Academic Conduct: Your conduct in this course, as with all CAS courses, is governed by the CAS Academic Conduct Code. Copies of the code are available from the CAS Dean's office (CAS 105). Specifics rules for specific assignments will be discussed in lecture.
The "Golden Rule" of academic conduct is to "Give Credit Where Credit is Due". That is, if you use or consult a source, including a book, journal, web page or person, then cite that source (i.e., give sufficient information so that someone reading your work could determined what information you used and be able to find the source). The details of the form necessary in citation varies greatly from subject to subject.
If you have any doubt about any aspect of proper citation or academic conduct, ask.
Text: Calculus: Concepts & Contexts 3rd edition by J. Stewart.: We will cover most of chapters 6-8 with a review of chapter 5. You should have covered the material of chapters 1-5.5 in your Calculus 1 class.
Grading Criteria: Your grade will be based on the following (Subject to adjustment during the semester):
Technology: You will need web access for course materials and you will been to be on the registrar's email list to receive course information emails.
You will NOT be allowed to use calculators of any kind on exams, so you should practice working without a calculator.
Help outside class: There are mony sources for help on course work (in addition to my office hours).
Common Questions and Philosophy: This is a standard second semester of Calculus for scientists/engineers/statisticians and mathematicians. We begin with a quick review of the material in Calculus 1, up to the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. This material should be very familiar--I will assume that you have taken Calculus 1 up through the Fundamental TheoremAND you remember what you have learned.
Study groups: I encourage you to form study groups and to spend some (not all) of you study time with your group. You may discuss homework problems with anyone you like, however you must keep a list of those you discuss a problem with and include that list as a reference. For example, at the end of a problem you can write--"I dicussed this problem with Jane Smith and Joan Jones" or " The key idea in this solution was told to me by Mary Kelp." Provide these acknowledgements even when you do the talking. Helping another person do a problem helps you organize your thoughts on the problem.
Be sure to "write up" your work on your own. While I encourage you to discuss problems with fellow students, you should work alone when you write up your homework. This means that while the key ideas may be the same on two papers, the overall organization, and the details of computations will always differ. Working together on the ideas helps everyone--copying doesn't help anyone. Repeated violation of this rule will be an Academic Conduct matter.
Evaluation: I must assign grades. While these grades will have little global importance (in 20 years you probably won't remember what you got in MA 124), I understand that they do have great local importance for reasons of financial aid, etc.
One way to assign grades is to decide that the top 10 percent will get A's, next 10 percent A-'s etc. This is standard, but to my mind, flawed. It assumes that knowledge is a limited resource. Since this is false (understanding can be indefinitely reproduced), I will not use this scheme. Hence, this class is not a competition.
Instead, I will set grade lines on exams apriori. (That is, I make up the exam, then look at it and decide "a 85 is an excellent score--any one getting an 85 or above should get an A," etc.) This means that everyone could get an A (or no one could get an A).
I expect there will be relatively few A's. The "community standard" for 100 and 200 level classes is a median on the B-/C+, but the distribution is not symmetric with relatively few A's, D's and F's
When I evaluate your work, I can not look inside your head--I must judge what you can say and particualarly write. When I hear someone say "I understand the material, but I can't do the problems." I know that it means "I have a superficial understanding of the material, but I have not yet mastered it to the level which will allow me to do the problems." Be professional about your written work (there is no excuse for sloppy work).
Remember Everything: The key to success is to learn many things and remember all the ideas/facts/techniques that you need when you need them. Since there is no way to predict what you will need or when you will need it, you have to learn as much as possible and remember it all. Given my choice, I would wait to give the final for several years--what you learn and then forget within that time was wasted effort.
Teaching: I can't reach inside your head and insert new neurons (and thats a good thing). Teaching means to organizing and presenting the material, providing exercises and labs which challenge you and evaluating your work. What you learn depends on what work you do--if you get a good grade, don't thank me, thank yourself.