A Note to Math 124 Instructors

Course Organization

• Course website: The website homepage for Math 124 is http://www.math.washington.edu/~m124/ This is the key resource for the course. All course materials (worksheets, homework and old archived exams) are accessible through here. These days, our students are very web saavy and in-class surveys indicated they highly value this resource. YES, students have access to this site.

• Instructor weekly meetings: All course instructors will meet each week as a group. One purpose is to give the Math 124 coordinator feedback on the course, so it can be modified and finetuned. This feedback was invaluable when revising the materials for 2002-03. Another purpose is to make sure everyone is covering the same major topics. It also gives new calculus instructors a forum where they can easily get advice on teaching the course. Finally, the last major purpose is to create the common final exam. In most cases, we can wrap up our meeting in well under one hour. Probably the only exception is the meeting where we make final decisions on the final exam, which tends to run a bit long. We are all busy and the coordinator will not hesitate to end the meeting quickly and early if there is nothing to discuss.

• Core topics: You can see the core topics by going to http://www.math.washington.edu/~m124/ and reading the right-hand column. The only new topic from last year is parametrized motion. Many instructors felt it needed to be added back into the course as a rich source of examples. Perhaps more importantly, it is being added back into the course to better prepare students for our Math 126/324, where parametrized curves and surfaces in 3-space arise. Each weekly homework assignment has a a few problems on parametric equations. We tried to create non-exotic examples that get at the basic ideas. The textbook section 10.1 serves as an introduction to parametric equations. Alternatively, two handouts are available to the students as links in the outlines for (weeks 2 and 3) on the course homepage. The two handouts cover parametric equations and linear motion. There are additional weblinked readings available on sinusoidal functions (week 1) and exponential modeling (week 2).

• Common final exam: There will be a common final exam jointly written by all the instructors. For that reason alone, everyone needs to cover the core topics in the course. One benefit of the course website and our weekly meetings is that this is easily achieved.

• Weekly homework: From the course homepage, click on a given outline, eg. "Outline 1". You will then be taken to a page from which the weekly worksheet and homework assignment can be accessed. The homework link lists all problems in the text assigned, plus some supplementary problems. You are free to modify this, but the default would be to simply use this, as is. If you do modify this, it is important to maintain the flavor of the course: both routine and multistep problem solving skills are expected on each homework assignment. As the course progresses, there are more good multistep problems in the text to draw upon. Students can go to the course website to download homework or you can have them handed out; it is up to you. In summary, as far as homework is concerned, the default mode requires that you do nothing beyond pointing your students toward the appropriate website links.

• Uniform weekly worksheets: The single biggest problem during last year was the student experience with worksheets. We have taken steps to correct this. One key change is ongoing TA training to help TA's handle group work and facilitation of a worksheet. This will involve no work on your part, but you should be aware your TA's are getting significant additional help on this front. Secondly, we have imposed uniformity: during weeks 1,2,3,5,6,7,9 there is a specified worksheet. There is no choice to be made on your part; i.e. you do not need to do anything. These worksheets are accessed from the course homepage by going to the weekly outline and then the link for the worksheet. If you have strong feelings about not using the provided worksheet and wish to use your own, then please make sure you provide your students with the same sorts of resources (solutions) and TA training (meet with your TA's to go over the solutions to the worksheet and carefully explain how the worksheet should be facilitated). In summary, as far as worksheets are concerned, the default mode requires that you do nothing.

• TA section format: You need to instruct your TA on the format you prefer for running section. This involves two parts. First, during the 80 minute section, the worksheet will use up 45-50 minutes. What do you want the TA to do with the remaining time? Do you want the TA to handle questions before or after the worksheet? During the other TA section day, do you want questions before or after the quiz (if there is a quiz)? Do you ever want the TA to let students go early? (We highly discourage this, especially on the 80 minute section day. Part of the point of this setting is to force students to do mathematics for an extended period of time. Some faculty who acted as TA's last year felt their students learned the most during this session.)

• Worksheet solutions: There are solutions for worksheets available at this link: http://www.math.washington.edu/~m124/instructorindex.html. One solution is intended for the students (once they have done the worksheet); the other solution is for the TA and includes comments to help facilitate the worksheet. This link is NOT provided to the students in the course.

• Midterms: Instructors typically give two midterms; weeks 4 and 8. These should be given in TA section during the long 80 minute TA section. The idea is to write a 60 minute exam, but give them 80 minutes and eliminate time pressure. The time pressure complaint never occured last year.

• Calculators on the final exam: The policy has varied from year to year and quarter to quarter. We will agree upon a policy by the end of the first week of the quarter; this gives the instructors a chance to meet as a group and agree as a group. Students will need a scientific calculator to do the homework.

• Notes on the final exam: As with calculators, the policy will be decided by the end of the first week of the quarter.

Course Tips

• It is important to continuously align our expectations with student expectations.
• Students want to feel various components of the course contribute to learning. For them, this means seeing topics from a worksheet or homework appear on a quiz or midterm.
• Students want credit for putting in their time on the worksheets. Most instructors made the worksheet day a component of the grade. For example, you might have the ta collect the sheets at the end of class and give one of three possible scores: 0 (if they did nothing or didn't attend), 1 (if they left early or did little), 2 (if they made an honest effort). The intention would be that everyone who comes and stays 80 minutes and trys will get 2 pts. You then make the sum total some fraction of the grade, maybe 5-10%. Other instructors made the worksheet a component of the homework grade.
• As instructor, it is important to continually comment on how various components of the course tie together. For example, you might refer back to a particular worksheet. One place I always do this has to do with tangent lines to circles. They do this on worksheet #1 using geometry. I then redo it using the chain rule and redo it again using implicit differentiation.
• Students often commented they want to see both easy and challenging problems worked in lecture; not just the easy ones.
• It is up to you to decide about quizzes. Some instructors give them weekly, others less often.
• The first 1.5 weeks is a precalculus review. There is no way to cover all this in lecture. Precalculus is a prerequisite for the course, so you should just pick and choose problems you like to do and leave the rest to the homework.