M408K-CNS – Differential Calculus for Scientists

MWF 2 - 3, ETC 2.108 (57285, 57290, 57295)

First-day Handout, Fall 2009

 

INSTRUCTOR:        Dr. Jane Arledge, RLM 13.140, arledge@math.utexas.edu

OFFICE HOURS:     Tuesday 9 – 11:30, Wednesday 10 – 10:50, or by appointment

WEB PAGE:             www.ma.utexas.edu/users/arledge

                                               

This course consists of three lectures and two discussion sessions per week.  The lectures are given by the instructor and are attended by all students enrolled in sections with any of the three unique numbers above.  The discussion sessions are led by a graduate Teaching Assistant.  New material will be covered in each lecture, and during your discussion sessions you will have the opportunity to further your understanding of that material.  You are expected to attend all five hours per week.  Your unique number determines which of the three discussion sections is yours, as is indicated in the table below. 

Discussion Section

Teaching Assistant for all Discussion Sections

Unique

#

Day

Hours

Bldg.

Room

Karl Weintraub

RLM 11.138

475-8827

kweintraub@math.utexas.edu

57285

TTh

2-3

RLM 6.120

57290

TTh

3:30-4:30

RLM 6.122

57295

TTh

5-6

RLM 6.118

Office Hours:  MW 3-4:30

 

TEXT: Calculus, by Stewart, Sixth Edition.

 

OBJECTIVES OF COURSE:  Successful students will leave this course understanding the basic concepts and having mastered the computational skills of differential calculus.  The concepts covered will include limits, continuity, derivatives, maxima and minima, and trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions:  2.1 The Tangent and Velocity Problems, 2.2 The Limit of a Function, 2.3 Calculating Limits Using the Limit Laws, 2.5 Continuity, 3.1 Derivatives and Rates of Change, 3.2 The Derivative as a Function, 3.3 Differentiation Formulas, 3.4 Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions, 3.5 The Chain Rule, 3.6 Implicit Differentiation, 3.7 Rates of Change in the Natural and Social Sciences, 3.8 Related Rates, 3.9 Linear Approximations and Differentials, 4.1 Maximum and Minimum Values, 4.2 The Mean Value Theorem, 4.3 How Derivatives Affect the Shape of a Graph, 4.4 Limits at Infinity; Horizontal Asymptotes, 4.5 Summary of Curve Sketching, 4.7 Optimization Problems, 7.2 Exponential Functions and Their Derivatives, 7.3 Logarithmic Functions, 7.4 Derivatives of Logarithmic Functions, 7.5 Exponential Growth and Decay, 7.6 Inverse Trigonometric Functions, 7.8 Indeterminate Forms and L'Hospital's Rule, 4.9 Antiderivatives.  See www.ma.utexas.edu/dev/math/Courses/M408K/QuestStudentHandout.pdf for a tentative schedule.

 

RESTRICTIONS AND PREREQUISITES:  This course is restricted to students in the College of Natural Sciences.  The prerequisite for the class is an ALEKS score of 70% or higher.

 

OPTIONAL MATERIALS:  It may be helpful to check the accuracy of your homework with a calculator.  However, work the problems by hand, since no calculators maybe used during quizzes or exams. 

 

GRADES:  On all work, your grade will be computed as a percentage: the number of points you earned divided by the number of points possible.  It is unlikely that any grade will be curved.  The percentages of each type of work that will be applied to your final grade are given below.  The plus/minus option for grading will not be used in this class.

 

DEADLINES FOR DROPPING A COURSE:  If you drop a class on or before September 11, the class will not show up on your transcripts.  If you drop a class after that date, the course will show up on the transcript with a “Q” grade.  After September 23, your Dean must approve drops.   After October 21, it is quite difficult to get approval to drop a course, and there may be an academic penalty.

 

HOMEWORK:  (10% of final grade)

Paper homework:  You will have assignments due each Tuesday that will be graded.  These assignments will usually come from the textbook; assignments from all sections covered during each week’s lectures will be due the following Tuesday at the beginning of your discussion session.  In order to receive credit for an assignment,  it must be turned in at the beginning of the discussion session, you must show all of your work, the homework paper must be stapled with no ragged edges (such as those on paper torn from a spiral notebook), and your exercises must be written neatly, in order and well labeled.  This homework comprises 5% of your final grade. 

Online homework:  Online homework will be assigned regularly via the Web using the UT Homework Service, Quest; all answers and grades will be returned via the Web also using Quest.  Generally, the schedule of these events will be:  assignments posted on Sunday (for material to be covered the upcoming week in lecture), due the next Sunday at 10 pm, solutions will be published at 10:01 pm.  There will be approximately 15 assignments, and your highest 12 scores will be counted toward your grade.  This homework also comprises 5% of your final grade.  You may download QUEST information at www.ma.utexas.edu/dev/math/Courses/M408K/QuestStudentHandout.pdf .

No late homework of either variety will be accepted for any reason.

 

QUIZZES:  (10% of final grade)

There will be weekly quizzes given during your Thursday discussion sessions.  These quizzes will consist of questions from material similar to that covered in lecture and/or assigned as homework from the previous week.  Only the highest 8 quiz scores (out of at approximately 10) will be counted toward your grade.  This will allow for the rare legitimate absence; do not squander this allowance.

You must be in the discussion session to take the quiz, and no makeup quizzes will be given for any reason.

 

EXAMS:   (80% of final grade)  You must bring a valid photo ID to all exams.  

Regular semester exams:  There will be three exams during the regular semester, each covering about 1/3 of the course material.  Some of the questions on each exam will be multiple choice, like problems on the QUEST homework system, and some will require that you show your work, like problems from the text or the quizzes.  These 75-minute exams are given in the evening in this lecture hall.  Each exam will comprise 20% of your final grade.

Final exam:  You will have a comprehensive final exam during finals week. This 75-minute exam will be given in the evening in a room different from the lecture hall, on a day that we will not know until the end of the semester.  The final exam will comprise 20% of your final grade.

You should carefully examine the exam dates below, since being available for these exams is a requirement for this course.  You should not make plans to leave town before the end of the final exam period.

Exam I

Exam II

Exam III

Final Exam

Tuesday, Sept. 22

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Tuesday, Dec. 1

Thursday, Dec. 10

7-8:15 pm

7-8:15 pm

7-8:15 pm

9 am-12 noon

ETC 2.108

ETC 2.108

ETC 2.108

UTC 4.122,4.124

 

Makeup exams are given only at the discretion of your instructor, and only for serious reasons such as

having a regular class scheduled during the evening exam, a serious illness, or an emergency.  In order to have any hope of being allowed to take a makeup exam, you must contact the instructor via email before the exam (if physically possible), and have documentation indicating your inability to take the exam at the scheduled time.  As examples, family members buying you airline tickets for travel on the day of an exam is not an appropriate reason to miss an exam, and lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency.

 

An approved makeup exam may be taken only on the following days.

Exam I makeup

Exam II makeup

Exam III makeup

Final Exam makeup

Friday, Sept. 25

Friday, Oct. 30

Friday, Dec. 4

Friday, Dec. 11

3:30 – 4:45 pm

3:30 – 4:45 pm

3:30 – 4:45 pm

7-10 pm

Bur 108

Bur 108

Bur 108

RLM 4.102

 

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:  Upon request, the University of Texas at Austin provides appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities.  For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-6441 TTY.  Students who are approved for the University’s Learning Disability Policy, and who submit the appropriate paperwork to the instructor before the exam, will be allowed to take the exam as is indicated in the table below.  The time allowed for an exam depends upon the student’s paperwork.

 

Exam I, SSD

Exam II, SSD

Exam II, SSD

Final Exam, SSD

Tuesday, Sept. 22

Tuesday, Oct. 27

Tuesday, Dec. 1

Thursday, Dec. 10

6-8:30 pm

6-8:30 pm

6-8:30 pm

8 am - 1 pm

RLM 7.116

RLM 7.116

RLM 7.116

Room TBA

 

 

STUDENT CONDUCT:  All computers, cell phones and other hand-held devices must be put away out of sight during class and during exams.

 

Please come to class on time.  If you will be late or need to leave early for some legitimate reason, please sit near the exit.  Coming and going during class is distracting to your fellow students, and they do not like it; we know this because students complain about it.

 

Cheating is dishonorable and disgusting.  Keep in mind that honest students do not like cheaters, and often report what they see.  If you are caught cheating, you will be penalized as harshly as possible under the rules of UT.  Do not cheat.

 

You may believe the instructor cannot tell what you are doing when you sit at the back of a large classroom.  This is not true.  Please do not talk or otherwise disturb students in the class who are trying to learn.

 

ATTENDANCE:  This course is structured with the expectation that you will attend every lecture and discussion session, and your grade will benefit from your attendance.  Of course, sometimes an absence is necessary.  In such a situation, you should contact a classmate to get notes and information for the class you missed.  Please introduce yourself to and get the names and phone numbers of at least five classmates.

 

If you choose to miss class, do not email or otherwise contact your instructor or TA to ask what material was covered during class, what the assignments are, when assignments were made, whether or not there was or will be a quiz, what sections the exams will cover, or any other question that has been answered or will be answered during class.  Your instructor is not likely to respond to such queries; if you choose to miss class, letting you know what you missed is not your instructor’s responsibility.

 

ADVICE:  You should think about this fact: your instructor will write the lectures and lead the discussion in class, and will write the exam material (which is 80% of your grade).  Therefore, it will be to your advantage to have complete lecture notes to study for exams.  Studying the book is good, and understanding the homework and quizzes is necessary.  However, on exams you will be asked questions that will ascertain whether you have a thorough understanding of the material, and the easiest way to attain such understanding is to work during class and discussion sessions, writing notes and listening and thinking and asking questions.  The homework exercises solidify this understanding, and taking quizzes seriously enables you find out what you do not know before you take the exam.

 

Drop-in tutoring (free) and private tutoring (not free) for M408K are available in the UT Learning Center in Jester A332 (www.utexas.edu/student/utlc), as well as some free workshops and classes.

 

Your instructor and your TA have office hours, and are happy to meet with you and help you.  You should take advantage of this access.