Semester: Fall 2008
(08/25/08 to 12/13/08)
Time
& Place: 11:00-12:20, M & W in CSN West Charleston Campus D-211
Description: An algebra course covering topics such as equations
and inequalities; functions and graphs; linear, quadratic, polynomial, exponential and logarithmic
functions; and systems of linear equations.
Prerequisite: Placement Test, MATH 096 with a grade of C or better, or equivalent
Text: College Algebra by Robert Blitzer, Fourth Edition
(ISBN 0-13-219141-5)
Coverage: The first five chapters and
some sections of Chapters 6 and 8 of the text, if time permits.
Objectives: Upon completion, students in this course should
be able to:
Website: http://www.nevada.edu/~greenwic/syll124f8.html
Name: Michael Greenwich
Biography:
Office: Charleston Campus, Building H 101-A
Homepage: http://www.nevada.edu/~greenwic/
E-Mail: greenwic@nevada.edu and michael_greenwich@csn.edu (for emergency correspondence only)
Use
the course e-mail on WebCT (course mail) for academic correspondence.
Phone: 702-651-5884 (office) and 702-651-5881 (fax)
Office
Hours: M 12:30-13:30 & W 10:00-11:00 in H 101-A.
These
office hours are available from August 25 to December 3, 2008.
It is required for students to take all the quizzes on WebCT.
WebCT Access: Your WebCT account is already set up. You can
access your WebCT account by going to http://vconline.csn.edu/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct. Your
WebCT ID (User Name) is the last 8 digits of your CSN student ID number. For example,
if your CSN student ID number is C001234567, then your WebCT ID is 01234567.
Your password is a 4-digit number, MMYY, corresponding to your birth month
and year. For example, if you were born in May, 1975, then your password is
0575.
Before you submit your quiz, check all your answers and save them.
Do not put any spaces when you type your answers in WebCT. You are required
to put your quiz answers in WebCT using the WebCT notations for fractions
and exponents (regardless of whether or not a question instructs to use the
WebCT notations, if fraction and/or exponents are involved in the answer)
unless otherwise instructed. Also, your answer must be in the simplest form
unless otherwise instructed.
POLICIES
Instructional Language: English is the instructional language of this course. No dictionary and no translator is allowed for exams.
Calculator:
A scientific calculator is required for this
course. There will be some quiz and/or exam
equations that are impossible to work without use of a calculator.
Class
Attendance: Attendance to every class period for this course
is required. Students who miss classes for unnecessary reasons are cheating
themselves out of the reason for college: Learning. By missing class, you miss important information,
imperative to learning and success in the course; for instance, valuable course
materials and possible answers to questions you may have. Students are responsible
for any information made available (written or otherwise) in lectures and
on WebCT and materials covered in lectures, whether they attend lectures or
not, written or otherwise. It is the student's responsibility to obtain
and be aware of any and all information and materials missed due to absence.
Additionally, if you do not attend class, you may miss points on quizzes
and/or exams, thereby reducing your course grade. Lecture notes are only available
from the instructor in class. If you wish to get missed lecture notes, you
must get them from classmates or such, not from the instructor. Absolutely
no make-up quizzes and no make-up exams will be given after their deadline and scheduled dates are passed for any reasons.
Suggested
Homework Exercises: Each section in the textbook has homework exercises. It is highly recommended to do them. You will not submit
the solutions to these problems for grading. They give you a better understanding of the material, provide some additional
topics for discussion, and to give me more latitude in the questions I can
create for the quizzes and exams. It is in your best interest to do them.
Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated.
Any incident of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Vice President
of Academic Affairs, and the most serious course of action will be recommended.
Please realize that academic dishonesty is a serious offence and
has seriously adverse and damaging consequences to you.
ADA
Notice: Any student who qualifies for
"reasonable accommodations" in accordance with the American with
Disabilities Act must notify the instructor in writing of such by the end
of the first week of class. If you have a documented disability that may require
assistance, you will need to contact the Disability Resource Center located
in the Student Service Center on each campus. Cheyenne phone number is (702)
651-4700, Henderson is (702) 651-3086, and West Charleston is (702) 651-5089.
Religious
Holidays: CSN is sensitive to the religious
obligations of its students; see the CSN Student Handbook/Planner, available
at the College website. Any student missing class, quizzes, examinations or
any other class work because of an observance of religious holidays shall,
whenever possible, be given an opportunity to make up the missed work. You
must notify the instructor in writing of such an event before the date of
occurrence. This policy shall not apply in the event that administering the
assignment at an alternate time would impose an undue hardship on the instructor
or the College that could not have been reasonably avoided.
Incomplete
& Withdrawals: An Incomplete is issued only
when the requirements for Incomplete are completely satisfied; see the CSN
Student Handbook/Planner for the requirements.
Students are required to request for Incomplete and substantiate the
satisfaction of the requirements for the incomplete. No course withdrawal
will be given after the deadline by the instructor, no exception.
The instructor of this course does not issue a W under any
circumstances. The schedule for the tuition fee refunds and dates
for a course withdrawal are found in the CSN Class Schedule.
Date & Hour: All the dates and hours (times) used in this course and by the CSN are local to Las Vegas, NV, USA.
Tardiness: Tardiness should be avoided.
However, if you are late, be respectful to your classmates and do not
distract them by coming in quietly, sitting at near the door, and not talking.
Also, no additional time will be awarded to complete a quiz or exam.
Leaving
Early: Leaving early causes a disruption
of learning and try to avoid it. However,
when you must leave early, please leave without distracting the rest of class.
If you know you are leaving early, please sit near the door.
Talking: Please refrain from having conversations with classmates
during class. Repeated disruption of student learning will result in
removal from the lecture as well as from this course.
Cell Phones/Beepers/dictionaries/translators: All cell phones and beepers should either be turned off or put on vibrate mode before entering class. Disruptions of this nature are unacceptable. Repeated disruptions of student learning will result in removal from this course. Cell phones are not allowed for any reason during exams. The presence of a cell phone, dictionary or translator of any kind during an exam with you results in 0 point for your grade of the exam.
Seating/Removal:
Quizzes: There will be 8 to 9 quizzes given throughout the semester.
Each quiz will be worth 10 points. No quiz score will be dropped from course grade computations. All the quizzes are taken on-line (WebCT) using
WebCT notations, no exception. If a student is not familiar with WebCT, please
contact the instructor as soon as possible. The percentage of correct answers
for each of the remaining quizzes will be averaged together for inclusion
in the course grade as indicated below. All the quizzes must be taken on WebCT
before their deadlines. Absolutely no make-up, no retake, and no extension
of their deadlines will be allowed for any reason under no circumstance, no
exception. Any missed
quizzes will be scored as zeros. Each quiz is given a period of time, from
the day when it is released and to its deadline as the semester progresses,
and it must be taken during that period. You must take the first quiz (Quiz 0) and score perfect on Quiz 0 before
taking the other quizzes. You cannot take any other quizzes unless you answer
all the questions in Quiz 0 correctly and submit it for grading before its
deadline. You may take any quiz as many times as you can before its deadline
and the highest score is registered as its score. No grade changes for a quiz is make after its deadline since you can ask questions and take the quiz many times before its deadline.
Cheyenne Interactive Learning Center - 702-651-4592
Henderson Interactive Learning Center - 702-651-3002
Summerlin High-Tech Center - 702-651-4900
Western High-Tech Center - 702-651-4898
Green Valley High-Tech Center - 702-651-2650
Calculation: 30% each for the quiz average and Final Exam and 20%
each for the two exams.
Course
Grade: A for [90%, 100%], B for [80%,
90%), C for [70%, 80%), D for [60%, 70%), and F for [0%, 60%).
Any
student who receive below 60%, but has not officially withdrawn, at the end
of the semester will receive an F.
Course
grades within 1% of the next higher grade may be considered for such grade
at the instructor's discretion.
Grade
Example:
For the semester,
Stu Dent earned a Quiz Average (QA) of 95%, scored 85% on Exam I (E1), 98%
on Exam II (E2), and 81% on the Final (FE). His Course Grade will be computed
as:
(0.30)*(QA) + (0.20)*(E1) + (0.20)*(E2) + (0.30)*(FE)
(0.30)*(95%) + (0.20)*(85%) + (0.20)*(98%) + (0.30)*(81%)
28.5% + 17.0% + 19.6% + 24.3% = 89.4%
Thus,
Stu would earn a grade of B. This course
grade of 89.4% may get advanced to an A or left as a B for Stu’s final course
grade by the instructor’s discretion.
If you want to succeed in this course (or any course), you should:
1. Attend every class and take lecture notes.
2. Go over your lecture notes from the last class and make sure you understand
everything in the notes including the examples, before the next lecture.
3. Make sure you can do examples in the lecture notes and the text without
looking up the notes, the textbook or anything.
4. Review the quizzes and exams that you have taken and make sure you can
do their questions without looking up anything.
5. Do the excercise questions given at the end of each section in the text.
6. Check your answers before you submit your quizzes and exams.
7. Do not wait till the last day to take or complete a quiz.
Also
very
helpful is reading the sections in the textbook covered in the next class
just before the next class. For each
hour of class time, you should spend an additional two hours studying each
week. Since this course meets 3 hours, you should be spending 9 hours per
week on average for studying for this course.
You need to study to understand concepts and other materials, instead of memorizing
them, in this course. You need to put time and effort to achieve anything
in life and studying in school is no exception.
Help: If you find yourself falling behind or become
even the slightest bit confused, seek help immediately! Ask your instructor questions after class
or during the office hours. Feel free
to e-mail (on WebCT) your instructor at any time. You should receive a response
within 24-48 hours. Each student receives
12 free hours of tutoring for each class in which they are registered. The
Tutorial Center on the Charleston Campus is located in the lobby of the D
Building. Also, there is an open Math
& Science Resources Centers on the Charleston, Cheyenne, and Henderson Campuses. They are staffed with tutors and math
instructors, and their use is free of charge. Visit http://joemath.com/mathlab/mathlab.php3
for more information.
Understanding: When doing an exercise problem, try to identify and understand
the process and the point of doing the problem. If all you do is crunch out
a numeric answers, you won't get very much from them. Many exercises problems
are intended to reinforce concepts. If you can see the intended connections,
you may find that you need only work a few problems before you understand
them.
Generally,
understand materials instead of memorize them.
If you memorize something you lose it by forgetting it while you do
not lose it when you understand it since it stays with you as part of your
knowledge and you can retrieve it from understanding even if you (temporarily)
forget it. Also, if you understand
something, it can be used to understand something new and make understanding
of a new thing simpler and easier. Also,
if you understand something, it allows you to use it properly (when to use
it and when not to use it) and effectively. Generally,
understanding empowers you but memorization does not. This is true for studying in college and in life.
Questions,
Insructions & Notations: When a question asks you to find
something, you must find what is asked to be found and find them all. If a
question asks you to factor an expression, you must factor it to the point
where it cannobe be factored any further. If a question comes with an instruction,
you must follow the instruction. Otherwise, you will receive no credit to
your answer even if otherwise correct. Your answers to questions must be in the simplest forms unless otherwise instructed. Also, notations are extremely important in mathematics. You are required to lean and use notations correctly.
Checking
Answers: Answers or solutions for the majority of mathematics
problems can be checked. Please check
your answers always. This could
improve your grade by one letter.
Mistakes: Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone, including your instructor, makes a
few careless or other mistakes. Mistakes are part of the natural learning process. Don't get discouraged by them; profit by them.
Always take the time to review your work and graded quizzes. The best way
of reducing the number of careless mistakes you make is to identify the kind
of mistakes you are prone to making. That
way, you know what to watch out for when working future problems.
Working
Together: Exchange e-mail addresses and
phone numbers with some of your classmates.
Working with other students will be very beneficial. Often, another student can relate to a simple
problem and offer advice. If you can clearly explain how to work a problem
to another student, your own understanding will be greatly reinforced. Also,
if you cannot explain how to correctly work a problem, you may find you may
need to work a little harder on some topics. If you miss class or information,
you can get the missed lecture notes or missed information from a classmate.
CSN
Office of Retention: Helping you survive and succeed
in college is what Retention is all about. CSN has a wide array of services and programs
to help make your experience at CSN a successful and rewarding one.
The Office of Retention can help you get or stay on the right track.
The CSN Office of Retention offers:
You
can call the CSN Office of Retention at 702-651-2626.
Affirmations: Stop saying "I am not good at math." The more you say it, the more likely you are
to fail. Instead, start telling yourself
"I can do this."
08/25/08:
First day of the 2008 fall semester.
08/29/08: Final day to drop a course without a grade of W.
08/31/08: Final day to receive 75% refund.
10/30/08: Final day to officially switch between audit and credit.
10/30/08: Final day to drop a course with a grade of W. You cannot get a W for this course after this date.
11/05/08: Exam II.
12/08/08: Final Exam.
12/13/08: Final day of the 2008 fall semester.
Week
3 Section 1.1 to Section 1.3
Week
5 Section 1.7 to Section 2.1
Week
6 Section 2.2, Exam I (10/01/08)
Week 7 Section 2.3 to Section 2.5
Week
8 Sections 2.6, 2.7, and 3.1
Week
10 Sections 3.5 to Section 3.7
Week
11 Sections 4.1 and 4.2
Week
12 Section 4.3 to Section 4.5
Week
13 Sections 4.4, 4.5, and 5.1
Week
14 Sections 5.5, 5.6, and 6.1
Week 15 Section 6.3 and Section 8.1 to Section 8.3
Final
Exam (comprehensive exam) on 12/08/08
Updated on 08/24/08