Math 161 — Calculus 1a — Spring 2012

Instructor: Shannon Starr, 1017 Hylan Building,


  • Date/Time/Location
  • Grading Formula
  • WeBWorK
  • Final Exam
  • Midterm Exams
  • Blogging Assignments
  • Written Homework
  • Quizzes
  • Classroom Participation
  • Extra Credit Essay

  • Supplemental Handouts
  • Unofficial Reading Schedule
  • Office hours
  • Calculus Room
  • TA Recitations
  • Course Description
  • Prerequisites
  • Textbook
  • Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Academic Honesty
  • Email and contact info


  • Date/Time/Location MWF 1000--1050, Bausch and Lomb, Room 106

    Grading Formula

    WeBWorK 25%
    Final 20%
    Midterm 1 15%
    Midterm 2 15%
    Blogging 10%
    Written HW 5%
    Participation 5%
    Quizzes 5%

    WeBWorK WeBWorK is online homework. The WeBWorK program was written by two mathematicians at the University of Rochester, Mike Gage and Arnie Pizer, and it is now used at colleges, universities, and even K-12 schools throughout the country.

    In this class, I am counting WeBWorK as a high percentage of the grade: even higher than the Final exam. Consequently, the WeBWorK assignments will be slightly longer than usual. Typically they will be 25% longer than WeBWorK assignments in the past.

    Most students get nearly 100% on the WeBWorK problems because you can try each problem until you get it right. If you put in the time on WeBWorK you will get the points.


    Suggestions for WeBWorK:

    Final Exam The date of the final exam is Monday, May 7 at 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The classroom will be Bausch and Lomb 109.

    Most likely, before the actual final exam we will post some practice finals, in the form of old final exams from past semesters. If so, we will either post them here or provide a link here to another page with those practice exams. Most likely this will happen on or before the last day of classes.

    Midterm Exams Details of the midterm exams are still being worked out. We may have in-class midterms or (subject to classroom availability) we may get larger "common rooms" for the midterms. In the latter case, the midterms will be held earlier than class from 8-9:15, but with the ending time promptly at 9:15 to make way for the next class using that room. Tentative dates for the midterms are Thursday, February 9 for MT 1 and Tuesday, March 20 for MT 2. But that is contingent on getting larger common room classrooms, which may not happen. We will determine the firm dates as soon as possible, most likely by the end of the second week of classes.

    Blogging Assignments Part of your grade is based on blogging assignments. This requires you to set-up a blog. Each week, I will post one question about which you should blog a response from 1 paragraph to as long as you want. In addition, you must ask 1 question each week on your blog, which I might respond to. Alternatively, I will try to use the most frequently appearing blog questions to respond to in class. The blog questions will be here:

    There are also instructions there for how to set up your own blog, and the format to email me after it is set-up. This is important and contributes 10% of the grade. It is a "virtual" office hour. We will most likely drop the 2 lowest blog scores for the final grade.

    Written Homework Each week there will be 1 written HW problem assigned which will be graded. The problems may be found here.

    Homeworks are due on Tuesdays by 5pm in the mail room of the mathematics department,
    There will be a box for Math 161 homework there. Homework will be returned to you in lecture.

    Written HW is important because, along with the Quizzes, it keeps you in practice of writing out solutions to problems. That is the format for exams, although we try to also include some problems very similar in style to WeBWorK problems. But the difference between WeBWorK problems and exams, is that on exams, you only get to answer once, and your answer must be right on the first time.

    Collaboration on Problem Sets: You are encouraged to discuss problems with other students, but you must write up your own homework assignment. Word-for-word copying is not acceptable.

    If you have trouble with problem sets, seek help in class or office hours. We will give you advice and help, but we will expect you to do the bulk of the work yourself.

    Classroom Participation Part of your grade is based on you classroom participation. Each lecture, there will be a sign-up sheet at the front of the classroom for students volunteering to answer questions for that lecture. During the lecture, we will ask several questions, calling on students from that list. If you volunteer, then it is expected that you have read the material before class. But the questions are reasonable. You get credit for signing up, even if you are not called on to answer, or if you get the wrong answer for a question. (But please try to get the answers right. I.e., sign up when you feel confident about the material.) You need to sign-up at least 1 time every 3 weeks to receive full points. Since there are 12 weeks you need to sign up at least 4 times.

    Quizzes Each week, in each recitation, your TA will give a quiz. The quizzes are different in the different sections, but they are similar and of similar difficulties. I will post potential problems for the quizzes one week ahead of time on this website. This was called "home quizzes" by one instructor I TA'd for back when I was a student.

    Rules:

    Extra Credit There are two opportunities for extra credit, but you can only choose to do one of the two. It is either/or not both. Also they are worth different amounts to reflect the difference in the difficulty level:

    Rules:
    1. If you want to do extra credit, you must email me at least 1 week before the end of classes. (It is natural to decide after the first or second midterm.)
    2. You must turn in your essay by emailing me the essay in pdf format. It must be pdf, not word or any other format.
    3. You are strongly encouraged to give me a first draft at least 2 weeks before the end of class, which I may comment on to help you improve.
    4. You must choose a thesis either supporting or refuting the thesis of the book you read. Part of your thesis statement is a clear statement of the point of view taken by the book your read.
    5. You must support your thesis with logical arguments.
    6. You must include at least 5 quotations from different parts of the book. Your quotations must demonstrate that you read the whole book, so they should span the whole book.
    7. Each quotation should consist of at least 1 sentence from the book, but it is preferred that you quote entire paragraphs. At least half of your quotations should be several sentences long.
    8. For each quotation you must explain what it means, and then analyze it. This should be evidence in support of your thesis.
    9. Your essay will be graded on style as well as content. If you need help in writing, please consult the College Writing Program.
    Extra credit will be added after the cut-offs for letter grades have been assigned. This opportunity is available to all students.

    Supplemental Handouts Occasionally we will supplement the material in the textbook with short hand-outs, containing additional information. If so, we will put those here, or provide a link to another page with them.

    Unofficial Reading Schedule On a week-by-week basis I will try post the suggested reading assignments on the webpage linked below.

    Do not rely on this. It may not be accurate. It is intended to help students prepare for when they sign up for class participation. But the best indication of where we are in class is given by attending class itself.

    Office Hours

    I encourage you to contact me by email. I read my email frequently and you will usually get a reply within one day.

    Calculus Room The math study hall is staffed by math graduate students who will answer your questions on a walk-in basis. It is open Monday through Friday from 5-8 pm in the Math Lounge, Hylan 901. A schedule is posted on the door. It is a good place to work on homework and get help. Other opportunities for help are also listed here: math tutoring page.

    TA Recitations There are three undergraduate TA's for this class, whose recitations are as follows:

    Also, Leah is the WeBWorK TA who will answer questions you ask by clicking the button to ask a question from inside WeBWorK.
    You must sign up for your recitations starting Friday, Jan 20, after 2pm, by going to the 1st (or possibly 2nd) floor of Hylan building and signing one of the sign-up sheets posted near the elevators/stairs.
    Remember: You must go to your correct recitation section in order to take the weekly quizzes. We will drop 4 quiz scores. But if you foresee an ongoing problem email me.

    Course Description Calculus is about taking derivatives of functions. We will cover the notion of limits, both for sequences and for functions, because that is the only way to understand the basic definition of derivatives. Even though we will learn many rules to simplify the job of taking derivatives, there will be times (such as when calculating the derivative of the sine function) when we need to use that basic definition. Generally speaking we may prove theorems in class, but most of the time, you are not expected to reproduce those theorems on exams. But there may be exceptions: such as proving that if a function is differentiable at a point, then it is continuous at that point, since this is almost a mechanical (and certainly easy) proof. We will also cover the standard applications of derivatives, and all the derivative rules. And at the end of the semester we will cover the basics of antiderivatives, which sets you up for Calculus 2a, which covers integrals.

    Prerequisites High school math, meaning especially a solid foundation of Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Trigonometry. In the first lectures, it is essential you know the various ways to express equations for lines. At various points in the semester, you will need to use the quadratic formula to solve quadratic equations. You definitely need to know trigonometry. The last one is the hardest, and it poses a challenge for many students. We will review some of the rules from trigonometry in class. But I recommend that you review trigonometry on your own, if you have not memorized all the formulas. You are expected to know them all for the exams.

    Textbook The required textbook for the course is Calculus: Early Transcendentals, 7th edition, by Stewart. Because our homeworks are through WeBWorKs (and the written HW's will actually be written out by me) you do not have to worry about getting the precise edition to sync up with your HW's. So you may get an older edition, or even share with a friend. But it is your responsibility to find out the table-of-contents for the newest edition (for example by asking me) so that you can sync up your reading with the recommendations we make. The book is heavy, and I recommend against carrying it to class, unless you are trying to improve your biceps. But it is useful to have an actual reference to consult, if only to see how Stewart works the exercises.

    Americans with Disabilities Act

    The University of Rochester is committed to providing equal educational and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. To ensure equality of access for students with disabilities, the University provides reasonable accommodations, including auxiliary aids and modifications to courses, programs, services, activities or facilities. Exceptions will be made in those situations where the accommodation would fundamentally alter the nature of the program, cause undue hardship on the school, or jeopardize the health or safety of others. Accommodations must specifically address the functional limitations of the disability. For more information contact Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.


    Academic Honesty The University of Rochester takes academic honesty and integrity seriously. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by the University's academic integrity code, which is available at http://www.rochester.edu/College/honesty/. Any violation of academic integrity will be pursued according to the specified procedures.

    Back to UR Math courses webpage.


    Email and contact info

    Shannon Starr
    1017 Hylan Building
    Department of Mathematics
    University of Rochester
    Rochester, NY 14627
    Phone: (585) 275-9427
    Fax: (585) 273-4655