MATH 103 A AND B, SPRING, 1995
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTORS:
Ginger Warfield, Fred Kuczmarski, Paul Moorehead
OFFICES:
OFFICE HOURS:
COURSE PHILOSOPHY:
The underlying goal of Math 103 is very specifically to prepare you to succeed in Math 120. The most obvious choice dictated by that goal is the curriculum‹ we will be covering a bunch of topics which we judge to be mathematically the key to the content of 120. On the other hand, our strong feeling is that, while the mathematical concepts are obviously vital, another factor may well play an even stronger role in your success or failure: how you learn and study mathematics. A capacity to take responsibility for your own understanding and be an independent mathematical thinker is more crucial than any specific topic or concept. We intend to foster your growth in this direction in a number of ways.
  1. There will be some problems which require that you do some reading in the Notes that you will be buying, and many which cannot be solved simply by looking for a similar example in the Notes or your class notes and imitating it.
  2. You will have many opportunities to work in groups in class, and you are encouraged to work together on your assignments even when they are to be turned in individually. Our observation, backed by a lot of current educational research, is that you will profit a great deal from discussing material with your fellow students. Material explained by a fellow student has a large chance of being clearer to you than if you had only read it or heard it from one of us‹and material that you explain to someone else is guaranteed to be clearer to you after you have done so.
  3. We will use a variety of non-standard tactics, techniques, activities and approaches, in a general effort to widen your perspective and keep you flexible. The Mathematics Department has courses of many formats and styles, and we would like you to be secure enough to handle any of them.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
There is no textbook for this course. Instead, you will be buying packets of notes from the Copy Center in the basement of the Communications Building. We will notify you when a new packet is ready to be picked up. The first one is ready now! You should buy it today. The notes will be 3-hole punched‹we recommend getting a 3-ring binder for them.
You will also need a scientific calculator. It need not be a fancy one at all‹if it has sin, cos and tan, it will have everything you need. The last time we checked, the campus branch of the bookstore had a perfectly adequate one for $14.95, but you may have to pay a dollar or two more than that. You will need it tomorrow in class.
In addition, you should have graph paper (ideally 5 squares to the inch), a protractor, and a clear plastic ruler. You need them for the first night's homework, and will need the calculator in class tomorrow..
COURSE FORMAT:
There will be two midterms (probably in the fourth and eighth week, but that is subject to change), and a final examination for each section at the time specified on the Time Schedule. There will also be a number of quiz-type activities, but probably not actual quizzes. Instead, they will be special projects, activities and/or worksheets designed to help you pull together whatever topics and concepts you have recently covered. For these there may well be no more than one day's warning‹be sure you keep track of what happens in class if you have to miss a day.
GRADE COMPUTATION:
HOMEWORK:
You will have homework essentially every night. Plan to spend 1 1/2 to 2 hours per night on it. It will be corrected (if it comes in on time or one class period late) and recorded. Actual grades, however, are mostly for your information. You will be given a + on any assignment on which you appear to have mastered the material pretty thoroughly, a check on any assignment on which you have done moderately, and a - if there appear to be some serious flaws in your grasp of the material. If you turn in the assignment more than one period late, you will get an L, which is definitely better than nothing.
GOING ON TO MATH 120:
In order to get into Math 120, you must receive a grade of 3.0 in this course. It is our intention to set our grading standards up in such a way that a 3.0 in the course is equivalent to a passing grade on the University's placement test for Math 120.