Math 161 — Calculus 1a — Spring 2012

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%

• The lowest of the 2 midterms may be replaced by Part A of the Final, if Part A is higher, as is standard for all 16x calculus classes.
• Each of the midterm grades and both parts of the final grade will be assessed into letter grades. Our inspiration is the bell curve, but we may deviate from this. The scores are then re-interpreted back into standard scores using a straight scale (including the grade of A+, although for the final letter grade in the class we do not use A+'s). This way each exam counts the stated percentage of the grade.
• At the end of the semester all scores will be converted to grades. Grade cut-offs will be determined possibly curving the grade. But the curve will never be more regressive than the following approximately straight scale:
  

  A	96-100
  A-	90-95
  B+	87-89
  B	84-86
  B-	80-83
  C+	76-79
  C	72-75
  C-	68-71

  
  
• There is also an opportunity for extra credit as explained below.

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.

• WeBWorK problems: https://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/spring12mth161/;

• If you want, you may look at last semester's WeBWorK problems for comparison: https://math.webwork.rochester.edu/webwork2/fall11mth161/.
  If you do this, log on as a guest.

• Start WeBWorK problems early. You do not need to wait until all topics are covered in class. You can come back to each WeBWorK assignment many times, filling in more each time.
• There is a WeBWorK TA for this class. If you have a question, you can press the button to send a question to the WeBWorK TA from inside WeBWorK itself. This way the TA will see which specific problem you got stuck on.
• But you must also put an explanation of your difficulty. Say what you tried and why you thought that would be right.
• You can ask your TA's in recitation for help, and time allowing you can ask me (Prof Starr) in class for help. But if we are rushed in lecture, or if your TA's are rushed in recitation, for example because of quizzes, you may not get an answer there. You can also come to office hours to get help, and of course you can email the WeBWorK TA.
• If you do not get your problem answered by the WeBWorK TA then you can email me (Prof Starr). This will most likely result in me emailing the TA to ask them to respond to your question.
• You can work with friends but do not rely on their knowledge to do your problems. The WeBWorK percentage may seem like a lot, but if you add up the two midterms and final exam, it is small in comparison. (It is even smaller in comparison if you also add the quizzes.) Therefore, if you skip learning the important problem types on WeBWorK, then you are only hurting yourself.
• There is a 0th WeBWorK assignment which gives you some instruction. It is due at the end of the second week, Friday, January 27. It is required. It counts as a normal WeBWorK.
• Starting with the 1st WeBWorK, they will be due Monday mornings at 5am. The assignment WeBWorK 1 will be due Monday, January 20. If you wait until Sunday night to email questions to the WeBWorK TA, you might not get a response in time. Therefore, try the problems early.
• We generally plan to drop the lowest 2 WeBWorK assignments.

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.

• The final exam for all MTH 16x courses always consists of two parts: Part A and Part B.
• Part A is not cumulative. It covers the material of the course that follows the material tested in the two midterms. Here is a practice: PracFinA1.pdf, PracFinB1.pdf. Here is a solution to the practice: PracFinA1SOL.pdf, PracFinB1SOL.pdf
• The final exam is over. The final exam is Fin.pdf and the solution is FinSOL.pdf.
• Part B is cumulative.
• The 20% of the final exam is split evenly between the two parts: 10% for Part A, 10% for Part B.
• The lower of your two midterm scores can be replaced by the score from Part A of the Final, if your score on Part A of the final is higher. This is done ostensibly to help students who switch between the 14x, 16x and 17x courses following the first midterm (who therefore miss the first midterm). But this rule applies to all students regardless of switching.
• As stated in the grading section, for each of the two parts of the Final we will first convert your score into a letter grade, and then convert the letter grade into a score based on a straight scale. This way, all exams count for the appropriate percentage of the grade, as stated.

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.

• The midterms are closed book and closed notes.
• Calculators are not allowed. (They won't help.)
• Midterm 1 will be Thursday, February 9, from 8am-9:15 in Dewey 1101. Please arrive early to get a seat. Practice midterm and information is here:
  • MT1.html
• Midterm 2 will be Tuesday, March 20, from 8am-9:15 in Hutchison 140. Please arrive early to get a seat. Practice midterm and information is here:
  • MT2.html
• After the exam each student can get 2% extra credit points by answering all of their missed problems. Students who wish to do this will do so on their blogs within 1 week after receiving the exams back.
• Solutions to each midterm will be posted after the extra credit corrections are graded.
• If you think that any problem was mis-graded you are strongly encouraged to first do the 2% extra credit assignment. After that you are supposed to write on a separate piece of paper any and all problems you want me to look at, and give a full argument on that separate piece of paper for why you feel it may deserve more points. Staple the separate piece of paper to your original exam, and hand them back to me in class. Do this at most 2 lectures after the extra credit blogging assignment is due. Never write anything new on your exam if you want to hand it back for re-grading. That could be considered cheating.
• As mentioned in the grading section, each midterm will be converted into a letter grade, and then a new score will be generated following a straight scale. This is to insure that each exam counts for the appropriate percentage of the course stated.
• Because we allow students to transfer between the 14x, 16x, and 17x sequences some students miss the first midterm (if they transfer in after the first midterm is given). That is the basis for the grading policy that allows the lower of the two midterms to be replaced by Part A of the final exam. But this is allowed for all students, not just those transferring up or down.

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:

• blog.html

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

• HW.html;

• Mailroom: 913 Hylan Hall

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.

• Do not sign up more than once every 3 weeks. If you feel that this is necessary for you for some reason, then contact me. But it should not be necessary for any reason, except possibly for students transferring into class after the first midterm.

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.

• HomeQuiz1.pdf, HomeQuiz2.pdf, HomeQuiz3.pdf, HomeQuiz4.pdf, HomeQuiz5.pdf HomeQuiz6.pdf HomeQuiz7.pdf

• You must go to your assigned recitation each week.
• If for some reason you feel you need to switch recitations permanently, contact me by email.
• We will most likely drop the lowest 4 quizzes. Given this, everybody should have high scores for their quizzes.

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:

• Choice A -- For a maximum of 3% extra credit write a 15 page book report, double-spaced, on the book The Calculus Wars by Jason Bardi
• Choice B -- For a maximum of 5% extra credit write a 20 page book report, double-spaced, on one of the two books:
  • Philosophers at War by Rupert Hall or
  • Equivalence and Priority by Domenico Meli

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.

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.

• Unofficial Reading Schedule: Reading.html.

• You should attend class regularly. If you must miss a class, then you should contact a friend to find out what you missed, or email me.

Office Hours

• Shannon Starr: Time/Date Tu,Th 1:15-2:45pm or by appt., in his office, 1017 Hylan.
  Phone: (585) 275-9427
  Email:

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:

• Keith Lumbard: Recitations Tuesday, 6:15-7:05pm in Hylan 102
• Leah Conant: Recitations Wednesday, 12:00-12:50 in Hylan 201
• Kyle Arean Raines: Recitations Tuesday, 12:30-1:20 in Hylan 101 and Thursday, 12:30-1:20 in Meliora 224
• Yoni Zuckerman: Recitations Friday, 12:00-12:50 in Dewey 4131

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.

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