Office hours:
Monday-Friday 10:00-11:00
Monday-Thursday 1:00-2:00
By appointment (email for arrangements).
Goal:
With the tools and language of mathematics at hand, the goal of this course is to approach problems from diverse fileds and areas of interest with developed quantitative skills and reasoning ability. The list of topics chosen for this course was based on their basic mathematical importance as well as for the crucial role that their applications play in a person's economic, political and personal life.
Text:
A Mathematical View of Our World by Parks et al., published by Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Help:
Help is available from many different sources, including:
1. Come to my office hours or make an appointment;
2. The Mathematics Learning Center (MLC) in Fisher 128: walk-in hours or personal appointments;
3. Fellow classmates.
SEEK HELP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
Attendance:
You are expected to be in class every day. There will be in-class graded work that cannot be made up. Your team members and I are counting on your presence.
Excused Absences:
If the circumstances are beyond your control (such as accidents, death in the family, sickness that requires a doctor's care), make-up exams may be given provided you contact me immediately and receive permission. For the quiz policy, please see the section below on quizzes. Students who represent MTU in varsity sports and miss their assignments or test due to travel to and from a game will be given make-ups provided that you inform me one week before. Please inform me during the first two weeks of class if you are a varsity athlete.
Website:
The course website is www.math.mtu.edu/~slbutler/MA1020/math1020.html. Check the site daily for updates and news. This is how I will communicate with you outside of class.
Dropping a Course:
Last day to drop with a full refund: Wednesday, September 13
Drop-date (no grade): Friday, September 22
Drop with a "W": Friday, October 27
Homework and Quizzes:
Homework is assigned, but not collected. To succeed in this course, you must work all homework problems. They will help you prepare for class and quizzes. Quizzes will be given after each chapter. The content of the quizzes will be similar to the problems that you are assigned for homework; so, again, it is critical that you complete each assigned problem. To accommodate excused absences, the lowest quiz score is dropped. NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES WILL BE GIVEN.
Exams:
Two in-class tests as well as a final exam will be given. Test dates appear on the daily schedule on the course website. Please mark the dates on your calendar today!
NO MAKE-UPS! NO EARLY FINALS!! The date of the final exam is Wednesday, December 20, 8:00am - 10:00am.
Midterm Grades:
During the week of October 16-19, I will be reporting a mid-term grade for all first year students, based on your work completed to that point. The report will be either "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory." Students who have maintained a grade of C (70% or above) will receive a "satisfactory" report.
Grading:
Tests (2 at 20% each) 40%
Quizzes 15%
Project 15%
Final Exam 30%
TOTAL 100%
Scale:
Your final grade will be based on the following scale:
90-100% A
85-89.9% AB
80-84.9% B
75-79.9% BC
70-74.9% C
65-69.9% CD
60-64.9% D
0-59.9% F