MA 114, Sections 015-019, Spring 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:   Wed and Fri from 12-12:50
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 015-019 of MA 114 is posted on this page. All other information for MA 114 can be found on the Spring 2016 MA 114 common web page. These pages together constitute the syllabus for MA 114. In sections 015-019 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 grades through the UK Canvas system at uk.instructure.com.


Peanut and Tree Nut Free Classroom

A student in this class has a severe allergy to nuts. Peanuts and tree nuts are NOT ALLOWED in this classroom.


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 Spring 2016 MA 114 common web page. For example, for class on Friday, January 15, you should read section 10.1. 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 10.1 and 10.2 to motivate and clarify the idea of sequences and series. You must complete the reading assignments in order to have a complete understanding of the mathematical content of MA 114.

Suggestions for reading mathematics:


Six Big Questions we will address in this course:


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: