Old Announcements:

We now have a TA for this course. Amy Rives is a junior math major, and she will schedule problem sessions (homework help) soon!

Amy Veprauskas is our PLI. She will run practice sessions for this course on Thursdays at 7 PM in Park 349 (for now---if this turns out to be a bad day and time, we can change it).

The Math Department’s Welcome Back Toast happens Tuesday! Stop by any time between 3:30 and 5 PM to toast the new academic year! For the official invitation, click here.

Amy Rives will lead problem sessions (help with homework) for this course on Sundays in Park 336, 6 – 8 PM. This week is an exception. The problem session this week happens Tuesday in Park 349, 6 – 8 PM.

Amy Veprauskas will lead practices sessions (not for homework help) for this course on Thursdays in Park 349, 7 – 8 PM.

Homework will be collected weekly on Mondays. This week is an exception. Homework is due this week on Wednesday, September 10. I will collect homework again on Monday, September 15.

The Math Computer Lab (Park 354) will be open and staffed with a math major that knows Mathematica on:

• Sundays 6 – 9 PM
• Mondays 5 – 7 PM
• Tuesdays 3 – 4 PM and 6 – 7 PM
• Wednesdays 7 – 8 PM
• Thursdays 6 – 7 PM

You are invited for pizza lunch in my office! Please sign up on the sheet that I bring to class. Unfortunately I can only do pizza lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays (due to a tight MWF schedule). I realize these days are not good for some people. If you are one of them, then please stop by my office sometime to say hello so I can meet you that way. The last two pizza lunch times have been switched from 1:10 PM to 12:10 PM.

For practice problem 59 in Section 1.1 do part a only.

You may find a calculator useful for the next few in-class assignments.

Don’t forget to read the sample rubrics found via the Syllabus link below.

Mathematica Assignments can be found via the Syllabus link below.

If you would like to see the homework grading rubrics, please stop by my office during office hours.

If you would like to check your work (after it has been handed back) against a solutions manual, please stop by office hours (or ask Amy R. (problem sessions) or Amy V. (PLI)).

I would like all students to keep a List of Grievances and Special Requests concerning homework. If you feel you should receive credit for a late assignment because you joined the class late, had a family emergency, experienced personal heath problems, forgot to hand your paper in, overslept, or some other reason, please keep a record this special request. If you feel like the grader misinterpreted your work, misread the rubric, added points incorrectly, or for some other reason gave you fewer points than you deserve, please also record this grievance. At the end of the term you can compute your homework score according to the formula given on the Course Information link below. If the points you feel you deserve turn out to make the difference between a particular letter grade and a higher grade, then I will ask you to bring the List together with the relevant assignments to my office sometime during the last two weeks of the semester (November 27 through December 11) for evaluation.

The Sunday Mathematica lab hours have been changed to 3 – 5 PM and 6 – 7 PM. For a complete list hours, see the Course Information link below.

The first Putnam Club meeting happens Monday, September 22 at 8 PM in Park 328. The Putnam Club works on challenging, nontraditional math problems that prepare them to participate in the Putnam Competition, the premiere undergraduate mathematics competition in the United States.

Please use the Sample Rubrics that are linked to the Syllabus page! I have to tell the paper graders how to assign points to homework. To create a grading rubric for a particular exercise, I first do the problem myself, then assign points for each essential step in the solution. With the rubrics students can receive partial credit for incorrect solutions. On the other hand, students who do all their work on scratch paper, or in their heads, don’t receive points according to the rubric. To make sure you get the points you deserve, please check the sample rubric to see how exercises similar to assigned homework problems will be graded, and record your responses in the same form.

Feeling rusty on trigonometry? The mathematics department offers a Trig Mini Course refresher. Sessions run 7 – 9 PM in Park 243 on Monday 9/22, Wednesday 9/24, Monday 9/29 and Wednesday 10/1. Sessions are worth 25 points extra credit for the first session you attend and 10 points for each additional session. If you don’t need to review trig, don’t waste your time---there will be other extra credit opportunities! If you do go to one or more sessions, please let me know how many via email so that I can record your extra credit.

• Monday 9/22: Introduction to Trigonometry and the Unit Circle
• Wednesday 9/24: Identities Used for Calculus
• Monday 9/29: Graphs of Trigonometric Functions
• Wednesday 10/1: Trigonometry Review

Student Solutions Manuals are now available on reserve in Collier Science Library on the third floor of Park (officially room 362).

Finding class confusing? The worksheets bewildering? Please make time for Peer Led Instruction (PLI) on Thursdays, 7 – 8 PM, in Park 349. Amy V. is one of our best and nicest math majors. It is her job to explain calculus concepts, help with practice problems, discuss the worksheets, and answer any calculus questions you may have. Please take advantage of this incredibly valuable, yet completely free, resource! (And don’t forget office hours….)

How can YOU do INTERESTING math over the summer, have FUN, and get PAID for it? Find out at:

• Summer Math Experiences Panel Discussion
• Friday, October 3
• 3 PM
• Park 243

Panelists include Melania Macko (Finance Intern at Novartis), Jillian Brown (Global Wealth Management Analyst at Merrill Lynch), Amanda Lu (Life Product Management at Met Life), Amanda Hittson (James Madison University REU), Jackie Lang (Williams College REU), and Sarah Khasawinah (Hong Kong City University REU).

• Come to learn about exciting opportunities for math students.
• Stay for refreshments and one-on-one Q & A to follow.
• Earn 25 points of extra credit. Email me afterwards to claim your points!

Bonus points for the panel on Friday will go only to people who can stay for the entire discussion. It’s really distracting to the speakers to have people coming and going while they’re speaking, so I’d like people to come only if they can stay the whole time.

The Mathematics Shakespeare Reading Group meets Friday, October 3 at 7:10 PM In Park 355 (the math lounge) to read The Comedy of Errors, make jokes, and share fantastic homemade desserts! All are welcome!

Please make an effort to do calculus every day! To learn calculus properly it is not enough simply to come to class and do the homework the night before it is due. The homework serves as an indication of the types of problems you should be able to solve, but is not sufficient to learn calculus. Learning calculus is like learning lines in a play, learning to serve a tennis ball, or learning to conjugate Latin verbs. You have to practice to make progress. The solutions manuals can help you check your practice work, and the PLI Amy (Thursdays at 7) can answer your questions. I can also answer questions in office hours.

Please ask me about concerns you have with the homework grading! Please also ask me in my office. There is not enough time before or after (and certainly not during) class. I want to make sure the grading is fair, but I don’t want to take away time from our class or the class which follows us in the room.

Please ask questions about homework (or anything else) during office hours. There are five office hours per week. We also have a problem session on Sunday nights for two hours where you can ask questions about homework. We don’t have time to spend in class going over homework. Many universities offer 4 or 5 credit calculus courses. Ours is 3 credits and we have to cover the same content.

When you go to the problem sessions on Sunday nights, please bring the grading rubrics (linked to the syllabus page of the course website) with you. Amy R. can tell you how to do the problems, but she is not the one grading them. The graders use a rubric which is either exactly the same as, or quite similar to the one provided on the course website. Using the rubrics to write up your homework will save you the headache of not receiving credit for work you did in your head but didn’t record.

If you hope to claim points for late homework (due to a personal emergency or other legitimate concern) at the end of the semester, please determine how many points you deserve. To do this, bring your assignments to my office and check them using the scoring rubric and the answer key. If you feel your homework was misinterpreted or unfairly graded, please do the same. At the end of the term, when I review your List of Grievances and Special Requests, I will look for specific requests for numbers of points and reasons why they are deserved.

Due to several conversations I’ve had in my office lately, I feel I should provide the following explanation of the nature of college-level mathematics courses:

• I use class time to introduce, explain, and motivate the concepts and formulas you will practice later on your own.
• You should not expect to completely understand every detail of what happens in class. You should feel like you can follow the discussion in a very general way. You should also feel like the details will make sense when you take the time to go over them slowly on your own.
• We do not have time to practice calculus in class in the way you did in high school. The main learning in a college course happens on your own outside of class time.
• As a full-time student you should expect to put in full-time work into learning: 40 hours per week for 4 courses means 12 hours of class time and 28 hours of study time. This amounts to 28/4 = 7 hours per week per class--1 hour per day. If you miss one day, then it’s two hours the next day. These are minimal expectations for students who want to learn the basics. If you want to excel, you need to do more.
• All students need to beyond simply attending class and doing the assigned homework problems. You need to go reread your notes, understand the textbook, and practice doing exercises until you feel comfortable with the topics.
• When you run into a snag you can’t untangle on your own, you need to come to my office hours, or talk to Amy V. (our PLI). Amy R. can help you with homework.

The last pizza lunch of the semester is tomorrow (Tuesday, October 7) at 12:10. If you haven’t yet come for lunch, but would like to, please send me an email today!

If you went to the panel for the whole time on Friday, please don’t forget to email me!

The first midterm happens Friday, October 24 (the Friday following break). If you haven’t been keeping up with the practice exercises, then please start now!

The midterm covers Chapters 1 and 2 and Sections 3.1 – 3.5. You may bring one page of notes with you to the exam, but no calculator. I will give you a practice exam so that you know what to expect. To study for the exam you should do as many practice problems as possible. You should also go through the worksheets and slides slowly, making sure the concepts make sense, and that you’re not just memorizing procedures. There will be at least one question on the exam that asks you to explain something in words.

The homework for Section 3.5 is due after the exam, but the material from this section will appear on the exam, so you may wish to do it early.

Use Mathematica to check your homework! The Mathematica D assignment due after the exam shows you how, so you may wish to do it early as well. It’s linked to the Syllabus page below.

Attached to the Syllabus page is a list of Study Questions that will help you prepare for Midterm 1 (see the links for Wednesday, October 22). At least one of these questions will appear on the exam.

You may wish to look ahead at the slides for Wednesday, October 22. These slide review the material covered by the exam.

I have added practice problems for Chapter 3 to the Syllabus to help you prepare for tangent line, velocity, and other problems that may appear on the exam.

Since we finished the worksheet for Section 3.5 on the Friday before break, we will move Wednesday’s review slides up to Monday. On Wednesday in class, we will have an “office” hour in which you can ask questions about concepts or practice problems, work on the practice exam or your page of notes, compose responses to study questions, or anything else that helps you prepare for the exam.

The practice exam is similar to the midterm exam in length and style. Some midterm exam questions will have exactly the same format as those on the practice exam (with different specifics). Others questions will be different. All exam questions are either exactly the same as, or closely related to textbook exercises. Do as many practice problems as you can to study for the exam!

Amy R. will run a review session for the midterm on Wednesday, October 22, 7 – 9 PM in Park 338.

The PLI session for this course (with Amy V.) has been moved to Tuesday, 8 – 9 PM, in Park 328.

There is a mistake on the answer key for the practice exam. The answer to 4b should be 2.

To receive extra credit for the problems due Monday following the exam (see below), you may work with somebody else to figure them out, but you may not ask somebody that already knows how to do them for hints.

I found one more mistake and a typo on the answer key for the practice exam. For 3b I twice wrote “second” where I should have written “minute”. For 3d I wrote sin(2) – sin(–2) = 0 where I should have written sin(2) – sin(–2) = sin(2) – (–sin(2)) = 2sin(2).

Amanda Bowes will not have Mathematica hours at her regularly scheduled time of 3 – 5 PM on Sunday, October 26. Instead she will have them 12 – 2 PM that day.

The Math Majors Tea happens Tuesday, October 28, 3:30 – 5 PM in Park 355. All are invited! Come ask math majors which course to take next semester, and from whom to take it. Ask why they chose math as a major, and what’s its like.

A request from the paper graders: Please make an effort to make your homework legible---label the different sections and write in pencil. I do not assign heaps of homework precisely because I want you to have time to write your work up nicely for the graders. I have given the graders permission to take off points for sloppy and/or disorganized work.

The solutions to Midterm 1 are linked here. Please use them to learn from your mistakes! Note how similar the solution to 3b on Midterm 1 is to the solution to 3b on the Practice Midterm 1 (linked to the syllabus page). Please use all resources available to you when you study! For the distribution of scores, click here.

I photocopied the Section 3.6 extra credit problems from the homework of people that did them. I will grade them myself and return the photocopies.

Please do all extra credit assignments separate from homework assignments (do them on separate paper and look for a separate pile when you hand them in).

You may work with other people on homework assignments, but you may not ask somebody that already knows how to do the problem for help. It is not only unfair to ask tutors for help, or to consult the solutions manual, but also a violation of the honor code. Extra credit is for people who do extra thinking beyond that which is required for the course.

The next midterm happens Monday, November 24. It covers sections 3.7, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.7, and 4.9.

You may not use a calculator on the exam, but you may use a page of notes. All exam questions are based on practice problems. There is at least one exam question from each of the sections covered. To study for the exam you should do as many practice problems as possible.

A practice exam and its solutions are linked to the Syllabus page. You may work on this exam, or anything else, in class on Friday.

Mathematica lab hours for Sunday, November 23 have been changed from 6 – 7 PM to 7 – 8 PM.

The PLI session for Tuesday, November 25 has been moved to this Sunday, November 23, 2:30 – 4:30 PM in Park 336.

On Wednesday, November 26 we will work on an Extra Credit assignment in class. To receive credit for this assignment, you may either turn it in on Wednesday at the end of class, or on Monday following the break.

You may do Mathematica Assignments C, E, and F for Extra Credit. To receive credit, these assignments must be completed before December 1.

Mathematica lab hours for Sunday, November 30 have been changed from 6 – 7 PM to 8 – 9 PM.