Course Syllabus for Math 96 – Spring 2008
Intermediate Algebra 96 (3 credit hours)
Call Numbers: This syllabus applies to call numbers 45826 and 47389
Description: Topics include rational expressions and
equations, linear equations and inequalities, radicals, quadratic equations,
graphs, and applications.
Prerequisite: Math 095 with a
grade of C or bette; or a
satisfactory ACT/SAT/Placement test score.
Instructor: Gary Cohen
Where and when this course meets: Both of my sections of Math 96 meet in Building C on the West Charleston Campus, room C276. The times are as follows:
Section 45826 meets Tues/Thurs 2:00 PM – 3:20 PM
Section 47389 meets Mon/Wed 12:30 PM – 1:50 PM
Office location and hours: My office is Located on the West Charleston Campus in Building H, first floor, room H101. Tel: 651-5812
Office hours this semester are at the following times:
1:00-2:00 PM in H101 on Tuesdays and Thursdays
7:30-9:00 in C276 (by appointment only) on Mondays and Wednesdays
Please note that in general, I will not be able to schedule other office hours. Therefore please recognize that you will have to adjust your schedule on the days you wish to come see me during my office hours. If you plan on coming to evening office hours, they will be in classroom C276. For evening office hours, please inform me that you will be coming that same day by phone or in person.
Email: gary.cohen@csn.nevada.edu
My faculty web-site
is http://www.nevada.edu/~coheng
You are required to go to my website, print out a hard
copy of the entire syllabus and bring it to me, so I can see you have it, and
so I can check off in my grade book that you have received the syllabus. You will be issued a grade of F for the
course, if you have failed to do this before the first exam is given. You cannot be in this course if you have not
read all the policies, procedures and expectations.
TEXTBOOK: Elementary and
Intermediate Algebra by Angel, 2nd edition.
PREREQUISITES:
Math 95 or equivalent. If you are rusty on your math 95, you are not prepared for math 96, since 96 is strongly dependent on math 95 material, which will not be reviewed in this course. So be sure you are in the right course for you in order not to cause yourself undue difficulties with passing the course. If you have taken the pre-requisite at another institution, then please be aware you are still responsible for all the material covered in math 95 at CSN, since some institutions do not cover the exact same syllabus of material in the first semester of Algebra as is covered at CSN. If you took the course elsewhere and did not cover the same topics as is covered in math 95 at CSN, then you should take Math 95, so you do not find yourself lost all of a sudden one day in math 96.
Course Objectives:
Work with functions and function notation.
Graph functions and linear inequalities in two variables.
Solve systems of linear equations and inequalities, including examples with absolute value.
Work with rational expressions and solve rational equations.
Perform arithmetic operations on radical expressions.
Solve linear and non-linear equations
Apply and extend concepts
Perform arithmetic operations on rational expressions.
Work with properties of exponents.
ATTENDANCE and
RELATED ISSUES: Students are expected to attend class
regularly and be punctual. Students who
find themselves in the position of having to miss numerous classes should
withdraw and take the course when regular on-time attendance is possible. This
course was not designed with the occasional attendee in mind. Each lecture covers a heavy dose of material
– the lectures do not always follow the
book (some of the lectures may be on topics not even covered in the textbook),
so attending the lecture is absolutely critical in order to keep up and not
find yourself lost in class.
The course is
lecture-driven with the textbook being there to be used as a reference and
supplement.
Anyone arriving late for a test/quiz/exam will automatically lose 10 percentage points on that test/quiz/exam – No exceptions. If you arrive late for a test of quiz, you will be asked to wait in the hallway for a minute or two until I am able to come out in the hall and tell you exactly what materials you need to take out, give you scratch paper, give you a chance to ask any questions you have about the testing procedure, etc.
If I am in the process of giving verbal instructions to the class or handing out tests, you will have to wait until I finish that process. You will not be allowed to come in during the middle of this.
This procedure is to minimize disturbance to the rest of
the class and is not a punishment.
Because this policy will be strictly enforced, please do
yourself a favor and arrive a few minutes early to class, so that you do not
take a chance on being counted late. Do not argue with me about whether or not
you are late. Anytime after the test has
been announced (even if that is just one second) as having begun you are late. Please
be aware that sometimes quizzes will be given at the beginning of class and
other times they will be given in the middle or at the end of class, so if you
leave early, you may have missed a quiz without realizing it.
I often have some students who are baffled by why they have a lower quiz
average than they thought they had for this very reason!
GRADING:
There will be 4 in-class exams in the course and some quizzes. The last of these exams is the final exam and is cumulative over all the material in the course, although the last part of the course will most likely be stressed more heavily than earlier parts that were already tested. Three of the four exams will be roughly equally spaced and the third exam will be very close to the final exam. Each exam will be announced at least two class periods in advance. Please do not ask me when the exams will be, until I have announced them. I inform the class of exam dates as soon as I have decided upon them myself. When you sign up for a course, you should plan on being available to show up each and every class period, short of an unforeseen emergency.
Your final course grade is determined from the following weighting of grades:
Test #1 20%
Test
#3 20%
Cummulative Final
Exam 20%
(Note: you must pass the final exam in order to pass
the course)
Note: If I
decide to give any take-home tests, you will not have the option to skip any of
those tests under any circumstances.
The
number of quizzes in the course will not be decided in advance, but will be
somewhere between 5 and 12. Please do
not ask me whether or not we have a quiz on a given day – I will not divulge
that information, since the quizzes are intentionally pop-quizzes
(surprises!). Your quizzes serve both as
an important indicator of your weekly progress in the course as well as serving
to give frequent feedback on the minimal expectations for the course. If you are struggling with quiz questions,
then you will have difficulty with exam questions, since some exam questions
will often be harder than the quiz questions
There are no make-up exams in this course. If you miss one of the first three in-class exams, then your final exam automatically will be counted for 40% (instead of 20%) of your total course grade. If you miss more than one of these first three exams, the second and third miss will each be counted as a zero (each worth 20% of the course grade) and the final exam will count for 40% of the total course grade. As stated above, you are not allowed to skip any take home exams I may give under any circumstances.
If you miss a class,
it is your responsibility to get a copy of any assignments/handouts that were
distributed during the missed class. I may or may not have a copy of what you need
with me the next class period (I probably will not). Therefore you may need to rely on
photocopying the handouts from another student in order to know what exactly
you missed. There are no extensions in
this class for any course work. Note: Students must pass the final exam in order to
pass the course.
Students who do not pass the final exam will be given
an automatic F in the course.
The basic grading scale for all work in the course will be:
90-100% A
80-89% B
70-79% C
60-69 D
Below 60% F
+/- scores (such as B+ or C-) will be determined within the above broader grade categories when I assign final grades. When calculating grades, rounding up is done only for scores at least halfway between two whole numbers (so 84.5 would be rounded up to 85 but 84.4 would be rounded to 84).
Calculators: You may use scientific or graphing
calculators on quizzes and tests, including the final exam, except in those
cases in which it is specifically announced prior to handing out the test/quiz
that you may not. You are responsible for learning how to use your own calculator - I
will not answer questions regarding how to use your specific calculator during
quizzes/tests/final exam. If you do
not have a graphing calculator and choose to purchase one, I recommend the
TI-85 or TI-86. I am most familiar with
these two models. If you choose to use
another type of calculator, I will not be able to help you in learning to use
it, as different models often work in very different ways. I DO NOT LEND OUT MY
CALCULATOR TO STUDENTS WHO FORGET TO BRING THEIR OWN FOR TESTS/FINAL EXAM. I do not allow students to share a calculator
on tests/final exams, so if you want to use one, then be sure to bring your
own. You may also want to bring an extra
set of good batteries just in case the ones in your calculator fail during the
test.
CALCULATORS WITH
ALGEBRAIC OPERATING SYSTEMS ARE BANNED IN THIS COURSE. Anyone caught using such a calculator will be
given a 0 percent on that particular test.
(the TI-92 would be an example of such calculators).
The overall calculator philosophy that shall be adopted for this course can perhaps be summarized by the following points:
1. Calculators are valuable tools that should be used as such to make doing math less tedious. However, their usage in this course should not replace an understanding of the basic mathematical principles taught.
2. I am not interested in spending class time teaching the calculator. Everyone has a different model and they do not always work the same way – especially with regard to some of the more advanced features...therefore, you are responsible for learning how to use your own calculator. In general, for most of the topics, I do not want you to use the fancier calculator features that would give you an answer without showing me the basic steps of the logical reasoning. Even when you use a calculator, you are still responsible for providing me with a coherent and detailed explanation of the logical mathematical steps you used in solving a given problem. I will let you know of any exceptions to this as the course progresses.
3. Since calculators/computers can do a lot of calculations fast, sometimes this allows one to explore finding interesting patterns that you may have otherwise not noticed by long tedious hand-calculation...
This is a realistic way in which people sometimes use technology in the research world –it can be fun, challenging and rewarding. However, a calculator should never be used as a crutch or a replacement for an actual understanding of basic mathematical principles.
Homework:
You are responsible for doing all the required homework after each lecture, regardless of whether or
not I specifically remember to tell you
to do it (just assume you should start working on it immediately, unless you
are told not to). Do not let yourself
get behind in the homework. This is a
fast moving course and you will find it hard to catch up if you put off
assignments until later. You are
encouraged to come to class prepared with your questions about problems that
caused you difficulty. The homework is
your opportunity to learn from your mistakes, but your course grade will
reflect the end result only - how well you are able to perform on the final exam/quizzes/tests. A part of many class periods will be devoted
to going over some of the homework
problems (there is never enough time to do enough really, unfortunately)- if you do not come to class having done the
homework, you will not be able to derive the full benefit of the homework.
Showing your
work: Always show all work. Sometimes I may give more partial credit than
other times (sometimes I may be generous and other times I may not give much
partial credit – depending on the nature of the topic and the kinds of
quiz/exam questions), but unless it is explicitly stated to the contrary, you are required to show all work in a
well-presented organized manner in order to be eligible to receive credit. When grading I usually go by the
principle: “little work receives little
or no credit, regardless of whether the answer is right or not.” Being able to clearly show/explain how you arrived at your answer is
something I consider to be an essential part of what a college educated person
is able to do.
Extra Credit:
There may be a few
opportunities to do an extra credit assignment to earn a few extra points in
the course. Most of these kinds of
assignments may involve things that are peripheral/tangential to the thrust of
the course and will not be useful for making up for a lack of understanding of
required material. A few of these points may involve viewing a
math-related video shown in class and do a related assignment on it. Credit will not be given for writing that is
sub-standard by reasonable college standards (so I expect decent grammar,
punctuation, correct sentence construction, logical flow of thoughts,
etc).
These videos will generally
not be announced in advance. There may also be an extra credit problem or two
on some of the tests that you can choose to attempt if you have time for it
after doing the rest of the test. The
total extra credit points for the course will be very few in number. The occasional extra credit problem on tests
will be hard compared to the required problems, but I may occasionally hint in
lecture about possible candidates for such problems. Since extra credit is not intended to
compensate for a poor understanding of basic course material, you must have at least a C average at the
end of the course in order for your extra credit to count. If you have below a 70% test/quiz average,
then I will not factor the extra credit into your grade. Additionally, much of the extra credit may
simply be a “check” in my grade book and I will decide the point value at the
end only when I do final grades. Extra
credit is not designed to allow students with poor grades to get good grades –
it’s “icing on the cake.”
Withdraw/Incompletes:
Note: If you quit attending and do not officially withdraw by the deadline, you will receive an F. I will not issue grades of W or I on account of poor course performance, so if you need to withdraw, be sure to do it in the proper way – this is a student responsibility, not a teacher responsibility.. Incompletes are issued only under very unusual circumstances and in accordance with official college policy. If it is determined that a student needs to receive an incomplete (incompletes are extremely rare and usually only for verifiable medical emergencies), the student will be required to make up the remaining course work on a schedule agreed upon between student and instructor –I will only give incompletes that can be made up in not more than a couple weeks from the end of the course, despite the fact that the school policy states that instructors may (but are not required to) give more time than this. I will not let a student drag things out for many weeks.
The final exam will be cumulative in nature and will be
based primarily on the totality of all work given in the course (so you would
be very wise to save all returned quizzes/tests in a notebook and make sure you
can do all problems that you missed). THE QUIZZES/TESTS/REQUIRED HOMEWORK ARE
YOUR STUDY GUIDE FOR THE FINAL EXAM - nothing will be a decent substitute for
studying your past quizzes/tests/homework and class notes!!! Additionally, you may be asked some questions
on the final exam that are similar to homework problems that have been assigned
but not yet tested.
ACADEMIC HONESTY: Cheating, plagiarism and other acts of
academic dishonesty are considered to be very serious offenses at CSN. Any student involved in such activity may be
reported to the administration for disciplinary action. Penalties may range from receiving zeros on
quizzes/tests to failing the course to being expelled from the college. You are expected to have read and understood
the current issue of the student handbook regarding student responsibilities
and rights and the intellectual property policy for information about what
constitutes acceptable behavior on campus.
Scholastic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to
the fullest extent.
CLASSROOM CONDUCT: Any behavior deemed disruptive or counter productive to the educational goals of the class will be grounds for removal of a student from the class. Repetition of such an offense may result in expulsion from the course.
Please be aware that
talking to your classmates while I am lecturing is disruptive to other students
in the class and to me. Often
students do not realize that even chatting in the back of the room can be heard
in the first row near the chalkboard.
Therefore I urge each student to respect others in the class by saving
conversations for appropriate times (before class, after class, during breaks
and in class group activities). If I get the impression that there is
talking over me while I am lecturing, I may take this as a sign that the class
is bored and decide that the time for a pop quiz is ripe. If I ask you to stop talking to a classmate
during lecture, then the next time you have to be asked to stop talking, I may
ask you to move to another seat of my choice, not yours. If there is any disrespect toward me and
uncooperativeness in following the policies, then I may take action to remove
the disruptive student from the class per the official school policy at CSN for
removing a disruptive student.
All cell phone usage is banned in the classroom. This includes talking on the phone, listening
to voice mail, reading and sending text messages and using your cell phone as a
calculator or for any other purpose during all tests and quizzes.
Students with medical, psychological, learning or other
disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations or auxiliary aids
will need to contact the campus
The
Finding out your final course Grade: I do not post grades for reasons of protecting individual privacy of all students - therefore you will need to wait until your grade is available from the school via the automated system. NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS POLICY WILL BE MADE FOR ANY REASON. I DO NOT MAIL INDIVIDUAL GRADES ON POSTCARDS and I do not send them in email or in any other way. It is the student’s responsibility to keep track of all quizzes in order to monitor course progress. I do not carry my gradebook with me so I will not be able to tell you your grade off the top of my head.
Requirements for all
take-home work:
Although nearly all grades are in-class tests/quizzes, there may be a few take-home assignments.
Unless otherwise explicitly
specified, all take-home assignments to be handed in for a grade must be done
so as to satisfy the following specifications.
Failure to do so will result in grade penalties:
1. Late work will not be accepted (if any take-home quizzes are given). When establishing a due date for any given take-home assignment, I always allow for more time than I think should be taken for students to complete the assignment – I usually allow for several days past the “reasonable length of time” that I have in my own mind. You are highly encouraged to begin tackling the assignment right away and not procrastinate and are free to hand it in to me any time before or on the announced due date. Therefore, I do not view requests for extensions as reasonable, even under emergency circumstances. If I were going to allow extensions, then I would also have made the initial due date earlier – by going out of my way to allow for more than ample time in the first place, I have in effect already given an automatic “extension” beyond a more “normal” length of time. Therefore, all deadlines are fixed and final.
2. Doing your own work/Cheating. I can not monitor whatever cheating may go
on outside of the
classroom and I will not pretend to be able to do so. However, my experience tells me that people
who cheat by having other people do their work for them and do not learn the
material very well as a result, also are the people who are not able to perform
on the in-class exams. Since most of
your total course grade depends on in-class performance, you have much more to
lose than gain by having other people do your take-home work (since you will
not have any help when taking an in-class exam). Taking the proper amount of time to really
learn the material, make your own mistakes on the take-home work, and correct
those mistakes in your preparation for the exams, is the only way I know to be
able to prepare yourself for the in-class exams. In addition to the take-home quizzes that are
part of your grade, I may also sometimes give out practice quizzes or practice
problems to do at home that will not be part of your grade but that are
intended to help give you additional practice to prepare you better for the
exams. Really taking your time on these
practice opportunities and doing your own work and correcting your own mistakes
is the best way to prepare for the exams.
3. I expect the appearance of the work to look “nearly professional”. By this I do not
mean that it has to be typed – it
can be hand written, but very very neatly with no extraneous marks on the page,
no significant use of white-out on any given page, no cross-outs, etc. I expect the work to look like you took some
time and a lot of care to do it. Of
course math scribbles are never this neat initially – therefore you will need to do your work on scratch paper and then copy
it down NEATLY on the sheets to be handed in, showing all RELEVANT work in a logical
order and using correct math terminology and correct mathematical
notations.
All work should be done on standard 8.5 by 11 inch loose-leaf notebook paper or other paper of the same size. Handing in paper torn from a spiral notebook or any other paper with perforated edges is not acceptable and will receive a point-penalty of up to 50% of the total number of possible points. Handing in ripped/torn paper or otherwise mutilated paper will also receive the same kind of point penalty. My own philosophy on matters of neatness/care is that college is a time for you to demonstrate the BEST WORK of which you are capable. Having part of your grade reflect upon the level of care/pride/neatness is perfectly reasonable, since such issues are ones which matter a great deal in many “real world” professional job situations. Just think of some of your own experiences (I bet everyone has had them) in which you were not able to understand another person’s written description of something only because they did not take enough time and care with expressing the information in a clear way.
4. Note Cards/Cheat sheets. The tests and quizzes I am giving are closed book exams. Generally, I will not allow “cheat sheets” at this level. If there are any exceptions to this, I will verbally let you know, in class prior to the test/quiz to which it applies.
5. Do I always have to solve a problem like it
was done in class or in the textbook?
No – in areas of math and science, there is lots of room for uniqueness and creativity and I certainly make no claims to always have the easiest and absolute best way of doing a problem. To make such a claim would be arrogant. However, there are some restrictions of which you need to be aware, in order to preserve the continuity of the course. Here are the ones that come to mind: In order to receive credit for a solution, you must show all work and explain in a logical manner, from beginning to end, how the solution follows from material covered up to that point in the course. If your solution relies on significant theorems not covered in this course (but which another teacher in another course may have told you about), you may not receive credit for the work. The reason for this is simple: What I stress, for the most part, is logical development of material. That means that giving a solution that is reliant on a theorem that was not covered yet, gives you (and maybe a few others who happen to know the same theorem from a class taken elsewhere) an unfair advantage over someone who was never told about such a theorem. To be sure everyone has the same “tools” from which to work, it is a reasonable restriction to require you to use what has been done in this class and not pull in odds and ends from other places.
A similar principle applies to definitions. It is often the case that different textbooks adopt different definitions for the same thing. In such cases, if I am stressing a given definition in class and make a point of saying that is our definition, then that is the one you are expected to use if I ask for the definition. Although I only occasionally ask for definitions on tests/quizzes, I will only accept very precise definitions on those few occasions when I do ask for them. If we have stressed a given definition in class then I would expect to see that exact same definition as an answer on a test/quiz, should I ask for it and not just something you think is “close enough.”
The reason has nothing to do with any belief on my part that my definition is the best one – but rather it has everything to do with the need for the entire class to be united and consistent in the details of how we think about things, so that proofs of theorems (that are ultimately dependent on certain definitions) make sense to everyone in the class for the same reasons (or perhaps everyone is lost – but not on account of misunderstanding the definitions).
After all, just think of how frustrating personal conversations can be if the two people involved are not even using the same working definitions (but are not aware of that fact) and whose basic disagreement comes down in the end analysis to a difference in definitions!
You are expected to attend class
regularly and will be held responsible for all topics and sections covered in
class. This is NOT a course designed with the “occasional attendee” in mind. Coming to class is the way to find out what
the assignments are, what material was covered, what was stressed, what was
omitted, what was presented differently than in the textbook and to ensure that
you are doing what is expected of you. I
will sometimes present material from a different point of view than the book
and I do not feel obligated to follow the book’s presentation of material if I
wish to stress different things. This
also means I will not always follow the
section numbers in the book in a strict linear order (so for example I may
combine several sections into one lecture, skipping some kinds of examples and
adding a few of my own that are not in the book at all...or I may take a
totally different approach than what is presented in the book...You really do
not want to miss lecture!).
I am looking forward to helping you do your best in my course and wish you a great semester!!
“If I have seen further
than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants..” -
Why study this stuff if I
will never use it??
Some of you will use math heavily in your future courses and/or careers. Others may not, however....Mathematics is a critical thinking subject. Although you may find that you do not use a particular kind of math in your daily life, learning to think in the critical way that math demands will help you develop your overall ability to analyze difficult problems that require a logical type of thinking. This type of ability is necessary in writing computer programs for example. As we continue progress into the computer age, more and more people will be expected to learn some amount of computer programming in professions that have not required this ability of the average employee in the past. Those people who have spent time honing the kind of thinking involved in the study of mathematics will have a definite advantage over those individuals who have not. Interestingly enough, the most highly valued and best paid employees in most businesses today are those who have done well in their college math courses.
One of the common misconceptions about math that many people have (no doubt, due to years of having been drilled in memorized methodology in grade school math) is that mathematical thinking is always rigid, cold and leaves no room for creativity. This is, however, far different than the way in which mathematicians regard the subject. In fact, its light years away from the way that mathematicians and people in scientific professions use math. One of my goals is to point out ways in which math lends itself naturally to the human creative process. This is probably one of the hardest aspects of the subject to communicate to another person. In a sense, it probably has to be “self-discovered”....much like students of Zen are guided by the Zen master on the one hand, but are only given the “techniques” to discover it on their own. No master can achieve a deep meditative state for someone else....it must come from within the individual student.....a similar situation holds in advanced mathematics. Although it can be hard to keep such things in perspective (when stumped by a difficult problem, for instance), some of the math-related videos I will offer for extra credit will also serve to make this apparent in the context of interviews with people who have used math at the “cutting edge”. One never knows who will be the next to find new creative uses of mathematics.
If you feel a grading error has been made on one or more of your test questions, I will be happy to re-grade the entire test for you, but I will not consider individual problems for re-grading. The philosophy is simple: My goal is to ensure you end up receiving the score you earned. If an error in grading has deprived you of a few points, but an error in grading another problem has given you too many points, then both errors ought to be corrected – not only the ones that give you more points. When I hand back tests, I will allow you a short time to look over your test carefully in class and decide whether or not you would like the entire test re-graded and hand it back to me for re-grading immediately at that time before it leaves the room. Once I have given the class this chance to make a decision about re-grading and announce the last chance to hand the test back in for re-grading, I will not consider any further requests for re-grading that test at any time. If you decide you would like your test re-graded, then please follow proper procedure and hand back the test with a note to me on it, which details exactly where you think an error has been made. Each test is graded individually and not by comparison with other students. You may feel that you had more points taken off for making the same mistake as another student, but in reality, your paper may have suffered higher point loss for other reasons (such as degree of incorrectness in use of mathematical notations, clarity of explanation of what exactly your reasoning was, intelligibility, etc.).
Please be aware that often before I hand tests back, I make photocopies of each students’ test or of all tests with scores in a certain pre-decided range. If when re-grading and comparing the test you handed back to me with the photocopy of the original version you handed in, I detect any changes (erasures, crossings-out, re-writing things that were not originally there, etc.), I will promptly assign you an F course grade for cheating. I may also decide to pursue more severe action with the college administration, as I take cheating to be a very serious offense and will not deal with it lightly.
Office hours serve several
purposes. Primarily, office hours are a
time when a student having difficulty with the course can establish and
maintain occasional contact with the professor of the course. While I am happy to talk to my students
during office hours, I would like to
stress that it is not the purpose of office hours to use that time for private
tutoring. If you need that much help
in the course, you will need to find a private tutor. To help you understand what I consider
appropriate and inappropriate use of office hours, consider the examples below:
Appropriate and inappropriate
uses for office hours:
1. Ask the professor general advice. For instance, “do you think I have adequate
background to do well in this course?”,
“Do you think that I have enough study time available to do well in the
course?” “How do you think I can change
the way I study so as to learn better in this course?”, etc....there are many
kinds of advice questions that one may want to ask.
2. Asking about points from lecture that you did not understand: If you plan to ask me about lecture, then please come prepared to office hours with your lecture notes in hand – do not waste time by being vague and expecting me to know what you are talking about unless you can articulately ask your questions. I realize you might be a bit lost and do not have great comprehension of a given math topic, but nevertheless I do expect you to have specific questions in mind about what you do not understand. Just telling me “I am totally lost and need you to explain everything” will not be very useful. If I have an hour for office hours, then please realize that your personal time with me any given day may be limited to about 15 or 20 minutes –not the whole hour. Therefore, being specific and articulate will be necessary if we are to make any progress in that time.
3. I will not allow any one student to dominate office hours. While I encourage you
to maintain contact with me (all students, but especially those struggling with the course), I do not deem it appropriate for the same student to show up regularly and predictably every office hour. Again, the intended purpose of office hours is occasional contact outside class, but definitely not private tutoring and not directed study. We all need a little bit of help every now and then, but if you are in need of private tutoring, I will not hesitate to tell you so. In college level courses, a certain level of independence in the learning process is presumed
4. Please come prepared and organized regarding the purpose of your visit during office hours.
I do begin to wonder about how serious the student is who has to first start digging around and flipping through pages of disorganized material desperately trying to figure out where he/she put this or that question....you are supposed to do all that before you come and be prepared with your materials when you show up for office hours. My time is valuable as is yours!
It’s
simple. If I catch you cheating or have
strong evidence of cheating on either the in-class or take-home tests, then I will
go out of my way to pursue the most severe action possible with the
administration (which can include, but is not limited to, expulsion from the
course or expulsion from CSN or assignment of a grade of “F” for the course,
notations on transcripts that cheating had been judged to have taken
place). Be forewarned that although I
can not monitor you when you are doing a take-home exam, if I detect certain
consistent and highly unlikely “coincidences” between certain student’s test
papers, you will be called into my office for a required meeting as a first
step in getting to the bottom of these “unlikely coincidences”. Be advised that after having graded thousands
upon thousands of student papers over the years, I am very much in touch with
similarities that are the sort that can occur by chance alone as well as other
types of similarities that do not occur by chance, but that are a direct result
of student mutual cooperation in doing a test.
Unless otherwise specified, you
are always expected to do all your own work on your graded assignments and are
not allowed to work together with other students or discuss any aspect of the
test before handing it to me. Asking
other people (tutors, teachers, Internet help chat rooms, bulletin boards,
etc.) is also cheating when it comes to tests.
Plagiarism (either directly
copying or nearly directly copying – i.e., making trivial changes and calling
the work your own) is also cheating in my class.
Disclaimer for entire syllabus
Information contained in this syllabus, other than grading,
late assignments, makeup work and attendance policies, may be subject to change
with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Homework for Math 96
The homework problems listed below cover the entire semester’s worth of homework. The homework in this class is suggested only and is not to be handed in for grading. These suggested problems are for your benefit only and provide practice on the basic kinds of problems that will be tested on the exams and quizzes. The majority of problems are odd-numbered and hence answers for these can be found in the back of your textbook. Solutions worked in a considerable amount of detail may be found in the student solution manual. It is important to understand that the homework is your responsibility. Failing to do enough of it to learn the material at a decent level of mastery will result in not being able to perform at passing level on tests. Although I may do a few homework problems in class here and there, there is not time in class to do very many compared to the number assigned. If you have questions on particular problems which cannot be addressed in class, you may see me in office hours to ask additional questions.
Please note there are an awful lot of homework problems – more than some of you will have time to do. If you find yourself putting in 3 hours per day and not getting through all the problems, then you may have to be satisfied with doing a lot, but not all problems. For most people in most cases this strategy works alright usually. But just remember, for most students, the more problems you do, the better confidence you will have when writing your exams…and of course the more practiced you will be in the concepts and techniques themselves.
Directions: It is impossible to tell you which problems to do on which day and stick to it –if something unexpected happens and we miss a class not anticipated, then the whole schedule would be thrown off…so there is a small amount of adjustment in the planning process that I do continuously during the semester...
So here is what you are expected to do: the problems below are broken down by
sections in the book. Each lecture will
generally cover anywhere from 1 to 2 sections, in most cases – sometimes we will
end a lecture in the middle of a section. After a given lecture, go home and attempt
all problems related to the material covered in class for the last
lecture. It’s that simple. I will not always make a habit of telling you
constantly what to do – just assume you should ALWAYS be doing the homework
related to the last lecture – not complicated.
In the following problem sets, only the odd-numbered problems are necessary…but if you really want to do the evens too, go for it –knock yourself out and enjoy!
Please be aware that
we do not always follow the same order as the book as far as chapter coverage (for
instance, we cover chapter 4 after chapter 7, etc) – so its absolutely critical you come to lecture so you are aware what we
are doing at a given time and in case any changes or modifications are made to
the course plan.
Chapter 7:
7.1: 13-75, 84-89
7.2: 3-65, 84
7.3: 13-93, 112, 115
7.4: 7-63
7.5: 5-35, 47
7.6: 13-71, 79, 85, 86
7.7: 1-35
7.8: 25-65
Chapter 4:
4.1: 15-41
4.2: 9-63, 75, 79, 91
4.3: 11-67
4.4: 9-47, 65, 66, 72
We will also cover
the following problems on the listed pages, even though the entire sections may
not be covered:
Page 913: 51-59 (odd), 65-71 (odd) [Topics are: Distance and midpoint formulas]
Page 410: 27-35 (odd), 39, 45 [ Topic: Pythagorean theorem]
Chapter 8:
8.1: 1-31
8.2: 18-29, 63-85, 87-97
8.3: 7-33
Chapter 10:
10.1: 15-71
10.2: 15-91, 95, 96
10.3: 9-43
Chapter 9:
9.1: 1-45
9.2: 5-26, 27-37
9.3: 5-45
9.4: 3-17
Chapter 11:
11.1: 11-71, 101, 102, 103
11.3: 9-110
11.4: 19-75, 113, 115
11.5: 7-31, 57-87, 99-106
11.6: 9-63, 83, 85, 99, 103, 110
11.2: 7-115, 137, 138
11.7: 11-67
Chapter 12:
12.1: 13-97
12.2: 9-69, 87, 89, 99, 101