Prerequisites: Two years of high school mathematics beyond plane geometry, including trigonometry.
Text: Calculus I with Precalculus, 2nd Edition, by
Larson, Hostetler and Edwards.
Calculators: You should have a graphing calculator available for use in class and on exams. If you are buying a new one, the department recommends the TI-83 or TI-86. You may use other calculators (especially other TIs, Casios, HP or Sharp) as long as you are able to enter a simple program into your calculator and you are comfortable with basic graphing features. Calculators with symbolic algebra capability (e.g. TI-89 or TI-92) will not be allowed during exams. A calculator is on reserve in the library (ask at the front desk).
Course Webpage: The best source of information about this course is available at http://www.gac.edu/~anenow2/MCS_119/ . There you will find a complete syllabus, course description, current homework and prep problems, and so on.
Course Objectives: By taking this class you
should:
Classes: Classes will be used for discussions, problem solving, lectures, and other fun activities. You should prepare for classes by doing the reading beforehand, thinking about the problems in the text, doing the prep problems, and formulating questions of your own. You should also participate as much as possible in class. Class meetings are not intended to be a complete encapsulation of the course material. You will be responsible for learning some of the material on your own.
Attendance, both physical and mental, is required.
Absences from class: Should you need
to miss a class for any reason, you are still responsible for the
material covered in that class. This means that you will need to make
sure that you understand the reading for that day, that you should ask
another student for the notes from that day, and make sure that you
understand what was covered. It also means that if we had an
assignment that we did in class that day, you will get a 0 for that
assignment. If there is an assignment due that day, you should be sure
to have someone hand it in. You do not need to explain why you missed a
class unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
Should you miss more than four classes, no matter what the reason, I
will lower you semester grade by at least a third.
Homework : You will need to read a section
of the book and do problems for each day that we have
class. There are two kinds of homework: prep problems and
study problems.
Prep problems are assigned to help you prepare for class. You are
expected to do them after you've read a section but before
we have class on that section. Except in extreme
circumstances, I
will not accept late prep problems and you will not be able to make up
missed assignments. Note that if you have questions, you can
always email them to me the night before class. I will either
answer the questions in class or by email.
Study problems are designed to help you learn the material we
cover in class and in the reading. You
should read the material and attempt the problems before coming to
class. You should finish the problems after class. Approximately
twice a week, you
will hand in your solutions to some of the problems you did. These
should be
neatly written on standard sized paper, and with all of the pages
stapled together. The sections and problem numbers should be clearly
labeled. My grader will only grade a
few sample problems.
On the day that study problems are due, you will be asked to place your work in the yellow homework folder. After class, I place the folder outside my office door for the grader. Any homework that is not in this folder when the grader gets it is considered late. Late homework will be accepted as long as I get it before my grader hands back the graded assignments. (Alternatively, you can put it in the blue folder for late homework.) In that case, the homework will be graded but you will lose 30% of the points on that assignment.
Quizzes and Exams: We will have five to seven in-class
quizzes
during
the semester, as well as a midterm and a final exam. These tests
make up the majority of your semester grade. In particular, be
sure not to underestimate the importance of quizzes. If you do
poorly on quizzes, you will do poorly in the course. The midterm
will be given in the evening on Tuesday, October 16. The
final is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, December 18, at 8:00 am.
Academic Integrity: In this course, you are expected to
to adhere to
the highest standards of academic honesty, to uphold the Gustavus
Honor Code and to abide by the Academic
Honesty Policy.
Copies of these can be found in Academic
Bulletin
and in the Gustavus
Guide.
On homework, you should make a real effort to solve each
problem
by yourself, although you can and should discuss problems
and their
solutions with your classmates after
you've made this effort. You should give credit to any people or
texts that
helped you find solutions. On tests, you are expected to
work completely by yourself.
You will be expected to sign the honor pledge on every quiz and
exam.
Course grade:
| Class participation |
5% |
| Homework | 20% |
| Quizzes |
25% |
| Midterm Exam |
30% |
| Final Exam |
20% |