Math 161, Section F
Syllabus
Fall, 2000

Welcome to a first course in Calculus. The Calculus stands out as one of the finest achievements of human thought, taking roughly two thousand years to come to fruition. The writings of Archimedes (287-212 B.C.; arguably one of the three greatest mathematicians ever) indicate that he was already taking the first rudimentary steps towards solving problems that we would classify under the umbrella of “Integral Calculus”. In fact, just about all efforts (when any were being made) were rudimentary, though perhaps more and more on target, until a fundamental insight came independently to Gottlieb Liebniz (1646-1716) and Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727; probably another of the top three) in the late 17th Century. Even so, all of the details were not flushed out into the form in which we understand them today until almost 200 years later. While our primary focus in this semester will be upon learning the concepts and techniques of Differential Calculus, we will take a look at some of this historical development and some of the broader issues of the role of Mathematics in life today.

Grading: There will be three in-class exams during the semester, on the following days:

October 2
October 23
November 20.

As you will see, I write these exams to determine how well you understand the material and can put it to use. Practically speaking, this means that along with problems that are quite similar to the homework, you will see ones that require you to think through them and apply the skills you've learned in a somewhat different fashion than you have in the past in order to solve them. Should you have a conflict or emergency that makes it impossible for you to take an exam on a scheduled date, give me as much advance notice as possible and we can schedule a time for you to take an oral exam as makeup. It is usual policy here at Calvin to make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. In this case, a student should notify the Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities located in the Student Academic Services, HH 445, and notify me within the first two weeks of class.

There will also be a “Gateway Exam” testing your abiilty to take derivatives. This is a fundamental skill of the course — one that, while not easy to acquire, does not require much problem-solving to master. And master it you must. To insure this, to “pass” a Gateway Exam requires a certain proficiency level without the use of technology (specifically, you must get all but one question absolutely correct — no errors at all). You may have up to four opportunities to pass the Gateway (never more than one attempt on a given day), with your grade declining on each attempt (an A, B, C or D depending upon whether you pass on the first, second, third or fourth try; an F is the result if you fail the fourth time). The first opportunity to take the Gateway will be offered in class on:

Oct. 18.

If you have to take it again, arrangements must be made with the professor to do so on your own time.

There is a fair amount of technology-use that will be required of you. We will conduct computer labs approximately once per week, making use of the software package Mathematica — these you will conduct with a partner and produce a single writeup for the two of you. Your daily homework, collected twice per week, can be accessed on the Web from the Math 161F class page

http://www.calvin.edu/~scofield/courses/m161/F00/.

(Familiarize yourself with the document I have written concerning your working together with classmates.) I make some use of the Blackboard system — from there you can check your scores in the gradebook, send email to any subset of the members of this class, participate in online discussions and/or leave files for classmates to grab later. I assume that you will regularly check email — I use this to disseminate announcements and other course information. Finally, you should have a graphing calculator — one that you are comfortable using — at your disposal.

While, as in the math classes you've taken before, much of the homework will be made of problems to solve, you will be required to do a fair amount of reading as well. To encourage you to read your textbook carefully, I have incorporated this activity into your participation grade. There is an inexpensive book that some of my students in the past have found helpful as a supplement to the text, called How to Ace Calculus — The Streetwise Guide (ISBN 0716731606). You should be able to order it online for under $16. Aside from the text, there will be several other assigned readings that have accompanying questions to which you will be asked to respond.

While the final grading scale for the course will not be determined until all grades are in, it will not be any more strict than the following “straight” scale:

A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F = 0-59%

(with pluses and minuses assigned to scores towards the top and bottom of these ranges respectively). The following weights will be given to the various means of evaluation:

Mathematics is difficult enough for most of us to learn when there are no distractions. Please do your part for making the classroom environment one conducive for learning by: arriving for class on time, refraining from frivolous talk when someone is saying something that might promote learning (even if it will not promote learning for you), and actively participating in in-class discussions/activities.