Syllabus

Instructor:

M. Randall Holmes

Time and Location:

MG 106, 12:40-1:30 daily. Final exam will be in MG106 on Thursday, May 14, 1998 at 1-3pm.

Textbook:

Stewart, Calculus, concepts and contexts. There may or may not be used copies available; we have not been using this book long. A lab manual is also used, which is or will be available at the bookstore.

Office, Phone, E-mail:

MG 240A, ext. 3011, home phone 345-2899 (do not call after 8:30 pm or between 6:00 pm Friday and 6:00 pm Saturday; calls at other times are welcome), e-mail holmes@jasper.idbsu.edu

Office Hours:

In MG104: MTWF 1:40-2:30 pm. In MG240A: 8:40-9:30 am except on Tuesday. You are welcome to come to my office to ask me questions whenever I am there.

Policy on Adding the Class:

It will not be possible to add this class after Feb. 2 (the add deadline) under any circumstances; university policies now require a petition to do this, and I will not support any such petition. You should not necessarily expect me to sign requests to add the class once my signature becomes necessary. If you plan to participate in this class, register for it now.

If you do not have the prerequisites for the class, you will be administratively withdrawn: there will be no exceptions to this. You will also be administratively withdrawn if you miss both of the first two days of class.

How your grade will be computed:

There will be four in-class hour exams and a cumulative final. Each of the in-class exams and your total homework grade will be worth 100 points; the final will be worth 200 points. The final exam grade will also be used to replace the lowest of the other grades (including the total homework grade) if this helps you (this is my approximation to ``dropping the lowest grade'').

Calculators and exams:

On some exams or parts of exams, you will be restricted to the use of a scientific calculator. This means a calculator with no graphing or symbolic capabilities. It is your responsibility to make sure that you have such a calculator available to you before the first exam in this class.

Individual exam grades:

I write exams with the intention that a 75 will be at the middle of the C range. If the median is much below 75 I will usually scale the grades linearly so that the actual median (or whatever grade I regard as representing the middle of the C range) is sent to 75 and 100 is sent to 100. After scaling (or without scaling if the median is high) the letter grade on an exam will be A if the score is 90-100, B if the score is 80-89, C if the score is 70-79, D if the score is 60-69, and F otherwise.

Homework and labs:

Homework will be collected. Homework papers should be stapled; I do not carry a stapler with me. Each homework assignment will have a deadline. Homework turned in on or before the deadline will be graded and returned reasonably promptly. Some homework will be graded by me and some by a grader. My usual practice is to select a few problems to grade (you will not know which in advance); be sure to put a note on the front page of your paper if there are specific problems which you want me to look at. Students are encouraged to ask questions about homework problems, or to ask for discussion of similar problems, at the beginning of class each day.

I disclaim any consistent policy about homework turned in after the deadline; I may grade and return it normally, grade and return it with a penalty, or merely acknowledge that you turned it in (though in any case it will be better to turn in late homework than to not do it at all).

The exact method of computing the total homework grade which enters into your course grade will be determined at the end of the semester when I see what the numbers are. Do note that if you do not consistently turn in homework, your final exam grade will be used to replace your homework grade and you will lose the opportunity to have it replace the lowest hour exam grade.

Computer labs are not an optional part of the course. Your lab grade will be computed on the basis of attendance at lab (which will be taken) and handing in of lab reports. Lab reports on a given lab are due one week after the lab is assigned, and will be turned in to the instructor by electronic mail. My e-mail address is holmes@jasper.idbsu.edu. From other math department machines you should use holmes@jasper: holmes reaches my main account on catseye from those machines, and I would prefer not to receive course related mail at that address.

WWW page:

This syllabus and other course materials (but probably not the attached schedule!) will be available on my WWW page,

http://math.idbsu.edu/~holmes

Schedule:

A tentative schedule prepared by the department is attached; I plan to follow this schedule as closely as I can, but I don't promise to do so exactly. In particular, exam dates are subject to change, and it is your responsibility to make sure that you know when exams are going to be.