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: Differential Equations by Blanchard, et. al.: We will cover all of chapters 1,2 and 3, most of 4 and 6 and some of 5. We will also cover additional sections added to chapter 2 and some sections on applications to partial differential equations. Handouts will be provided for these additional sections.
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.
Many exercises and almost all the labs will require that you use some sort of computing equipment (the arithmetic will be unmanagable by hand). You may use any machine/software to which you have legal access. The CD which comes with the text has general purpose differential equation routines (HPGSolver and HPGSystemSolver). MatLab is particularly useful, particularly as there an excellent "front end" packages available for using MatLab at the web address:
http://math.rice.edu/~dfield/
You may download these or use the web versions, but please DO NOT email Prof. Polking directly. (He is making these routines available for free, which is nice enough!)
I suggest you arrange for appropriate software (e.g. download dfield or playing with the CD in the book) as soon as possible so that you are sure that it is working when you need it.
Help outside class: There are mony sources for help on course work (in addition to my office hours).
Common Questions and Philosophy: This course differs from the standard MA 226 in two ways. We will cover more material and we will go into more depth. Since we only have a semester, this implies that you will have to learn a significant part of the standard material "on your own"--i.e., by reading the text, doing the exercises and asking questions as needed. It is therefore very important that you keep up to date with reading and homework.
Another aspect of this course that will be new is the "labs". These are extended assignments. They will require considerable work of many different kinds. You will have to interpret the questions, do appropriate calculations (both paper and pencil and numerical via computer) and write up your work in "prose" format. These are not "one night" projects. Specific instructions will be given with the lab assignments.
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 231), 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).
While I expect there to be very few A's, I expect the overall class average to be higher than typical for Sophomore DE classes.
(The administration requests that median grades for 100 and 200 level classes be on or near the B-/C+ line, but since you have chosen a more difficult version, I suspect median grades to be slightly higher.)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.
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).