MA 123 Syllabus

Fall 2005

Instructors For a list of instructors and sections click on the link. Each section with the instructor information including e-mail addresses is listed. If you contact your instructor by e-mail, be sure to place “ma123 help” in the subject box. E-mail without this subject heading may be deleted by spam filters.

Textbook: A Brief Introduction to Calculus  The notes are available online in pdf format. You may also purchase a copy at nominal cost at the bookstores.

Goals:  This course will cover each of the fourteen topics listed in the contents of the notes. Your main goal should be to learn the material well enough so that you can use calculus in an applied context such as business or social science. You will be expected to learn the material well enough so that you are able to apply the methods in a setting that we have not covered in class.

It is essentially impossible to teach mathematics; it must be learned. To understand what this means, consider the impossibility of learning to play tennis by listening to someone describe how to play tennis. You will not learn the material in this course by listening to the lectures, and thinking to yourself - "Yes, I understand that". You must work the problems and make mistakes before you will begin to learn. The instructor’s task is that of an assistant to help you learn as much of the material as you desire.

Outline of Content: Each of the fourteen topics covered in the course notes will be discussed for approximately one week during the semester. You will need to frequently review old material to understand current material. Details concerning content can be obtained by looking at the web homework and the notes. In this course it will not be sufficient to memorize an algorithm for doing specific types of problems. You will be expected to understand the material well enough so you are able to do problems unlike the ones we work in class.

Prerequisites: You should have a strong understanding of college algebra and an ACT score of at least 26 or a placement score of 8 out of 12.

Grading:  There are 450 points in the course.  There will be three mid-term examinations and one final, each worth 100 points.  The remaining 50 points will be determined by class participation. Your final letter grade will be determined as follows.

Exams and Homework (400 points possible)

Exams: Each exam (including the final exam) is worth 100 points. Of the 100 points, 90 are assigned on the basis of the common, two-hour examination. These are assigned on the basis of a “curve” in which the average percentage score among students earning at least 30% of the 90 points on the in-class portion of the exam is adjusted to a score of 75% of the 90 points.  If the class average is 75% or greater there is no curve. 

You must bring a photo ID for each exam.  Graphing calculators are not allowed to be used on the exams.  You may only use calculators that perform the four operations, square roots, exponentiation, logarithms etc.

Homework: Ten (10) of the 100 points on each exam is assigned on the basis of student participation in the web-based homework.

This course uses an online web homework system called WHS (Web based Homework System). Your homework is graded and recorded by the system. Instructions for using the system are found at the linked page Web Homework The WHS system itself contains more detailed instructions.

Each student has an individual, Personal Version of the web-based homework assignments to work and submit. For each problem set there is also a Common Version similar to the personal version. Everyone gets the same Common Version. Problems on the Common Version are the ones most likely to be discussed in class.

Only work submitted on the student’s Personal Version is used to determine the Homework Participation Grade

·         Students may work with others on the homework.  In fact this is encouraged.

·         There will be scheduled times in the Mathskeller (CB 065) for students to receive assistance with homework See Mathskeller

·         A student can submit answers to an assignment any number of times. The system maintains a complete record of all submissions.

·         A student receives credit for a problem if the correct answer is submitted before the homework due date for the assignment. The subsequent submission of an incorrect answer will not cause the student to lose credit for a problem.

·         Until the expiration date the homework system will inform students if submitted answers are correct or incorrect. After the due date the system will also provide the correct answer.

·         A student’s participation score on a homework assignment is the percentage of the problems for which a correct answer has been submitted prior to the assignment’s due date.

·         A student’s participation score for an examination is automatically calculated as an average of the scores on each of the problem sets assigned for the exam, rounded to the nearest integer

·         There are four homework assignments prior to each midterm examination. The due date for each assignment is 12:00 PM Sunday evening. The first two assignments are due at midnight of 4 September. One assignment is due per week thereafter with the exception of 28 November (no assignment due). 

A student’s homework participation points for an exam will be calculated as follows:

Homework Participation Scores will not be curved.

Class Participation: 50 Points.   Attendance is required for the course. The Class Participation grade of 50 points will be determined by attendance, quizzes, and participation in class.

You are permitted three unexcused absences. Each unexcused absence recorded by your instructor after three will result in a deduction of 10 points from the 50 class participation points.

Old Exams: Links to old exams in pdf format are given below. (Note : The Spring 05 exams have a slightly different format than the Fall 05 Exams. The same material is covered)

Fall 2004 Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3 Final Exam

Spring 2005 Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3 Final Exam

Fall 2005 Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3 ________

Exam Schedule: The midterm exams are from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM on Mondays on the indicated dates. To locate the room for your exams, click on the link below.

Exam Room Schedule

Alternate Examinations:  Alternate Exam Request Form

Students who have university excused absences or who have university-scheduled class conflicts with uniform examinations may arrange with their instructor to take the exam from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. in Room  CB 106.

1.      Students with a scheduling conflict must arrange with their instructor to take the alternate exam at least two weeks in advance. They must completely fill out the Alternate Exam Request Form and give it to their instructor.  Meetings (including tests) which are scheduled by instructors at times not listed in the schedule of classes are not university-scheduled conflicts.

2.      Alternate exam papers are treated exactly the same as papers from the regular exam in the grading and normalization (curving) process.

3.      Work-related conflicts are neither university excused absences nor university-scheduled absences. However, students with work-schedule conflicts may request permission from their instructor to take the alternate exam. Such requests must be made two weeks in advance and must demonstrate to the instructor’s satisfaction that it is not possible for the student to make arrangements for a work-schedule adjustment with the employer. 

 Cheating: Cheating will not be tolerated. The minimum penalty for cheating is the assignment of an E for the course with dismissal from the University a possibility.