Syllabus MTH 132

Calculus I, MTH 132

Department of Mathematics
Michigan State University

MTH 132, Section 5

Spring 2013 Syllabus

Lecture: A128 Wells Hall, M W F, 10:20 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. (Search your course information here.)
Instructor Office Hours. C228 Wells Hall, M W F, 1:50 p.m. - 2:40 p.m. or by appointment

Textbook: S.L. Salas, E. Hille, G.J. Etgen, Calculus, 10th ed., Wiley, 2007.

Coverage: Sections 2.1-2.6, 3.1-3.7, 4.1-4.12, 5.1-5.9, 6.1, 12.1.

Common Final Exam: Tuesday, April 30, 10:00 am-12:00 noon

When checking the Office of the Registrar's web site for the schedule for the Common Final Exam be sure to scroll down past the "Regular Final Examination Schedule" to the "Common Final Examination Schedule".

All students are required to take the Common Final Exam. The university has strict requirements for exceptions to taking this examination at the scheduled date and time. (See the third paragraph of the university's Final Examination Policy.)

Exams:

There will be four 50-minute exams. See the Schedule for the dates. No notes, no books, no calculators, no phones, no tablets, no computers will be allowed in the exams. Students are expected to take all exams.

WeBWorK Log-in and Fees:

Graded homework will be handled electronically through a WeBWorK server in the Mathematics Department. Students should choose their course and log in using the following information:

Userid: Student MSUNet ID. (What comes before @ in your MSU email address.)
Password: Student PID. (Of the form A********, include the A.)

Students should change their password the first time they log in. There is an e-Textbook + WeBWorK package which includes an e-Textbook for this class (i.e. an electronic version of the textbook for this class) and access to WeBWorK. There is an e-Textbook + WeBWorK Fee of $80, although WeBWorK can be used for free until the fourth class week. The e-Textbook + WeBWorK package is handled through a Wiley secure payment site. Instructors and TAs will not handle any payments. Upon purchase of the e-Textbook + WeBWorK package, the download code for your custom Wiley Desktop Edition (i.e. the e-Textbook) will be sent to you via email. Once you download the e-Textbook, you own it--FOR LIFE! The higher price paid includes the cost for access to WebWork. In order to have access to WeBWorK after the fourth class week, you must purchase the e-Textbook + WeBWorK package. You may also wish to purchase a hardcopy of the textbook for this class. But this is optional and the hardcopy does not include access to WeBWorK.

WeBWorK Homework:

Completing the assigned homework is vital to your understanding of the subject material. You should make every effort to complete the homework assignments and seek help with problems you have not been able to solve.
WebWork problems are similar to the problems in the class textbook. It is important that students do the first WebWorK assignment, Learning WeBWorK Tutorial, where the students learn how to enter answers, handle mathematical symbols, and simplify complicated expressions in WeBWorK. This assignment counts toward your total WeBWorK grade.
Check the Schedule for tentative WebWorK assignment due dates; note however that the most up-to-date due date will always be given on the assignment itself on the WeBWorK server. Prior to the due date students can try multiple times to solve each WeBWorK problem, getting immediate feedback as to whether the answer is correct or incorrect. See each homework set for the maximum number of attempts allowed. Note that clicking on the Submit Answers button at the bottom of a problem counts as an attempt, so make sure you first click on the Preview Answers button to check whether you have entered your answer in the way that you intended. Answers to WeBWorK assignments are available shortly after the due dates.
There is a three-day reduced credit period for most WeBWorK assignments. If you get a part of a problem correct before the beginning of the reduced credit period, you will receive 100% of the partial credit allowed for that part of the problem. Otherwise, getting that same part of the problem correct in the reduced credit period will only earn you 75% of the partial credit allowed for that part of the problem. Note that once you have earned partial or full credit for a problem you will never lose that credit, even if you accidentally change an answer which has already been marked correct to an incorrect answer at a later time.
Homework sets due before Midterm Exams may not have a reduced credit period.
You will receive four WeBWorK assignment grades, each of which is the percentage of points earned on the WeBWorK assignments leading up to each midterm exam (including the assignment Learning WeBWorK Tutorial prior to the first midterm exam). The average over all four WeBWorK assignment grades and WeBWorK quiz grades (see below) is your WeBWorK grade.
There will be an on-line WeBWorK discussion forum for MTH 132 students to use to ask questions about WeBWorK problems. The forum has been quite successful in the past in that it allows instructors to answer a single question about homework problems once instead of answering it several times in e-mail or in office hours. In fact, please use the forum to post homework questions INSTEAD of e-mailing them to me directly. Via this forum, you may receive answers to your questions from someone other than myself, such as a fellow student or some other instructor of MTH 132. And you can assist your fellow students by responding to their questions on this forum via this forum. I will check the forum on a fairly regular basis to make sure that students are getting help there. You need to use your usual MSU netid to access the forum and/or to post replies to student questions. To get started using this forum, please see the "How to use this forum" guide, which should be posted on this forum. Be careful to follow the instructions in this guide whenever using this forum.

WeBWorK Quizzes:

There are four WeBWorK Quizzes given in the days before and as preparation for each of the four midterm exams. Note that the quizzes open at the bottom of your list of homework assignments.
Each quiz consists of five or six problems similar to those in the WeBWorK Homeworks. You will have a maximum of 50 minutes to do each quiz. The timer begins when you start the quiz and continues even if you log out of WeBWorK.
You will be given only one chance to submit your answers to a given quiz. Make sure you use the Preview Test button to view what you have entered in the answer blank prior to submitting your answers. After you have submitted your answers via the Grade Test button, you will see your quiz score immediately, along with correct answers to each problem.
After completing a given quiz, you may try again after four hours have passed, up until the closing time for this particular set of quizzes. Your final score for a given set of quizzes will be the maximum score earned on all attempts. Note that all questions may change on every attempt of the quiz, so you must still correctly answer all questions on the new quiz in order to get 100% credit on the new version of the quiz.
Note: Quiz problems are generated from a pool of WeBWorK questions, so you are encouraged to take the quiz as many times as possible (even if you've already earned a grade of 100% for that quiz) in order to see a wide variety of different problems and better review for the upcoming midterm exam.
Note: The quiz problems need not represent all possible problems that you may see on a midterm exam.

WeBWorK Grade:

The average over all four WeBWorK assignment grades and WeBWorK quiz grades is your WeBWorK grade.

Attendance:

Students are expected to attend all class meetings and are responsible for all of the material covered in class and in the homework. Any changes in this syllabus or in the scheduling of exams, quizzes, etc. will be announced during class meetings.

Gateway Exams Information:

There will be two 50-minute Gateway Exams, taken in C-100 Wells Hall. See the Schedule for the dates. Bring your MSU ID to the exam. Gateway Exams are individualized, computer generated, no partial credit tests, with a near perfect score required for passing. Each student gets multiple opportunities to pass each exam. See the MSU Gateway page for further information.

Grading Gateway Exams:

Gateway exams are computer graded. Only passing exams have a grade. Each Gateway Exam is worth a total of 1 point for passing, 0 for not passing.

Mathematics Learning Center:

For free help with MTH 132, you may visit the Mathematics Learning Center, where you can receive help from one of the many tutors who work at this center.

Course Grading:

Provided you take all of the exams in this class, your course grade will be based on the maximum score of the following two decompositions:

5% Gateway Exams

13% WeBWorK Grade

13% Exam 1

13% Exam 2

13% Exam 3

13% Exam 4

30% Final Exam

5% Gateway Exams

13% WeBWorK Grade

39% Best 3 of 4 Exams (13% each)

43% Final Exam

In addition, you must take the final examination in order to pass the course. Since there are no makeup exams, if you miss an exam for any reason, your grade will be based on option 2.

Final grades will be assigned based on the following scale.

4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.0

[100, 90] (90, 85] (85, 80] (80, 75] (75, 70] (70, 65] (65, 60] Below 60

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty is considered a serious offense at MSU. Students caught cheating may face failure in the course and an administrative sanction which may include suspension or expulsion from the university. See the MSU Academic Integrity Policies.

Important Dates:

01/07/2013: Class begins.
01/11/2013: Open adds end at 8:00 pm.
01/21/2013: Martin Luther King day. No class. University open.
02/01/2013: Drop a course with 100% refund ends at 8:00 pm.
02/27/2013: Drop a class with no grade reported ends at 8:00 pm. Middle of Semester
03/04/2013 - 03/08/2013: Spring Break. No classes. University open.
04/26/2013: Last day of class.
04/30/2013: Final Exam, 10:00 am - 12:00 noon.

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