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.
- Section 015, TA Joel Klipfel: TR 3:30-4:45, Main Building Room 5
- Section 016, TA Aida Maraj: TR 11:00-12:15, POT Room OB5
- Section 017, TA Joel Klipfel: TR 2:00-3:15, CB Room 214
- Section 018, TA Marie Meyer (MathExcel): M 3-4:30, CB 339 and W 3:00-4:30, Math House and R 3:30-5, Math House
- Section 019, TA Yaowei Zhang: TR 12:30-1:45, Ralph G Anderson Building Room 203
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:
- WebWork -- the online homework system for this course
- Course calendar and recitation worksheets
- Resources for getting help -- the Study, the Mathskeller, TA office hours
- How your grade will be determined
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:
- First: understand the story.
Even if you don't understand all the words, you can understand a lot by skimming the expository paragraphs.
Is this portion of the text about a specific example? a general phenomenon?
Does the author say it is related to something you know about?
Does the section contain a lot of theorems and proofs, or mainly a collection of examples?
What words are defined in the section?
- Second: understand the broad ideas.
Read the definitions.
Create small examples and non-examples.
Read the theorems.
Create small examples and non-examples to illustrate the theorem.
Skip all proofs.
Summarize the text in your own words.
- Third: understand the details.
Read the examples and proofs.
Create larger examples and non-examples.
Create generalizations of the definitions and theorems.
Try to prove your generalizations.
- Continually repeat this cycle.
Read the section again.
Create a short summary of the text in your own words.
Create a short outline of the text.
Explain the material in the section to your study group.
Six Big Questions we will address in this course:
- How can we add infinitely many items together?
- Chapter 10: Sequences, series, the integral test, comparison tests, alternating series and absolute convergence, ratio and root tests
- When and how can polynomials be used to approximate functions?
- Chapter 10: Taylor polynomials and Taylor series, power series, radius of convergence for power series
- What kinds of applied problems can we solve using integration?
- Chapters 6 and 8: Areas between curves, volumes of revolution, work, arc length, surface area, center of mass
- What techniques can we use to evaluate integrals?
- Chapter 7: Integration by parts, trigonometric integrals, trigonometric substition, partial fractions, improper integrals
- What can we say about the motion of objects moving in more than one dimension?
- Chapter 11: Parametric equations, calculus of parametric curves, polar coordinates and graphs
- How can we model phenomena if we know their rates of change?
- Chapter 9: Modeling using differential equations, solving differential equations, important basic differential equations
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.
- I can't do this -> I am still learning how to do this
- That was stupid -> That was a productive mistake
- This is impossible -> There is something interesting and subtle in this problem
- I'm an idiot -> This is going to take careful thought
- I'll never understand this -> This might take me a long time and a lot of work to figure out
- This is terrible -> I think I've done something incorrectly, let me check it again
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: