Calculus I at the University of Kentucky
A course in one-variable calculus, including topics from analytic geometry. Derivatives and integrals of elementary functions (including the trigonometric functions) with applications. Lecture, three hours; recitation, two hours per week. Students may not receive credit for MA 113 and MA 137. Prereq: Math ACT of 27 or above, or math SAT of 620 or above, or MA 109 and MA 112, or MA 110, or consent of the department. Students who enroll in MA 113 based on their test scores should have completed a year of pre-calculus study in high school that includes the study of the trigonometric functions. Note: Math placement test recommended
MA 113 consists of lectures and recitations. Each large lecture is divided into multiple sections for recitations. When combined, this course website and the website for lecture section 0XY comprises the syllabus for MA 113 0XY.
The course outline is dowloadable as a PDF file.
Students will investigate the following "big questions" and their associated learning outcomes.
Students will improve with regard to the following mathematical practices.
Course policy regarding supportive discourse. Students should not make negative comments about themselves or their mathematical ability, at any time, for any reason. Here are example statements that should not be used, along with acceptable replacement phrases.
The course calendar lists all assignments and due dates for the course. The calendar is available below or as a pdf.
Course meeting times and locations are available from myuk.uky.edu or your Canvas shell.
Instructor, Lecture Sections 001-006: Zhongwei Shen
Instructor, Lecture Sections 007-011, 024: Peter Perry
Instructor, Lecture Sections: 013-016, 023 Mihai H Tohaneanu
Instructor, Lecture Sections: 018-022 David Murrugarra
The textbook for this course will be CLP Calculus volumes I and II by J. Feldman, A. Rechnitzer and E. Yeager. This book is available online as a webpage or as a pdf at no charge. There is no convenient source of printed copies. The authors of this book have made it freely available under a Creative Commons License and is also available from a website at the University of British Columbia.
The lecture portion of your grade is based on active participation in lecture (the Mon-Wed-Fri meetings). You will participate in class using your phone, laptop, or other device with an internet connection. You will need to create an iClicker polling Student account (subscription is free this semester, select the institution "University of Kentucky - Department of Mathematics"). When setting up your account, please use your university email address and either your LinkBlue ID or your student ID number without the leading 9. If you have any difficulties with obtaining an account or with bringing a phone or laptop to class, please see your instructor. See this link iClicker polling for more information about iClicker polling.
All students enrolled in MA 113 are expected to attend recitations. In addition to the 4 hours of credit for MA 113, the department offers one additional hour of credit as MA 193 on a pass/fail basis. MA 193 is optional for students in regular sections of MA 113, but required for students enrolled in MathExcel. For students in regular sections, you will pass MA 193 if you receive a grade of D or better in MA 113. If you receive a grade of E in MA 113 you will fail MA 193. For students in MathExcel, you will pass MA 193 if you satisfy the following two criteria:
Your section number for MA 193 must be the same as your section number for MA 113. If you drop or change sections of MA 113, please make sure to also drop or change sections of MA 193. It is your responsibility to do this if you change sections. If you do not change the section of MA 193 you may receive a failing grade for MA 193 because you are not on the proper class roll.
In recitation, you will practice the material of the lectures using worksheets. Most of your recitation time will be spent working in groups. For the schedule of the worksheets see the course calendar.
Recitation Worksheet Packet: The packet containing all recitation worksheets is downloadable as a single pdf file.
Beginning with second week of the semester, you will be responsible for having the recitation worksheets with you for recitation classes. If you fail to do so, then it may be counted as an unexcused absence. You may print the worksheet and bring it to recitation class or your TA might provide other options.
You may use calculators on the homework and exams. You may not use any machine (carbon-based life form or silicon-based) that has symbolic manipulation capabilities of any sort on any exam. This precludes the use of TI-89, TI-Nspire CAS, HP 48, TI 92, Voyage 200, Casio Classpad or laptop computer. Also, you may not use your mobile phone, iPhone or Blackberry on any exam even if you forget your regular calculator. If it runs Android, GEOS, iOS, Linux, MacOS, PalmOS, DECsys, Ubuntu, Unix, Windows, or similar operating systems, you cannot use it on the exams.
While we allow the use of calculators on exam, we still believe that an understanding of mathematics includes the ability to carry out standard calculations by hand. Thus we will ask to see your work on some assignments in this course and solutions that are simply the result of a calculator routine may receive little or no credit on exams and written assignments. It is appropriate to use a calculator (or other software) to carry out tedious arithmetic computations, to check your answers, or to produce a graph to develop understanding before carrying out a computation.
Attendance. Attend lectures and recitations regularly. Be on time and remain until dismissed. Do not leave in the middle of class. Instructors may reduce your participation score for coming late or leaving early. If you cannot come to lecture or recitation and would like to request an excused absence, inform the instructor as early as possible. Make every effort to attend all exams at the scheduled times. Be prepared to document excused absences for exams.
Excused absences. Students need to notify the instructor of absences prior to class when possible. AR-ASA 5.2.5.2 and 5.2.5.2.1 defines the following as acceptable reasons for excused absences: (a) serious illness, (b) illness or death of family member, (c) University-related trips, (d) major religious holidays, (e) interviews for full-time job opportunities post-graduation and interviews for graduate or professional school, and (f) other circumstances found to fit “reasonable cause for nonattendance” by the professor. Students anticipating an absence for a major religious holiday are responsible for notifying the instructor in writing of anticipated absences due to their observance of such holidays no later than the last day in the semester to add a class. Two weeks prior to the absence is reasonable, but should not be given any later. Information regarding major religious holidays may be obtained through the Ombud (859-257-3737).
Per AR-ASA 5.2.5.2.5, students missing any graded work due to an excused absence are responsible: for informing the Instructor of Record about their excused absence within one week following the period of the excused absence (except where prior notification is required); and for making up the missed work. The professor must give the student an opportunity to make up the work and/or the exams missed due to an excused absence, and shall do so, if feasible, during the semester in which the absence occurred.
Students may be asked to verify their absences in order for them to be considered excused. AR-ASA 5.2.5.2 and 5.2.5.2.1 states that faculty have the right to request “appropriate verification” when students claim an excused absence because of illness, or death in the family. Appropriate notification of absences due to University-related trips is required prior to the absence when feasible and in no case more than one week after the absence.
Students may withdraw from the class if more than 20% of the classes scheduled for the semester are missed (excused) per University policy.
Note that classes meet as indicated in the course calendar, including on the day following exams.
Use of electronic devices. Electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops and tablets should be put away or used only as part of class activities during lectures and recitations as directed by the instructor. Instructors may prohibit their use during class and students should avoid distractions that prevent them from giving their full attention to class. Students who are not participating in class may be marked absent. Mobile phones, laptops, and computers may not be used during exams.
Students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability that requires academic accommodations, please see your instructor as soon as possible. In order to receive accommodations in this course, you must provide your instructor with a Letter of Accommodation from the Disability Resource Center. The Disability Resource Center coordinates campus disability services available to students with disabilities. It is located on the corner of Rose Street and Huguelet Drive in the Multidisciplinary Science Building, Suite 407. You can reach them via phone at (859) 257-2754 and via email at drc@uky.edu and at the DRC website.
Assignment deadlines and alternate exam policy. In order to be fair to all students, dates for exams and homework assignments are as listed on the course calendar. Missed work and exams may be made up only due to illness with medical documentation or for other unusual (documented) circumstances. If you have a university excused absence or a university-scheduled class conflict with uniform examinations please contact your lecturer as soon as possible, but at least two weeks before the exam, so that an alternate exam can be arranged for you.
University Policy on Academic Integrity. Per University policy, students shall not plagiarize, cheat, or falsify or misuse academic records. Students are expected to adhere to University policy on cheating and plagiarism in all courses. The minimum penalty for a first offense is a zero on the assignment on which the offense occurred. If the offense is considered severe or the student has other academic offenses on their record, more serious penalties, up to suspension from the University may be imposed. Plagiarism and cheating are serious breaches of academic conduct. Each student is advised to become familiar with the various forms of academic dishonesty as explained in the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Complete information can be found at the Ombud website. A plea of ignorance is not acceptable as a defense against the charge of academic dishonesty. It is important that you review this information as all ideas borrowed from others need to be properly credited.
The code of student conduct states that all academic work, written or otherwise, submitted by students to their instructors or other academic supervisors, is expected to be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression. In cases where students feel unsure about a question of plagiarism involving their work, they are obliged to consult their instructors on the matter before submission. When students submit work purporting to be their own, but which in any way borrows ideas, organization, wording, or content from another source without appropriate acknowledgment of the fact, the students are guilty of plagiarism.
Plagiarism includes reproducing someone else's work (including, but not limited to a published article, a book, a website, computer code, or a paper from a friend) without clear attribution. Plagiarism also includes the practice of employing or allowing another person to alter or revise the work, which a student submits as his/her own, whoever that other person may be. Students may discuss assignments among themselves or with an instructor or tutor, but when the actual work is done, it must be done by the student, and the student alone. When a student's assignment involves research in outside sources or information, the student must carefully acknowledge exactly what, where and how he/she has employed them. If the words of someone else are used, the student must put quotation marks around the passage in question and add an appropriate indication of its origin. Making simple changes while leaving the organization, content, and phraseology intact is plagiaristic. However, nothing in these Rules shall apply to those ideas, which are so generally and freely circulated as to be a part of the public domain.
Non-Discrimination Statement and Title IX Information. The University of Kentucky faculty are committed to supporting students and upholding the University's non-discrimination policy. Discrimination is prohibited at UK. If you experience an incident of discrimination we encourage you to report it to Institutional Equity & Equal Opportunity (IEEO) Office, 18th Floor, Patterson Office Tower, (859) 257-8927.
Acts of Sex- and Gender-Based Discrimination or Interpersonal Violence: If you experience an incident of sex- or gender-based discrimination or interpersonal violence, we encourage you to report it. While you may talk to a faculty member or TA/RA/GA, understand that as a "Responsible Employee" of the University these individuals MUST report any acts of violence (including verbal bullying and sexual harassment) to the University's Title IX Coordinator in the IEEO Office. If you would like to speak with someone who may be able to afford you confidentiality, the Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) program (Frazee Hall – Lower Level; http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/VIPCenter/), the Counseling Center (106 Frazee Hall, http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/Counseling/), and the University Health Services (http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/uhs/student-health/) are confidential resources on campus.
MA 113 policy regarding collaboration. Mathematics is an inherently collaborative and social activity. 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. In particular, you should prepare your solutions to the written assignments independently and you should submit your answers for web homework independently. 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 academic dishonesty.
MA 113 mid-term grade policy. Mid-term grades will be posted in myUK by the deadline established in the Academic Calendar. All requests for corrections to grading should be addressed to your instructor. Requests should be made shortly after you receive the paper back and must be made within one day of the paper being returned.
Recording in the Classroom. Video and audio recordings are not permitted during the class unless the student has received prior permission from the Professors. If permission is granted, recording of other students is prohibited. Any distribution of recordings is also probhibited. Students with specific recording accommodations approved by the Disability Resource Center should present their official documentation to the professor. All content for this course, including handouts, assignments, and powerpoint lectures are the intellectual property of the instructors and cannot be reproduced, sold, or used for any purpose other than educational work in this class without prior permission from the professor.
For any written solutions to problems in this course, students are expected to submit work that is clear, legible, and well-written. Students should show all their work in an organized manner, using complete sentences to explain their solutions and justify their computations. To illustrate our expectations for written work, we have included here three sample solutions to a problem: one of these is a correct solution that meets our expectations; one of these is a solution having the correct answer yet it is not sufficiently well-written to receive full credit; and one of these is a solution that is ungradable and will receive zero credit, even though it appears that the correct answer might have been found.
Mathematics is not a spectator sport. To understand what this means, consider how well you might learn to play football by merely watching Lionel Messi or learn to sing by only listening to Aretha Franklin. Similarly, you will not learn the material in this course by only listening to the lectures and thinking to yourself - "Yes, I understand that". In order to learn, you must also actively read the textbook, work a large number of problems, talk to your classmates, and reflect on your work. The instructor's role is that of a coach or guide who will help you learn as much of the material as you desire. This being said, form good study skills from the start!
If you are having trouble with one or two homework problems, you can send an e-mail through the online homework system to your teaching assistant. Try to provide as much information as possible in your help request. Describe what you have attempted and give a guess as to what might be wrong.
If you are having trouble with multiple homework problems, instead of using the e-email function in the online homework system you should take one or more of the following steps.
You may access your course grades through the Canvas system, logging in with your linkblue ID and password. Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:
| Activity | Number of points |
| 3 Midterm Exams | 300 points |
| Final Exam | 100 points |
| Web Homework (WebWork) | 100 points |
| Six Written Assignments | 40 points (8 each, drop 1) |
| Ten Quizzes | 36 points (drop 2) |
| Recitation participation | 12 points |
| Lecture participation | 12 points |
| Total | 600 points |
Your MA 113 grade will be determined as follows.
| Total Points | Final Grade |
| At least 540 | A |
| At least 480 | B |
| At least 420 | C |
| At least 360 | D |
| Less than 360 | E |
We may adjust (or curve) the grade lines for exams down (but not up!). Decisions about changing the grade lines will be made by the faculty after considering the difficulty of the exams and the performance of students on the exams. Typical means for exams in previous years have been in the 70's. In computing these means, we do not include scores of students who score 30 or below.
There will be three uniform midterm exams and one final exam. Each midterm exam is 120 minutes (2 hours) and the final exam is 120 minutes (2 hours). You must bring your student identification card with you to the exams!
If you must miss an exam due to a conflict as defined in AR-ASA 5.2.5.2 and 5.2.5.2.1, you may request an alternate exam. You will need to submit your request to your lecture instructor at least two weeks in advance of the scheduled date of the exam using the MA 113 Alternate Exam Request Form. Information regarding alternate exam times will be emailed directly to the students requesting an alternate exam.
| Exam | Date | Time |
| I | Tuesday, 24 September 2024 | 5:00 - 7:00 pm |
| II | Tuesday, 22 October 2024 | 5:00 - 7:00 pm |
| III | Tuesday, 19 November 2024 | 5:00 - 7:00 pm |
| Final Exam | Tuesday, 17 December 2024 | 6:00 - 8:00 pm |
Exams 1-4 are scheduled in the following rooms.
| Sections | Room | Building |
| 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006 | CP 139 | Chemistry Physics Building |
| 011, 024 | BS 116 | T.H. Morgan Biological Sciences |
| 013, 014, 015, 016, 023 | BS 107 | T.H. Morgan Biological Sciences |
| 007, 008, 009, 010, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022 | Worsham Theater GSC A240 | Gatton Student Center |
Homework is completed using WeBWorK, an open-source online homework system supported by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). To access WeBWorK go the Modules tab in your Canvas page and select the link for assignment you want to complete. It is important to always access WeBWorK through the assignment in order for your scores to be recorded correctly in Canvas.
You will access WeBWorK from Canvas and should not use a separate log in. The document Entering Answers in WeBWorK gives more information about how to enter mathematics to answer questions in WeBWorK. Please contact your lecturer or teaching assistant if you have difficulty logging in.The due date for each of these homework assignments is given in your Canvas shell as well as the in the course calendar. For each WeBWorK assignment, there is a one day reduced scoring period after the due date. Problems that are submitted during the reduced scoring period will receive 85% of the credit earned. Occasionally, we may delay homework due dates. The due date at the WeBWorK server will be the most up-to-date information.
After the reduced scoring period answers to your WeBWorK will be available through the WeBWorK server. In addition, worked out solutions are available for many WeBWorK problems. These may be a useful resource to help understand problems that you initially found difficult. If you have an unusual situation that prevents you from completing web homework, please contact your instructor. However, in general students will be expected to complete web homework even if they are traveling.
Suggestions for working web homework:
Six written assignments are to be turned in through Canvas; for the due dates see the course calendar. The written assignments are a mandatory part of the class and fulfills Gen Ed requirements (UK Core Quantitative Reasoning Rubric). See additional details on Quantitative Foundations Student Learning Outcomes here.
These assignments are intended to help you learn to communicate mathematics and to present clear, well-written solutions to problems. Your solutions will be graded by humans for mathematical correctness and for clarity of exposition. Students who wish to receive full credit should write in complete, grammatically correct sentences. You should give clear reasoning and present the steps of your solution in logical order. You will want to include figures and graphs as needed to explain your reasoning. See the section on Expectations for Student work for more advice on preparing your solutions.
Assignments should be submitted through Canvas and are due by the end of the day on the due date listed. Late assignments will be accepted, but may lose 20% credit for each day or part of a day that the assignment is late. Please speak with your lecturer if a serious illness or family emergency prevents you from completing an assignment. Students with scheduled absences (travel or authorized university excuse) should make every effort to turn in the assignment by the due date.
A few days after each assignment is due, the solutions will be posted below.
| WA1 | WA2 | WA3 | WA4 | WA5 | WA6 | Examples |
Quizzes will be given on the dates specified in the course calendar. Quizzes are administered through WeBWorK and consist of two short answer or multiple choice questions. Unlike our homework assignments, you are only allowed to submit the answer to a quiz twice and there is no reduced scoring period or late submissions. And the grade from the last attempt is the one that will be recorded in Canvas. The quiz grades contribute to your overall course grade as described in the grading section of this website. As with WeBWorK it is important to access the quiz through the link in Canvas for the grades to be recorded correctly.