Course
Supervisor:
Instructor David Bramer, C-233
Wells Hall (bramerda@msu.edu) 355-5278
Office hours: Mon & Wed: 1:00pm - 3:00pm, C-233 Wells Hall (or by
appointment – email me).
Lectures:
All
students are expected to use the course lectures that are available in
electronic form (see below).
Recitations:
Each
Thursday throughout the semester, you must attend your scheduled recitation
class. Each project that is due during recitation will have 2 points awarded
for attending the entire recitation period.
Textbook:
Mathematics,
A Practical Odyssey,
by Johnson and Mowry, 4th edition. Brooks-Cole.
Any edition will do. The book is optional - it is a good source of examples and
problems. About 2/3 of the course material is in the book, although it may not
be presented in the same way.
Course-Pack:
A course
pack is required.
You will need to have printed copies of the notes-pages for the lectures. In
this way you will have all the formulas correctly recorded. There is space on
the pages for taking notes while watching the lectures.
The notes-pages can be printed out from the web (in color); or, you may
purchase the course-pack, which has all the notes-pages in black and white. The
course pack will be available only from the
There is nothing in the course pack that cannot be printed from the web;
however, it's a lot of printing. In past semesters, most students have
preferred to buy the pack.
Calculators:
You must have a TI-83(+) or TI-84
calculator and its instruction manual. You will need the calculator for
homework problems and for the tests. No other calculators are permitted.
·
The use of
cell phones, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), 'head sets', any devices with
earphones, or any other 'wireless' devices during tests is specifically
prohibited.
·
The use of
all 'handheld', 'palmtop', 'laptop', and 'desktop' computers during tests is
specifically prohibited.
Homework:
Associated
with each lecture is a set of problems in Lon-Capa.
The problems will become available (usually on a Monday); and, normally, must
be completed within a week. The course schedule specifies the opening and due
dates of the Lon-Capa assignments. A due date and time is specified beside
each problem in Lon-Capa. It is your responsibility
to be aware of the due dates. The totality of the Lon-Capa
problems will have the same value as an hour test when grades are calculated.
Projects:
Most
Thursday recitations are organized around a project. Since one of the major
applications of algebra is using EXCEL, most of these projects have an EXCEL
component. The instructions for each project are designed for EXCEL 2007 and a
Windows computer. If you do not
have EXCEL for your computer, you can go to most University Computer Labs for
doing the projects. The EXCEL project must be done ahead of time and a hard
copy brought to the class. The only method allowed for handing in the projects
is to bring them to recitation.
Each project that is due during recitation will have 2 points awarded
for attending the entire recitation period. The totality of the projects will have
the same value as an hour test when grades are calculated.
Assessment:
The
four hour tests in the course are multiple choice and similar to the homework
problems. These tests will be taken during recitation on February 5, February
26, April 2, and April 30. No make-up tests are given. However,
near the end of the semester a Universal Make-up Test will be administered that
can be used to replace a missed test or the score of a test that is below a
2.0.
A
fifth "test grade" will come from the projects and a sixth from the
LON-CAPA homework problems.
The
Final Exam covers material from the entire semester and will be worth two
“test grades”. The
Final Exam will be given on Tuesday, May 5th, 10:00am –
12:00n.
The total points for the course are as follows:
Tests 400 pts, Projects 100 pts, Lon-Capa Homework 100 pts, Final Exam 200 pts, for a total of 800 points.
The grading scale will be no worse than:
90
- 100% = 4.0, 85 - 89% = 3.5, 79 - 84% = 3.0, 73 - 78% = 2.5, 65 - 72% = 2.0,
60 - 64% = 1.5, 55 - 59% = 1.0, 0 - 54% = 0.0 .
Assistance and Support: There are several
resources for help:
The Math Learning Center (MLC): The MLC has a special table for Math
112. Its operating schedule is available here.
This is where you can go for help with homework problems and Excel projects.
Lon-Capa Homework: Associated with each Lon-Capa problem is a "discussion." The teaching assistants will check the discussions for active (i.e. not-yet-due) problems roughly thrice daily and post replies. Someone may have already asked your question, so check. Since the questions are individualized, the responses will be about approaches/techniques to use.
Recorded lectures: The lectures are accessed by links from
the MTH 112 homepage. Each lecture
is shorter than 50 minutes. When
you need to think about something or make a note, you can pause the lecture. Virtually all the course material is in
the lectures; it is not all in the textbook.
Review Sessions: The evening
before each test, a review session will be conducted by the TA’s.
This document may be modified. Check it occasionally.