system will be used for all course-wide announcements. Please use my email address, not the Canvas system, to correspond with your instructor.

Reading and Lectures:

You are expected to read the assigned sections in the textbook prior to lecture, as given in the course calendar on the Fall 2016 MA 113 common web page. For example, for class on Friday, August 26, you should read section 1.5 except for the material on log and inverse trig. I will assume that all students have read the assigned reading prior to lecture.

Lectures will NOT be a direct presentation of material as found in the textbook. Lecture will be used to motivate central concepts in the course, work through particularly complicated examples, and to highlight the most important ideas in the reading. For example, the first 3-4 days of lecture will combine ideas from sections 1.1-1.5 and Appendix D to motivate and clarify the ideas we will need from your precalculus courses. You must complete the reading assignments in order to have a complete understanding of the mathematical content of MA 113.

Suggestions for reading mathematics:

Videos About Productive Struggle and Growth Mindset Research:

We will watch these videos during lecture and recitation. After watching the video, all students will spend 2-3 minutes writing a paragraph or two in response to the video. The prompt for your writing is the following question: What are specific examples where your personal experience in previous mathematics courses has aligned with the video you just watched? After writing, you will spend 2-3 minutes discussing your response with another student you are sitting near.

Course policy regarding supportive discourse:

Students are not allowed to make negative comments about themselves or their mathematical ability, at any time, for any reason. Here are example statements that are now banned, along with acceptable replacement phrases.

The banned phrases represent having a fixed view of your own intelligence, which does not reflect the reality that you are all capable of dynamic, continued learning. The suggested replacement phrases support and represent having a growth mindset regarding your abilities and your capacity for improvement.

If you would like to learn more about growth and fixed mindset research, both generally and in the context of mathematics courses, I recommend the following two articles: