Syllabus for 1501 Calculs I Section B1/B2
David Howard
May 18, 2009
Hello and welcome to Calculus 1. Calculus is a very difficult subject and
I believe that you will need to put in a lot of effort to succeed in this course.
That being said I promise if you are willing to put forth the effort I am
willing to help you succeed. Calculus is one of the most useful subjects in
mathematics. It has applications in engineerings, physics, biology, chemistry,
statistics, economics and more, and is therefore a very useful tool to have.
It is my belief that the best way to learn material in any subject is to
have variety among teaching and learning activities as well as different forms
of assessment. Often to fully grasp a topic or skill one must approach it from
many angles. For example, when learning to play basketball, coaches tell
their players to do numerous different types of drills, lecture as to why such
defensive and offensive techniques are successful, show players video tapes
of opposing teams and much more. I believe the same is true in learning
mathematics. It is for this reason that throughout the semester in class there
will be a variety of different learning activities outside of the normal lecture
format. These will include in-class problems to solve (group and individual),
viewing poster presentations, and listening to students solve problems in
recitation.
It is my belief that there are many benefits from this class regardless of
future area of work student:
• Practice working in groups
• Get practice with giving presentations whether it be by doing in-class
problems or during the poster presentation.
• Get a larger appreciation for calculus by seeing its application in many
different areas.
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Learning Goals and Integration
1 Students will learn to differentiate any elementary function.
2 Students will learn to integrate certain elementary function using techniques u-substitution, the fundamental theorem of calculus, integration
by parts, and partial fractions.
3 Students will relate calculus with outside fields of study.
4 Students will learn to seek out help and tutoring resources available to
them.
5 Students will witness the value of doing prep work before a topic’s
introduction.
6 Students will remember the idea of the fundamental theorem of calculus.
The Teaching and Learning activities in this class along with the topics
discussed in this class are there to help you complete these learning goals.
The assessments (quizzes, tests, and poster presentation) are designed to test
how well you have completed these goals.
Expectations
As I said in the second sentence of this syllabus I expect the course to be
difficult. It is therefore your responsibility to make sure you stay caught up
with the material. Knowing this, it is my responsibility to try to help you
succeed in this course. Please know that I am very available for you. You are
encouraged to come see me during office hours for any help or clarification
on any of the problems assigned to you or shown in class. If you are having
difficulty in this class (and believe me you won’t be alone if this is the case)
I can offer you some personal suggestions on how to better understand particular concepts.
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1.) General Information:
Instructor
Office
Phone
E-mail
Office Hours
Webpage
TA
TA
TA
TA
TA
TA
David Howard
Skiles 138A
(404) 894-6365
dmh@math.gatech.edu
M, W 10:30-11:45am or by appointment
tsquare.gatech.edu
Ulfar Stefansson
Office
Skiles 166
Phone
(404) 894-5256
E-mail
ustefans@math.gatech.edu
Office Hours
T,R 12-1pm
Math Lab Hour T,R 1-2pm
Lecture
Recitation
Web
Text
M,W,F 9:20-10:30, Skiles 243
Skiles 240
tsquare.gatech.edu
Salas, Hille, and Etgen, Calculus, One and Several Variables, 10th Edition.
2.) Homework: Homework will be split into two types of assignments. The
first will be a reading assignment that will be due every Sunday, Tuesday,
and Thursday at 10pm every night turned in via tsquare. These assignments
will be graded based on effort and not correctness (obviously try to get the
questions correct). No collaboration is allowed. There will also be homework
due every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, however it will not be collected.
I will only assign odd number problems (so that you have the answers). The
reason for this is I will ask one question from the homework on the daily quiz
given every recitation.
3.) Tests, Quizzes, Poster presentation, Mastery Exams, and Final:
Tests will be given in Recitation on the following dates:
June 4th
June 25th
July 16th
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The final exam will be on Jul. 28th
Quizzes - Every recitation period except week 1, dead week, and the test
dates will have a quiz. Thursday’s Quizzes will be on the material discussed
on the prior Friday and Monday. The Tuesday quizzes will be over the material on the material covered on the prior Wednesday.
Poster Presentation - This will be explained more later. The idea will
be to see how calculus is used in your area.
Master Exams - In addition to the tests you will be required to pass
2 mastery exams, one on differentiation and one on integration. These exams are required (but do not guarantee) to receive a passing grade in this
class (A,B, or C), and you must receive an 85% or higher on these exams or
permission of the instructor. The possible list of problems for the mastery
exams will be given to you far in advance and you will have up to 3 attempts
to pass each exam. You may take these exams during my office hours or the
TA’s office hours, or by appointment.
4.) Participation and attendance: Participation grades will be assigned
by myself and the TA’s, this will be judged based on in class assignments
graded only on 0-1 scale based on completion and not necessarily correct answers. Attendance is required for the participation grade although it will not
be graded explicitly. Also, it is highly encouraged to let your voice be heard
in class. ASK QUESTIONS, MAKE COMMENTS, SPEAK UP! I am here
to help you so if something isn’t making sense to you SAY SOMETHING,
and I will do my best to answer your comments.
5.) Lateness policy: Quizzes can be made up, however all other assignments (poster presentation, test take-home), will not be accepted late unless
a student has a university excused absence, in such cases the student is
required to show me the excused absence 1 week in advance. The only exception to this will be if it was clearly impossible to show me the excused
absence paperwork in advance, in which case the student is still to notify me
as soon as possible.
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6.) Grading:
Reading Assignments
Lecture Participation
Recitation Participation
Poster Presentation
Quizzes
Tests
Final Exam
Mastery Exams
5%
5%
5%
5%
10%
40%*
30%
Required for passing grade
* Your best two tests will count 15% of your grade, the lowest will be
worth 10%.
Grade appeals on tests must be made in writing within a week after the test
has been handed back and returned to me, NOT Ulfar.
Grades will most likely be based on a curve but any student receiving over
90% will receive an A. Students in the 80-89% will receive at least a B, 7079% at least a C, and 60-69% at least a D.
7.) The Honor Code. It is the responsibility of each of us to be aware
of the provisions the Institute’s honor code and to adhere scrupulously to a
policy of academic honesty. The Honor Code protects the integrity of the
Institute’s degrees, and any violation of code is a very serious matter. If
you wish to know whether some action or procedure allowed under the code,
please ask before you act. In-class assignments will be done in groups, inclass quizzes and tests will be done alone. The take-home portion of tests you
will be allowed to work together however you may not ask any TA, myself or
any other person not in this class for help. Finally, the poster presentation
will be done in groups. Every assignment will have the expectations of what
will be considered cheating and what will be considered allowable.
8.) Test/Quiz Policy: The only item that you may use on a test is a pen or
pencil. In particular there are no calculators or any other electronic device
of any kind permitted for use on tests and quizzes.
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9.) Schedule The specific list of topics covered in this class will match that
of the chapters covered in the book, so please read the course schedule attachment.
10.) Final notes: The pace in this course is very fast and for many people
this will likely be the most difficult class in their schedule. It is very important
that you keep up as playing catch up is very difficult. I am very approachable
and am happy to help you succeed in this class if you are willing to put forth
the effort.
It is the student’s responsibility to notify me of any potential test or
scheduling conflicts well in advance of the test dates. Also, if there are any
special concerns or special needs by any student (for example a disability
form) please let me know as soon as possible.
Additionally, the policies, schedule, and procedures listed above are subject to change based on the will of the class and myself. Theses changes will
be announced on the course web page (tsquare) and in class.
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