Specific information for Math 151:07-09, fall 2007


Instructors

Who are theyWhat they do
Lecturer
S. Greenfield
Office: Hill 542; (732) 445-3074;
greenfie@math.rutgers.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 2PM--5PM, and by appointment.
The duties of the lecturer include lecturing (not too surprising!), maintaining the web pages, selecting and writing additional instructional material such as workshops, and writing the two in-class exams. He will grade much of the exams and some of the workshops. The lecturer has overall responsibility for assigning course grades.
Recitation instructor
B. Yin
Office: Hill 620; (732) 445-8211
byin@math.rutgers.edu
Office hours: Thursday 3:20-4:40 (5th period) and by appointment.
The duties of the recitation instructor include overall responsibility for recitations (answering questions and facilitating workshops), grading some quizzes and workshops, and helping to grade exams. Recitation instructors also have office hours.
Peer mentors
Section 7 J. Trager, majoring in Biomedical Engineering.
trager@eden.rutgers.edu
Section 8 E. Koo, majoring in Mathematics and Statistics.
erickoo@eden.rutgers.edu
Section 9 D. Peer, majoring in Mathematics and Spanish.
dpeer@eden.rutgers.edu
Peer mentors for each section help facilitate workshops and will grade textbook homework problems and possibly some quizzes. Peer mentors have no other responsibilities outside of class (so they have no office hours).


Local rules for sections 7-9

The progress of these sections (compared with ...)

It's my intention that we move at about the same pace as indicated in the standard course syllabus. Any serious difference with pace and content will be noted in the course diary. Students should note the recommended problems on the syllabus, and be able to do most of them. Students will be requested to hand in solutions to a few of these problems every week at recitation meetings, but those problems are intended to be minimal homework assignments.

Due dates for textbook homework and workshop problems
Late textbook homework and late workshop writeups will generally not be accepted.
Exam procedures
  1. A formula sheet will be provided for each exam. A copy will be available for students several days before each exam.
  2. No other notes or textbook material may be used during the exam.
  3. No electronic devices may be used during the exam. This includes any calculators, any cellphones, and any musical devices. If emergencies make using a cellphone mandatory, inform the instructor before such use.
  4. Make-up exams will be given only in the case of illness, a major emergency, or a major outside commitment. Verification of each of these should be done through the appropriate Dean's office, and a written note from the Dean requesting a make up exam should be presented to the lecturer. You will need some form of proof (like a doctor's note, a police report, a towing bill etc.).
    If the reason for the make up is known in advance you must ask for permission before the exam. In all other cases, you must notify the lecturer using e-mail (preferred: greenfie@math.rutgers.edu), by phone (at (732) 445-3074 [equipped with an answering machine]), or through the Math Department Undergraduate Office (at (732) 445-2390) as soon as possible.
    No make ups will be granted for reasons like "the alarm clock didn't go off", "not knowing when the exam will be", or "not feeling prepared".
Grading
Although this is subject to change, students should expect that grades will be determined using the following point distribution:
      First exam in class: 100 points
     Second exam in class: 100 points
    Final exam: 200 points
    Workshops: 75 points
    Textbook homework: 45 points
    Quizzes & attendance: 70 points
    Total: 590 points
Unannounced short quizzes may be given at any class meeting, and no make ups will be given for these. One-point quizzes in lecture earn full credit for any answer (!). You are responsible for attending all class meetings. Poor attendance may be used to decide borderline grade situations. Note, however, that students whose exam grades are all near bare passing or are failing may fail the course in spite of numerical averages: students must show that they can do adequate work connected with this course independently and verifiably.

It is my intent to write and grade the exams so that approximately the following percentage cut-offs for letter grades can be used: 85 for an A, 70 for a B, 55 for a C, and 50 for a D. So there are "absolute standards" for letter grades rather than "a curve". I will be happy if every student gets a high grade.


Technology

Some special mention should be made about the use of technology in Math 151. Some of the computations may be elaborate, and, in practice, almost everyone (including the lecturer!) uses calculators and computers to help. I hope that graphing calculators and computers will be available to almost everyone in their working environments. The Math Department has decided that such technology generally should not be available to students taking final exams. I am a strong supporter of technology, but feel that this decision is reasonable. To help students prepare for the final exam in Math 151, no electronic devices may be used during exams.

Students should know have to use the devices that they own. Many of them can be very helpful in checking intermediate computations on homework problems. Many handheld devices can be fooled quite easily, however. Some common difficulties are described here and also here. There is more discussion on pages 2 and 3 of the local matter in the text.

More elaborate environments for computation exist, such as Maple, Mathematica, and Matlab. In particular, Maple is available on eden and most other Rutgers computer systems. Basic introductory material on Maple is here. The material can likely be used by many students in Math 151. It was created for students in Math 251, but I have used it in several sections of second semester calculus. I mention that I almost always have a Maple window open when I'm at the computer, and almost surely I will prepare lectures and exams for this class using Maple to check what I'm doing. All engineering students and many other students will become familiar with Matlab.

Here's a question which students may ask at times during the semester: "Why do I need to learn this stuff since a computer can do it?" Certainly a computer can tell you that 25.46 multiplied by 38.04 is 968.4984, but if I type PLUS instead of TIMES, I'll read 63.50. I should have enough "feeling" to look at the answer and know that something is fouled up, somewhere. Similarly, if I ask a computer to find an antiderivative of (x2+2)/(x2+1), the answer will be x+arctan(x) (yes, yes, "+C"). But if I omit one or another pair of parentheses (or both) I get these answers: 2x-2/x,(x3/3)+2arctan(x), (x3/3)-(2/x)+x. This is a rather simple indefinite integral, and things get much more complicated with more complicated questions. Students should know the "shape" of the answer (so 25.46 multiplied by 38.04 is hundreds, not 63.50!). And that, to me, is an important aim of the course.


Maintained by greenfie@math.rutgers.edu and last modified 8/31/2007.