Mathematics 1210

Spring 2014

Instructor: Kelly A. MacArthur

Class Time and Place: 8:35 to 9:25 a.m.
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in JWB335

Office Hours: Tuesdays 9:40-10:40 a.m,
Wednesdays 2:30-4:00 p.m. or by appointment.
Office Location: JWB226
E-mail address: macarthur@math.utah.edu
Website: http://www.math.utah.edu/~macarthu

Text: (1) Calculus with Differential Equations, 9th edition, by Varberg, Purcell and Rigdon. ISBN: 0-13-230633-6
(2) My class notes which will be posted on my website (possibly per day or possibly by week). You will need to print those out and bring them to class, because I'll refer to them regularly. (Please note: You can print them in the Math Computer Lab for no cost.)

Prerequisite: At least a C grade in Math1050 (College Algebra) AND Math1060 (Trigonometry) OR in Math1080 or an Accuplacer score of 95 on the College Level Math test or at least a 3 on the AB Calculus AP exam

Tutoring Lab: T. Benny Rushing Mathematics Student Center (adjacent to JWB and LCB), Room 155
M - Th 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
F 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
(opens Wednesday) (closed Saturdays, Sundays and holidays)
They are also offering group tutoring sessions. If you're interested, inquire at the Tutoring Lab.

Private Tutoring: University Tutoring Services, 330 SSB (they offer inexpensive tutoring). There is also a list of tutors at the Math Department office in JWB233.

Computer Lab: also in the T. Benny Rushing Mathematics Student Center, Room 155C.
M – Th 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.
F 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Link to computer lab is http://www.math.utah.edu/ugrad/lab.html

Grading: The grades will be calculated as follows:
Daily Quizzes 10%
Weekly Quizzes 15%
Midterm 20%
Midterm 20%
Midterm 10%
Final Exam 25%
(Note: There will be 3 midterms. Your lowest midterm score will count for 10% of your grade and your top two midterm scores will each count for 20% of your final grade.)

Teaching Philosophy: I believe strongly that mathematics, at its core, is the art/experience/science of problem solving and pattern recognition. It is inherently a creative process, one to be struggled with, repeated, and enjoyed. The process requires imagination, persistence, courage, processing time, and ultimately produces experiential, mathematical skill. It is from this perspective that I teach. I'm not as concerned with the destination, i.e. the answer, as I am about the journey of problem-solving and mathematical exploration since it is exactly the entirety of the journey that creates the answer. And, self-confidence and mastery are then natural by-products of the mathematical journey.

Homework: There are homework problems assigned for each day. You can access that list of problems at my website. It is important to do the homework problems even though I will not collect the homework. If you don't do the homework for practice, it is highly unlikely that you will pass the daily quizzes and exams. Practice makes perfect...or at least it makes you head in the direction of perfect. :) Observing someone else do the problems is VERY different from working the problems yourself!!

Weekly Quizzes: There will be a total of 11 weekly quizzes on Fridays in class, all of which are listed on the course outline document. This will be a 15-minute quiz in class that will cover that week's material. Quiz questions will be taken from text examples, class examples, assigned problems or problems very much like those problems. I will give the weekly quiz at an arbitrary time during class, so if you arrive late or have to leave early and you miss the quiz, you will receive a zero for that quiz, no exceptions. I will drop your lowest two weekly quiz scores.

Daily Quizzes: There will be a five-minute quiz at the start of each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday class. Each of these quizzes will have one or two fairly simple questions on it. The questions will be intended to determine if you prepared for class by watching the lecture videos before class. There will be a total of about 36 such quizzes. I will drop the lowest five daily quiz scores. Again, if you are not there at the start of class when the quiz is taken, you will receive a zero for the quiz, no exceptions.

Online Grades: I will put your grades online on Canvas.
You can get there easily from the main University of Utah website www.utah.edu. To log in, you use the same student id and password that you use for Campus Information System. I do my best to update the grades on a regular basis and keep everything accurate. However, I would advise you to check your grades often to make sure there were no data entry mistakes. I'm always happy to correct any mistakes I've made. You just need to let me know about them.

Calculators: You may find it helpful to have a graphing calculator for your own personal use. However, if I allow calculators on exams or quizzes, I will only allow scientific calculators (no graphing or programmable calculators will be allowed ever). Most of the time, you will not have use of a calculator on exams and quizzes. This will be discussed more in class with each quiz and test.

Grading Scale: Although I'm not philosophically opposed to curving grades, I find it's rarely necessary. The grade scale will be the usual:
A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79),
C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), E (0-59).
If I do need to curve the grades, I will simply shift everything down by a few points (whatever is necessary).

ADA Statement: The American with Disabilities Act requires that reasonable accommodations be provided for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, systemic, learning and psychiatric disabilities. Any student with a certified disability who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Center for Disabled Students (CDS) and me at the beginning of the semester to discuss any such accommodations for the course.

Other Policies: Due to experience, I have decided to make some
additional policies regarding my classroom administration and grading.
  1. I do NOT allow the use of laptop computers in my classroom. At this point, I don't believe you are taking notes for the class if your computer is open. Thus, it is unnecessary in class. If you are using a tablet or ipad or some similar device to take notes and the screen lies parallel to your desk, that is totally fine.

  2. There will be no retakes of exams ever. Your score is what you get.

  3. You may take an alternate exam if you talk to me about it first and explain the extenuating circumstances that make it necessary. Needing to work, babysitting your siblings, oversleeping, or needing more time to study do not pass as acceptable reasons to inconvenience me. Getting in a car crash or your mother's death, on the other hand, is sufficient reason to request to take an alternate exam. But, it is 100% your responsibility to communicate with me as soon as is possible, before the exam occurs (or as soon as possible). Talking to me after the problem will be sufficient reason for me to allow you to get a zero on that test. I reserve the right to make alternate exams more difficult than the scheduled exam.

  4. I will demand respectful behavior in my classroom. Examples of disrespect include, but are not limited to, reading a newspaper or magazine in class, social chatting with your friend in class, text-messaging your buddies during class or cuddling with your girl/boyfriend in class. If you choose to be disrespectful during my class, I can guarantee I will take action to terminate your disruptive behavior, and that action may not be desirable for you.

  5. There will be no cursing nor negative ranting (for example, “math sucks”) on any written work turned in. The penalty for such things on your written work will be a zero score on that assignment or test!

  6. You need to have a valid email address registered with Campus Information System. I will regularly send emails to the class and will hold you accountable for receiving that information. If you have troubles receiving my weekly emails, you can (1) check to make sure your email address at Campus Information System is correct, (2) make sure my emails are not going directly to your junk mail folder, or (3) contact the webmaster at Campus Information System.

  7. If you have crisis-level extenuating circumstances which require flexibility, it is completely your responsibility to communicate with me as soon as possible. The longer you wait to communicate with me, the less I can and am willing to do to help.

  8. If you have questions about any exam/quiz/homework grade, or you want to appeal the grading of the exam/quiz/homework, you must bring it to me within one week of the exam. After that, you will have to live with whatever grade you got.

  9. Please make sure you do your best throughout the semester and come talk to me as soon as possible if you need further study strategies. I'm more than happy to help you during the semester or offer ideas to change your study habits in order to succeed. However, I will NOT offer any extra credit or extra project at the end of the semester or any other way for you to improve your grade at that time. I have given you full information in this syllabus about how the course will be graded. If you ask me at any point if I'll make special arrangements or some exception for you to improve your grade by some means or if you ask what extra something you can do to improve your grade or if you give me some long explanation about how you need this class to go on or graduate or how a bad grade will adversely affect your life and thus try to convince me to change your grade in some way, I will automatically deduct one percentage point from your overall grade, just for asking the question!! Also, I will NOT respond to such emails, unless it is simply to refer to this note in the syllabus so you'll know why your grade was just decreased.

  10. If you cheat on any homework, project, quiz or exam, I will automatically give you a zero for that grade. Depending on the severity of the cheating, I may decide to fail you from the class. Please note that the use (or even just pulling it out of your pocket) of a cell phone or any other electronic internet device is cause for receiving an automatic zero on any quiz or exam.

  11. I reserve the right to change my policies stated in this syllabus at some point in the semester. If I do make a change to a policy, I will announce it in class and send the change in email through Campus Information System.