MATH 120A: PRECALCULUS

SYLLABUS   WINTER, 1999

Instructor: Dr. Virginia M. Warfield

Office: Padelford C-437 Phone: 543-7445

e-mail address: warfield@math.washington.edu

Office Hours: Mondays 2:00-3:00 in my office;

Wednesdays 2:30-3:30 in the Study Center

TA's: Christopher Skov [e-mail address: skov@math.washington.edu]

Joel Hindorff [e-mail address: hindorff@math.washington.edu]

Course Web Page: http://www.math.washington.edu/~warfield/courses/120.html

Text: Precalculus, a First Course in Problem Solving by David Collingwood

Math Study Center: B14 CMU (in the basement of the Communications building)

Course Goals: As the course title indicates, one of the goals is to prepare students to take a calculus course. This, in fact, is what determines the content topics chosen. On the other hand, as the text title indicates, a much broader and deeper goal is also involved: learning problem-solving. The skills you learn in that area are essential for any future math and science courses you take. They are also useful in many other areas of academia and even spill over into day-to-day ordinary life. The potential pay- off is thus quite large. And, as is so often the case, the size of the pay-off is directly proportional to the amount of time, effort and determination invested.

Steps to Success: Here are some things that are within your control and will have a large influence on how much you get out of the course:

• READ THE TEXT, preferably before the class session on the material. A schedule for the first five weeks is below. The rest will appear on the Web Page.
• DO THE HOMEWORK. The only way to learn math is to do math. (Alternative phrasing: Mathematics is not a spectator sport.)
• ATTEND CLASSES AND QUIZ SECTIONS AND PARTICIPATE ACTIVELY. Classes in this course will not be lectures. The text has good explanations and you are all able to read. I will therefore refrain from giving an oral rendition of what is already available. I will give occasional mini-lectures if points seem to need clarifying or emphasizing, but most of your class time will be spent working on and then discussing problems and examples which I feel will amplify or clarify what you have learned from the book.
• KEEP AN EYE ON THE WEB PAGE: You will find an up-to-date assignment list, announcements of any changes of office hours or class plans or the like, and every now and then a small extra credit problem.
• MAKE USE OF OFFICE HOURS: Don't be shy. The purpose of office hours is to help you, not evaluate you.
• USE THE MATH STUDY CENTER: Its hours are M-Th 9:30 AM-9:30 PM; Fri 9:30 AM-1:30 PM; Sun 2:00 PM-6:00 PM.

Course Structure and Grades:

Homework: Assignments will be due at the beginning of class every Tuesday after the first week. The standard assignment will be all of the problems listed on the syllabus for the previous week. Homework must be turned in on 8.5 by 11 inch paper not ripped out of a spiral notebook (no fringes) and must be stapled. Points will be deducted for failure to meet these requirements. Late homework will not be accepted. If all your homeworks are turned in, the lowest homework grade will be dropped,

Tests: There will be full-period tests on Thursday, February 4 and Thursday, March 4.

Quizzes and Activities: Every Thursday on which there is not a test there will be either a quiz or an activity. For the quizzes and activities there will be no make-ups. The lowest score will be dropped (or the one you missed, if you miss one.)

Calculators: Graphing calculators are permitted on all quizzes and tests. Note, though, two important obligations that go along with this permission:

1. You must write enough so that we can, if we wish, re-construct the path of your solution--i.e., so that we know which buttons you punched at each stage.
2. If a problem requires an exact answer, you may not give the decimal approximation. For example, the exact area of a circle of radius 2 is 4Pi, not 12.566 .
   

Grading: Grades are not based on a pre- determined curve. They are competency based-- if everyone does well, everyone gets a good grade. Your grade does not depend in any way on how well your classmates do, so you are not in competition with any of them. In fact, we encourage you to work cooperatively as much as possible--you can learn a lot from each other. The exact correspondence between the percentage points and numerical grades cannot be determined in advance because it depends on factors like how difficult the exams are. The weighting, however, will be as follows:

• Tests (2@15%=30%)
• Projects (2@5%=10%)
• Homework (10%)
• Quizzes and Activities (20%)
• Random Extra Credits (5%)
• Final Examination (25%)

Topic Schedule:

1/4 §1.1	1/6 §1.2	1/8 §1.3
1/11 §1.4	1/13 §2.1	1/15 §2.2
1/11 §1.4	1/13 §2.1	1/15 §2.2
1/18 MLK Day	1/20 §2.3	1/22 §2.4
1/25 §2.5	1/27 §2.6	1/29 §2.8
2/1 §2.9	2/3 Review

First Assignment:

§1.1: 2,5,6,7,11,17,19,24;

§1.2: 2,6,7,9,11

§1.3 1,3,7,9,12,13

You should try to do each one right after the class covering the pertinent section, but they are all to be turned in on Tuesday, 1/12.