MA 114: Sections 1-4 (Fall 2015)

Note that attendance in recitation counts toward your grade through your activities on the recitation worksheets.

You can earn up to 20 points extra credit added to your score at the end of the semester for lecture attendance and participation. This will primarily be assessed using TurningPoint Clickers. Full extra credit will be given if you have at most three unexcused absences during the semester for the lectures and successfully participate in the clicker question portion of the lectures. Each correct answer will be worth 2 points and each incorrect answer will be worth 1 point. At the end of the semester the total score will be rescaled to a maximum of 20 points.

Your final grade will be based on the number of points you earned according to the following scheme:

• Course Calendar (homework due dates will be updated as soon as available).
• Recitation Worksheets. See our course calendar for the dates when each worksheet is discussed in recitation.
• Here are the current and some older recitation worksheets with solutions. They form a good source for practicing (courtesy of Jared Antrobus).
• Old exams. They are posted along with their answer keys. For solutions to our midterm exams see the exam section on the common web page for all sections of MA 114.
• Login to WebWork and Introduction to WebWork.
• Convergence of p-series for p bigger than 1.
• Series Toolbox (courtesy of Jared Antrobus).

Consider MA 194 as a purely technical construction dealing with credit hours. All credit (detailed in the grading section) goes toward your grade for MA 114, and the pass/fail grade of MA 194 is determined as explained on the common web page.

• You need a TurningPoint clicker for this class. If you already own a clicker for another class, you should use the same clicker for this class. You need to register your clicker on Blackboard if you have not already done so.
• Attendance in lectures and recitation is mandatory. Attend both regularly.
• Unless otherwise instructed, classes are cell phone-free zones! Cell phones may not be used during class. In particular, texting, "tweeting", etc. are forbidden. Unless specifically permitted, laptops must be off and out of sight for the entire class period. I have the right to deduct attendance points for using cell phones or laptops during class. The same applies to reading newspapers or other activities unrelated to the course.
• To earn top grade on exam problems it is not enough to have the correct answer, but you must also show the correct reasoning.
• Classes do meet as usual on the days after an exam. Attendance rules apply as usual.
• In order to be fair to all students, dates for exams and homework assignments are firm. It is very important to take each exam on schedule. If you have a university-excused absence or a university-scheduled class conflict with our uniform examinations please contact me as soon as possible, at least 10 days before the exam, so that an alternate exam can be arranged for you. I reserve the right to levy a 10 point penalty on your exam score if you did not inform me of the conflict on time and still request an alternate exam. You have to notify me by email, where you give the details of your conflict (for instance, course number + section and meeting time of that course) and your student ID. The same rule applies to major religious holidays.
• Absences due to illness have to be supported by a Tier 2 or Tier 3 document from UHS. The document has to be provided within one week after returning to class. If you do so, any missed homework, quizzes and recitation worksheets will count as excused, and the final score on that component will be computed by hand at the end of the semester (that is, by suitably rescaling your final score based on the remaining sets of homework or worksheets).
• Failing to provide Tier 2 or Tier 3 documentation will mean that absences, missed homework, recitation worksheets, exams are counted as unexcused.
• Study Groups and Academic Honesty: Students are encouraged to work together to understand a problem and to develop a solution. However, the solution you submit for credit must be your own work. Copying on exams and usage of books, notes, or communication devices during examinations is not allowed. Cheating or plagiarism is a serious offense and will not be tolerated. Students are responsible for knowing the University policy on cheating.

Class time consists of 150 minutes lectures and 150 minutes recitations per week. This makes 5 full hours of class time. The general rule of thumb for college studying says that students should spend approximately 2-3 hours of extra study time for each hour they spend in class. Thus

It is essentially impossible to passively teach mathematics; it must be actively learned. To understand what this means, consider the impossibility of learning to play tennis by listening to someone describe how to play tennis or by watching some world-class player. You will not learn the material in this course by just listening to the lectures, and thinking to yourself - "Yes, I understand that". You must work the problems and go through the difficulties before you will begin to learn. The instructor's task is that of an assistant to help you learn as much of the material as you desire.

Form good study skills from the start!

• Do not miss class! Systematic class attendance and participation are critical to success in mathematics classes. Beyond that, class attendance counts toward your final grade. Attendance means that you come to class on time, stay until dismissed and work on the assigned tasks.
• Read the text prior to the lecture. The reading assignment is listed in the course calendar. There are links in every web homework assignment to the text and to the chapters and sections referenced by the problems in the assignment.
• Take notes in class.
• Find classmates to study with. Studying math is for most people much more productive when done in collaboration.
• Read the text and your notes after lecture. Go through them thoroughly to check if you really understand the concepts and ideas. This is a slow process that needs to be learned and practiced! Do not just rush through the homework but try to understand the main story. Always ask yourself whether you can connect the dots and understand the ``why'' and the ``how''. Close your books and notes and check whether you can write down the main results of the section. Do all this in your study group and challenge each other. Also, explaining material to somebody else is extremely helpful for your own learning process.
• Do the homework. Remember that the homework counts almost 8% of the course grade. You should aim for receiving at least 90% on the homework!!! Seriously! This is possible if you try hard enough and put enough effort into the course. Note that there is plenty of help available: help request through WebWork, Mathskeller, The Study, my office hours of those of your TA. Not putting enough effort into the homework most likely means being insufficiently prepared for the exams and losing many points for the final grade.
• Work hard not to fall behind. It is very difficult to catch up in a math class after falling behind. One of the best ways to avoid doing so is to systematically do the homework. One of the simplest ways to do this is to regularly go to the Mathskeller at some open time in your schedule. Math faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students are there to offer assistance.
• Use old exams to take practice tests by yourself in an exam-like situation. Start practicing for the exam at least a week before the exam. Compare your solutions with those provided by the answer key.

The best way to get in touch with me is by email. Do not send emails in text message format! A proper email has the following ingredients:

• concise and meaningful information in the subject line;
• a courteous greeting and closing (may be skipped for a reply email within a couple of hours);
• a body of the text that is written in complete sentences with proper spelling (including capitalization), grammar, and punctuation (you are a COLLEGE student!);

If you need more help than what can be provided by the online help of WebWork, then do not wait with seeking help. It is very hard to catch up in a Math course after falling behind. You should take one or more of the following steps:

• Talk to me before or after class or send me an email. Let me know what problems you are having, if any. I am happy to help you, but you need to let me know that you need help.
• Come to my office hours or go to the office hours of your TA.
• You can also seek help in the Mathskeller, located in room CB 063 in the basement of the classroom building. Many instructors and teaching assistants from the Department of Mathematics will hold office hours in the Mathskeller. In addition, limited drop-in tutoring is available. You can seek help from any of the instructors or teaching assistants - not just your own. The Mathskeller is open from 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday (except academic holidays) during the semester.
• Furthermore, you can seek help in The Study, located on the 3rd floor of the Commons, South Campus, and in The Study North, located in Champions Court 1, see here for further information. Academic Enhancement provides drop-in peer tutoring by experienced undergraduate students who have successfully navigated the courses for which they tutor. A regular schedule of all tutoring is available on The Study's website. You can also call 257-1356.

• Volumes by cross sections. A gallery of demonstrations illustrating the method of computing volume by using cross sections
• Cycloid
• Some nice videos on center of mass and moments
• Animation showing how to obtain graphs in polar coordinates

Parametric Curve with Self-Intersection

Spiral Parametric Curve

Parametric Curve with Loop

Astroid

Cardioid (polar coordinates)

Three-leafed curve (polar coordinates)

Direction Field of $y\text{'}\; =\; y2-\; x2$

Another Direction Field of $y\text{'}\; =\; y2-\; x2$

Direction Fields

Direction Fields (w/o equations)

Direction Field of $y\text{'}\; =\; t\; e-y$