Mathematics 165 - Calculus I

Section 13

News

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Here are slides for chapter 3 (now complete), chapter 4, and chapter 6.

I will be on duty during Finals week, but without regular hours. You are welcome to schedule an appointment, or ask questions via email.

Lectures

Bring the textbook to class!

For sections A-D: The entire class meets three times a week,

M W F 9.00-9.50am in CARVER 0101

and you have one recitation section where you can discuss new and old homework, practice problems, sample exam problems, anything Calculus-related that you fancy. -->

We meet four times a week (MTRF 11-11.50, Carver 0004).

Success in Calculus

This is advice gathered from students who have done well in this class.

Work at home ...

Do read the relevant pages in the textbook! there is more detail, more examples, nice pictures. An old rule of thumb says that you have to spend as much time out of class with the material as in class. That is what 'suggested homework' is for. These problems are only a pretty small sample of what you can do with what you learned. Always ask yourself - could I do this under pressure, in limited time? If not then you should do some more, similar problems from that section. Of course, before you do any of the homework, work through the relevant textbook pages and all the worked examples there.

... but come to class, too!

I encourage you to take notes even if it is all written up in the book. I will boil it down to the essentials, and I can sometimes give you a better motivation or explain things in a way different from the book which some people might like better. Besides, even merely writing things down helps getting acquainted with them. If you miss a lecture for whatever reason, it is your responsibility to find out what was covered in that lecture and learn it (do you know anybody who took notes?). We cover slightly less than 1 section per day on average. We do not take attendance, so you don't need an excuse. But trust me - attending lectures works better than just reading books for 99 out of 100 people.

Additional resources

Note that Blackboard is currently not set up - we don't need it until there are midterm grades.

Supplemental instruction is one of the programs run by the Academic Success Center. You will receive an e-mail about SI, directing you to complete the SI scheduling survey. Please reply to this survey, to help us determine the best days, times, and locations for SI sessions. The SI schedule will be posted by Friday of week 1. SI sessions will begin on Sunday, Aug 28.

The Math Help Room is staffed by students who can help with questions, too. This will open the second week of the semester.

Office Hours are the times when you can come to my office to see me in person. If the door is shut, please knock!

A syllabus and objectives for this course may be found on the departmental calculus page. This lists the material and the skills you will learn in this course with an approximate timescale and is the basis for the departmental common exams.

Textbook

Varberg-Purcell-Rigdon

Calculus

Prentice/Hall, Ninth Edition.
The textbook is supported by MyMathLab. You have to have an Access Code which comes with a new textbook. If you have a used book, you need to either trade that in/resell, or acquire an access kit separately. The looseleaf 9th edition is fine. Pro - cheaper, and you don't have to schlep all of Calc III to class every time. Con - resale value is close to zero.

Prerequisites

Satisfactory Performance on placement exam, 2 years of High School algebra, 1 year of geometry. 1 Semester of trigonometry or enrollment in Math 141 or 142. This means in particular that you We will not revise these topics - for a good summary of all you need to know, read the relevant sections of the textbook (in chapter 0). This material should be absolutely familiar to you - no cheat sheets for that!
Test yourself by doing Homework 0 in MyMathLab!
It is also helpful to know

Required work

Course grades will be based on your exam scores as well as homework and participation in classes. There will be hour exams during class time, a departmental midterm which is a night exam, and a final. The first exam will be without calculators, the others with calculator allowed (trig/inverse trig functions/exponentials may be needed, graphing will be helpful). There will be 10 homework assignments, administered through MyMathLab.

The corresponding weights/points are still subject to (small) adjustments.

Exam

points

Exam 1

15

Midterm

20

Exam 2

15

Exam 3

15

Homework (total)

10

Final exam

25

Disabilities Statement

If a student has a disability that qualifies under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and requires accommodations, she/he should contact the Disability Resources (DR) office for information on appropriate policies and procedures. DR is located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076; their phone is 515-294-6624. If you are considering this, I recommend talking to me early in the process, too.

Comments about this webpage to roettger AT iastate.edu

In any email to me, please put the letters Math 165X at the beginning of your subject line, where X is your section. Then add some meaningful subject like 'meeting' or 'grade' or 'homework'.