Syllabus for Math 105, Intermediate Algebra,
Summer 2015, Section 302
Prerequisite: Math Placement Level C. Not open for credit to students who have credit in Math 108.
Meeting Time and location: Tues May 26 - Thurs Jul 2, MTWR 9-10:40, BOL 293.
'Office Hours' / Extra work time: every Tues, Wed, Thurs after class 10:40--11:30 in our classroom.
Instructor: Suzanne Boyd
Email: sboyd@uwm.edu
Online homework system / textbook: Aleks, ISBN: 0078120624, buy the 11 week license for ALeks 360,
it comes with an ebook. To purchase online, go to www.aleks.com, then click the link marked 'sign up
now', to the left, under the space for Registered Users, and supply our course code:
PWYCH-EXJMP
(this is a unique code for our section, other sections of Math 105 have different codes!),
and supply other information when prompted. Aleks can only be used on a device with an internet
connection.
Hardcopy of text is optional; it's Intermediate Algebra, 4th ed., : Miller/O'Neill/Hyde, McGraw-Hill.
Financial Aid Access Code: You can use the following temporary (2-week) access code until you
purchase your permanent access code: 774AB-A56D8-18AA0-B7263.
(The Financial Aid Access Code does not add an additional two weeks to your account.)
Aleks Technical Support
If you need technical support with Aleks, contact:
Customer Support - Higher Education:
Phone: (714) 619-7090
Hours (Eastern Time):
Sunday, 4:00 PM to 1:00 AM
Monday - Thursday, 7:00 AM to 1:00 AM
Friday, 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Email: contact at http://support.aleks.com
Important Dates Summer 2015, 6 week session 1, 5/26 - 7/4, 2015:
Late registration start date (& last day to drop for full refund): May 26
Last day to add, swap, or edit (for full refund, minus $50 fee): June 1
Last day to drop without a W: June 1
50% refund if drop before: June 5
Last day to drop: June 12
Course grades: Your percentage out of the 1000 points in the course will be calculated based on
attendance, paper homework, online homework, and in-class exams, as follows:
25% [250 points]: ALEKS HW = twice weekly, aleks pie mastery goals
10% [100 points]: Written HW = lab notebook spot checks / in-class activities
60% [600 points]: Exams = weekly proctored aleks assessments
5% [50 points]: Attendance
The standard grading scheme applies: 90% A; 80% B, 70% C, 60 % D.
ALEKS Homework: Most of your work in this course will be completed online in ALEKS, including
homework and exams. Your task is to 'learn' all the topics (problem types) in our aleks course over the
duration of our course. In order to 'learn' a topic on aleks, you must either get one question right on an
assessment, or get several questions right on this topic in 'learning' mode. Then aleks will add the topics
to your 'PIE', a pie chart containing all the topics in the course. Our pie contains 180 topics, which mean
on average you should 'learn' 36 topics per week until the last week, save that for review!
Rather than assigning specific topics to be completed each week, I have set 'Pie mastery percentages'
and your Aleks HW grade will be based on the extent to which you meet those goals. The first goal to
get you started is due Wednesday, May 27. After that, goal due dates are each Saturday and Tuesday as
in the following chart, with the final goal due Friday, July 3 (the day after the final exam). This works out
to be 12 'goals', so there are 12 'homework grades' that combine to make your total ALEKS HW grade.
However I've weighted the final goal more heavily than the others:
'HW assignment'
Pie Mastery Goal
Due @ 11:59 pm on:
Worth (out of 250 points):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
5%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
95%
100%
Wed, May 27
Sat, May 30
Tues, Jun 2
Sat, June 6
Tues, June 9
Sat, June 13
Tues, June 16
Sat, June 20
Tues, June 23
Sat, June 27
Tues, June 30
FRI, July 3
10 points (for getting to 5%)
20 points (etc.)
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
20 points
40 points
For example, there are 180 topics in the course. So for the Saturday, June 13 target of 50%, you should
try to have 50%(180) =90 topics in your pie. Your grade for that assignment is whatever percentage of
the goal 90 topics you've mastered. Your AlEKS HW grade is 100% if you have mastered more than 90
topics by that date.
Written HW: You must learn to write and communicate mathematics, not just type answers into boxes
on the screen. So each student will be required to keep a spiral-bound notebook or 3-ring binder with
looseleaf lined paper (or graph paper), and each student will be required to write out on paper solutions
to ALL problems worked in aleks during class. This will be your lab notebook, bring it to class each day,
and I will spot-check and grade random pages of this, to help you learn to write mathematics. I may
also on periodic days request students to write up a problem of a certain type and hand it in for grading
as an in-class activity. Each request (lab spot check or in-class activity) will be of equal weight, and your
scores will be averaged to produce your Written HW grade.
Exams and aleks assessments: Aleks checks your memory via adaptive quizzes called 'assessments'.
ALEKS' philosophy is that it is not just enough to get a topic added to your pie once, after that you must
also demonstrate throughout the course that you can still do all the topics you learned previously.
You take an initial assessment when you first enter the course, as a pretest, which contains questions
from the whole course. After that, there are two types of assessments that can be given during the
course. One is a 'comprehensive' assessment, which contains questions from all topics you've learned,
mastered, or are 'ready to learn' thus far since the course started. The other is a 'progress' assessment,
which contains questions mostly from only the topics you've recently learned (that is, learned but not
mastered on previous assessments), and a few you are 'ready to learn'. Aleks will give progress
assessments by default after a student learns 20-40 topics, unless the instructor schedules them at
certain times.
Due to our shortened session, I have scheduled mandatory assessments for every Thursday at 9 am,
and I blocked aleks from giving automatic assessments in between these dates. The scheduled
assessments must be taken as I am counting the SCHEDULED ASSESSMENTS (after the initial assessment)
AS THE COURSE EXAMS FOR YOUR GRADE, and you must be present during class on these dates to take
these assessments proctored.
There are midterm and final assessments that are comprehensive, and worth more (they are like
exams). The other weekly progress assessments are worth less (they are like quizzes). See chart:
assessment
type
in-class on:
Initial Assessment
Scheduled Assessment 1
Scheduled Assessment 2
Scheduled Assessment 3
Scheduled Assessment 4
Scheduled Assessment 5
Pie %
goal
N/A
5%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Initial (pretest)
Progress
Progress
Comprehensive
Progress
Progress
Tuesday, May 27
Thursday, May 29
Thursday, June 4
Thursday, June 11
Thursday, June 18
Thursday, June 25
Worth (out of
600)
0 points
50 points
75 points
150 points
75 points
75 points
Scheduled Assessment Final
95%
Comprehensive
Thursday, July 2
175 points
Your grade on the scheduled assessments is based on the target from the previous Tuesday's goal. For
example, Tuesday Jun 9's goal is 40% of the pie. 40% of 180 topics = 72 topics, so the grade you earn on
the scheduled assessment on Thursday June 11 is the percentage of 72 topics that you have in your pie
after taking the assessment. (Anything more than 72 topics is a 100% on the assessment.)
Attendance: It is important that you come to class daily in order to master the material. Attending
class regularly is in your own interest, and attendance will be taken. ** Attendance at the scheduled
assessments on Thursdays is required, alternate arrangements can only be made if I am given written
notification of a university-approved absence. ** There is no provision for absences due to vacations,
family outings, and other social activities, other special plans and appointments, etc. Absences due to
illness require a medical excuse on Physician’s letterhead, signed by the physician, which must be
submitted before any alternate arrangements for an exam will be considered.
For your 50 points of attendance, there are 23 class periods, so for each unexcused absence I will
deduct 2 points from your possible 50 points toward attendance.
Strategy/Advice: It is very important that you take your time and do the best you can on the
assessments. Not only do they count as exam grades, but the better you do on these assessments, the
less work you will have to do to reach your pie mastery goals, since getting a question right on an
assessment adds it to your pie, but in learning mode you have to get a topic right AT LEAST 3 times.
Getting questions right on Assessments can help you add topics to your pie, but it can also take topics
out of your pie if you get them wrong. So take your time and check your answers!
So here's how to think about this. You have goal targets for pie mastery each Tuesday and Saturday,
with assessments in between on Thursdays. So you work daily on adding topics to your pie in 'learning
mode', then you take assessments on Thursdays, which can add topics to your pie or delete them.
Usually assessments remove some topics from you pie as students often make mistakes even in
problems they know. So try to exceed your targets on Tuesdays, so that if you miss things on Thursday,
you can work to catch up by the following Saturday goal target.
NOTE: ONLY THE ALEKS CALCULATOR IS ALLOWED TO BE USED ON EXAMS IN THIS CLASS!!!!
I recommend you only use the aleks calculator on HW, to get used to it!
Main Topics in Math 105 / Recommended Schedule:
Week 1: Chp 1 Compound & Absolute Value Equalities/Inequalities
+ Chp 2 Relations, Functions, and Graphs of function
+ Chp 3 Solving Systems of Equations and Applications
Week 2: Chp 4 Multiplication, Division, Factoring Polynomials & Solving Polynomial Equations
+ Chp 5 Rational Expressions & Rational Equations
Week 3: Chp 6 Radicals & Complex Numbers
Week 4: Chp 8 Exponential & Logarithmic Functions & Applications
Week 5: Chp 7 Quadratic Equations, Functions and Graphs
Week 6: Catchup/Review
Time Investment: For accreditation purposes, the course syllabus provides information on the minimum
investment of time by an average student to achieve the learning goals of the course. (The total number
of hours should be at least 48 per credit hour awarded for the course; here, 48 x 3 = 144). See
https://www4.uwm.edu/secu/docs/faculty/2838_Credit_Hour_Policy.pdf
The minimum time an average student should expect to spend on this class is as follows:
Time in the classroom (face to face instruction) = 33 hours
Time taking exams = 6 hours
Time completing assignments = 60 hours
Time spent reading lecture and other material = 25 hours
Time for preparation and study for exams = 20 hours
You may need to spend more time if you are less familiar with the prerequisite material.
Note: In our short 6 week session this averages out to 17.5 hours each week outside of class!
That's about 3 hours a day if you work 6 days a week (say every weekday plus one weekend day).
Additional University Policies:




Room changes, course cancellations, etc., will be emailed to the students and posted outside of
the classroom door.
Students will be allowed to complete examinations or other requirements that are missed
because of a religious observance.
If you will need special accommodations in order to meet any of the requirements of the course,
please contact the instructor as soon as possible.
Information on other UWM policies can be found at
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf
Academic Misconduct: The University has a responsibility to promote academic honesty and integrity
and to develop procedures to deal effectively with instances of academic dishonestly. Students are
responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work, for the appropriate citation of
sources, and for respect of others’ academic endeavors. Further information can be found at:
http://www4.uwm.edu/acad_aff/policy/academicmisconduct.cfm
Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment is reprehensible and will not be tolerated by the University. It
subverts the mission of the University and threatens the careers, educational experience, and well being
of students, faculty and staff. The University will not tolerate behavior between or among members of
the University community that creates an unacceptable working environment. The policy on
discriminatory conduct, including sexual harassment, can be found at:
http://www4.uwm.edu/sexualharassment/
Repeat Policy: According to university policy, students attempting to repeat a Mathematical Sciences
course for the second time (third taking) need permission of the student’s academic deans office. If you
are a student in this situation, please contact your academic dean’s office ASAP, obtain permission from
them for this repeat, and then take your completed add/drop form (including academic dean approval)
to Mellencamp Hall 274.