Course Information / Winter 2013

The short version:

• The day-by-day schedule.
• Grades: are determined by a first midterm (20%), second midterm (20%) and final (30%), and web homework (10%), written homework (10%) and lab writeups (10%).
• Your recitation and lab rooms are given by the section information page; when you should go to each is indicated in the day-by-day schedule.

The long version...

Day-by-day Schedule

The day-by-day class material and information is available on the day-by-day schedule. This includes Important Dates, course material covered each day, all assignment deadlines and exam dates, and lab/recitation information.

Grading Policy

Your grade is determined at the end of the semester based on your course average, which is calculated as follows:

In determining your course letter grade your performance will be compared to that of other students in your lecture section only. In recent years, the median grade in Math 216 has been, approximately, a B.

You can monitor all of your recorded homework, labwork, and exam scores during the semester by logging in to the Instructional Tech web server. Follow the My Scores link from the menu on the left side-bar.

Academic Integrity

The goal of this course is for you to learn the material being covered. Academic integrity is fundamental to this: if you seek to obtain a grade by cheating, you are undermining your own learning and denigrating the learning done by others in the course. Accordingly, any evidence of cheating may result in a penalty up to a failing grade in the course, and will be reported to the College administration.

Note that working with others in the class on assignments (other than the exams) is permitted and encouraged, and may be to your advantage as you seek to understand the material. However, the work you hand in for evaluation must be entirely your own.

Assignments:

In addition to exams, there are four types of recurring assignments for which you will be responsible throughout the semester:

• Written homework sets: They are to be written up neatly, and will be evaluated for both mathematical correctness and clarity of explanation. Be aware that because it is logistically not possible to grade all problems for all students, only a subset of the assigned problems will be graded carefully. Please note: the written (and web) homework sets are a small fraction of the work that you should do to learn the material in the course and be prepared for the exams. To ensure your preparation you should work some or all of the practice problems as well.
• Web homework: There are also web-based homework sets that offer instant feedback on your work. You are allowed six attempts (five wrong answers) on each problem, and partial credit is given on most questions with multiple parts. These sets follow a roughly weekly schedule, and each is due at a precise date and time—see the day-by-day syllabus. After the due date, correct answers to the problems may be viewed.
• Pre-lab assignments: In order to be prepared for a computer lab session with your recitation instructor (see below), you must complete a prelab assignment. These assignments are provided in the corresponding lab manuals.
• Lab writeups: Each lab manual has a list of problems that must be completed as part of your writeup. Each lab assignment is to be written up neatly.

The written homework, the pre-lab assignments, and the lab write-ups are to be handed in to your recitation instructor. See the day-by-day syllabus for the due dates.

Exam Information

The exam dates and times for this class are as follows:

Calculators, cell phones, and other aids will not be allowed during exams. (Numerical calculations will be simple and minimal.)

If you miss an exam it is your responsibility to contact your lecture instructor immediately. The course coordinator and your lecture instructor will determine if it is possible for you to take an alternate exam, and if you do not have a significant, documented reason for missing the scheduled exam your score on the alternate will assessed with a significant penalty. Note that oversleeping or incorrectly remembering the exam date or time is not a significant reason for missing an exam. If you do not take an exam you will be given a zero for your exam score.

Recitation and lab sessions

When you registered for a lecture section, you also registered for a subsection that meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Each Tuesday or Thursday you will meet at the designated time with a recitation instructor. These sessions are of two different types:

• Recitation sessions. These meet in the room designated for your subsection in the course listing. The purpose of these sessions is for you to be able to discuss coursework and go over recent lecture topics with your recitation instructor.
• Lab sessions. These meet in the computer labs in the basement of East Hall. The purpose of these sessions is to meet with your recitation instructor to carry out projects in which you will learn about several different tools for using computers and modern software to study differential equations and their solutions. There are five lab sessions throughout the semester, and each has a corresponding lab manual that you can download from the menu on the left. You should read this manual before coming to your lab session. In particular, the lab manual may contain a prelab assignment that is due at the beginning of the lab session.

See the day-by-day schedule to find out whether you will have a recitation session or a lab session on any given Tuesday or Thursday.