 |
Buffalo State College
Department of Mathematics
Math 126 Course Description and Requirements
Fall 2005
Section 2028 Section 2030
M-W-F 8:00 M-W-F 10:00
Rockwell 202 Rockwell 201
Required Calculator: Any Scientific Calculator (NOT 4-Function!)
Optional Calculator: Any model of the TI-83 or TI-84
Text: Applied Calculus, 6th edition, S. T. Tan, Thompson - Brooks/Cole, 2005
Instructor: Robert Koehler
Web Page : http://www.mathbykoehler.com
email: rlk@mathbykoehler.com
Office: 309 Bishop Hall (878-6439)
Office Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri: 9:00 - 10:00; Mon Wed: 11:00 - 12:00
Other times by arrangement or if you catch me in my office.
I am NOT on campus Tues. or Thurs.
Course Outline:
- Functions, Limits, Continuity, The Derivative
- Differentiation Techniques; Higher-order derivatives; implicit differenetiation and related rates; differentials
- Applications of the derivative; concavity; curve sketching; optimization
- Exponential and logarithmic functions; compound interest; continuous growth and decay, differentiation
- Anti-derivatives; initial value problems; area under a curve
General philosophy:
The activities that I have planned for this course are designed to help you learn calculus, and hopefully even enjoy the process. I will do all I can to make this a reality. But you must do your part.
From your earlier experiences in mathematics in college and high school, you know how important it is to keep up with course work. The most frequent problem students encounter in Calculus at this level is that the instructor moves too quickly. While we do move quickly - more so than in high school - you must realize that there is a great deal of material to cover in the course, and we meet only three days a week, rather than the five days you may be accustomed to from high school. You must regularly spend the necessary time to keep up with the material, and not let yourself fall behind, even a little. Be sure to take advantage of the office hours available, the Math Place (schedule to be announced), and the tutoring in Academic Skills. The frequent quizzes and problem sets are also intended to keep you abreast of the material we cover, and to master it in a timely manner. I will return these to you almost always the next class day.
The point rebate available on tests and quizzes is meant to give you an opportunity to re-learn concepts that you may have mis-learned, or forgotten.
I am available for office hours every Monday and Wednesday. Fridays by arrangement, or if you catch me in my office. I do prefer to be working with students rather than just sitting around and doing paper work that I could do at other times. Please come in. We can often take care of problem concepts quickly and painlessly. If you plan to come in any early morning before class, please check with me the previous class day.
Attendance:
Mathematics is, as you are doubtlessly aware, a discipline that builds on what was done previously. Calculus is no exception to this rule. Therefore, any class absence for whatever reason can be deleterious to your progress. Attendance will be taken every class. You are expected you to be here every day, including the days after tests and quizzes. If you are absent, you have the responsibility of making up all work that you missed.
There will be a 50 point attendance grade. You will be allowed to miss two classes. Beyond that, three points will be deducted from the 50 point grade for each absence. This is to allow for unavoidable emergencies that may occur. Do NOT expect to be able to "take a cut" early in the semester, and then be granted a reprieve later on because of a later unavoidable absence. Your regular attendance is one of the best indicators of success in this course. As you are most likely aware, it is the nature of any math course that is it extremely difficult to make up missed work.
Makeups:
There are no makeup tests or quizzes without written verification of the legitimate reason for absence. You will have one week from the day of the quiz/test to make it up. You may have a maximum of one makeup test/quiz during the semester. It must be taken during an office hour, within two class meeitings of the original test date.
Daily Preparation: (study and homework problems)
There will be daily assignments given to aid in your mastery of the topics we cover. These will not be collected. You should expect to spend a minimum of 6 hours for work in this course, outside of class, every week. This includes daily homework and study, as well as problem sets. I will regularly list assignments, problem sets, quiz/test dates and any general announcements on my web page: mathbykoehler.com. You may also navigate to this site through the math department/staff page on the college web site.
Study groups
These can be a great help, as can taking advantage of the office hours provided. I urge you to find a small group of classmates who are willing to get together on a regular basis. There is a conferenece room available in Bishop 326 for your use.
Problem Sets:
There will be two problem sets assigned during the semester. These are in addition to daily homework, and must be submitted by the due date to receive full credit. You must show all work, or include the calculator input line used to generate the answers. I will list these on my web page.
Office hours:
See schedule above. I urge you to take advantage of them when necessary. And we should expect that this will be necessary from time to time.
Required Calculator:
You will be permitted to use a graphing calculator in class, on assignments, and most tests and quizzes. I will be using the TI-83 in class and lab demonstrations.
We in the math department realize that the book and calculator represent a significant financial investment on your part. However, please realize that the text will be the same for Calculus I and II, , so the cost will be amortized over a longer period than usual. A graphing calculator can be of good use in science courses as well.
Because the study of calculus involves some mathematical computation that can at times be quite involved, the use of a calculator will enable us to focus on understanding the basic concepts and uses of the calculus, rather than on computation. On the other hand, since there are some calculus skills you must be able to do by hand, there will be times, both in class and on tests/quizzes, when use of the calculator will not be permitted.
Calculus concepts are frequently best thought of in a visual manner, so use of the graphing calculator will assist us in the investigation of these new concepts. Without the use of the calculator technology, we would be often limited to artificially created problems whose given numeric values would simplify the computations necessary to their solutions. With the graphing calculator, this artificial nature of problems will be avoided. In turn, it will enable us to study more realistic problems.
Point Rebate:
I will allow you the opportunity for a point rebate on tests and quizzes (not problem sets) except for the final examination. I will discuss requirements for this in class on the day I return the first quiz. You may also go to the Math 126 rebate page. Your completion of the point rebate is optional. But you can only gain from it.
Grading Policy:
There will be a grade sheet published occasionally to let you know where you stand during the course of the semester. Based on the sample schedule below, points will be awarded as follows:
Hour Tests 3 @ 100 pts each = 300
Quizzes 5 of 6 @ 30 pts each = 150
(low quiz grade dropped)
Problem Sets 2 @ 75 pts each = 150
Attendance = 50
Final Exam = 150
---------
Total = 800
Your Course Grade is based on total points. In this example: 800. Divide your total points by 8 to get a per cent.
Grade cutoffs:
A 92 - 100
A- 90 - 91
B+ 87 - 89
B 82 - 86
B- 80 - 81
C+ 77 - 79
C 72 - 76
C- 70 - 71
D+ 67 - 69
D 60 - 66
E 0 - 59
Extra Credit:
You may earn extra points toward an extra credit grade by putting particular problems on the board, or by doing specified extra credit problems on a problem set, or turning in solutions to extra credit problems given with day-to-day assignments.
The extra credit points you earn will be added to both your total points, and to the total possible points (800 in the example). These two numbers are then divided to get your average. For example, say you get 690 / 8 ( = 86; B) on normal grades, and there are 300 points possible on extra credit problems. Asume you get 105 extra credit points. The 105 is added to both the 690 and the 800, giving you an average of 795 / 9.05 ( = 88; B+). The 300 itself does NOT enter into the average computation.
top of page
top of page
|
|
