Math 170 Course
Information - Fall 2008
Tuesday, Thursday 12 pm - 1:30 pm DRL A8
| Faculty: |
Nate
Ackerman |
TA: |
David Favero |
TA: |
Donna Dietz
|
| E-mail: |
nate AT math.upenn.edu |
E-mail: |
favero AT math.upenn.edu
|
E-mail: |
dietzd AT math.upenn.edu |
Office:
|
DRL 4N53
|
Office:
|
DRL 4N17 |
Office:
|
DRL 3C5
|
| Office
Hours: |
Wed. 2-3pm |
Office
Hours: |
|
Office
Hours: |
Tues./Wed. 1-2pm
|
- Texts
- It is assumed you all have a copy of these textbooks
|
Title: |
Heart Of Mathematics: An Invitation to
Effective Thinking
|
|
Authors: |
Edward B. Burger, Michael Starbird |
|
Publisher: |
Key College Publishing
|
|
Year: |
2005 |
|
|
|
|
Title: |
The Magic of Numbers |
|
Author: |
Benedict Gross and Joe Harris |
|
Publisher: |
Pearson, Prentice Hall |
|
Year: |
2004 |
-
Grades
- Grades will be broken up as follows
|
Homework: |
30% |
|
Presentation: |
20% |
|
Midterm Exam: |
20% |
|
Final Exam: |
30% |
|
Bonus Points: |
3-5% |
Your grades will be
posted at Blackboard.
-
Homework
- Homework will be posted at the course
website on Tuesdays. Homework will be due at the beginning of class
one week after they are assigned. If for any reason you are unable to
attend class you are responsible for finding your TA and giving him
your homework before he goes home. Late homework will not be accepted.
Discussion of the homework before it is due is strongly
encouraged. However, each person must write up their solutions
themselves and put on the homework the names of everyone they worked
with.
- In determining the grades for the homework two problems will
be chosen at random. The break up of the homework will then be
|
Finishing All Problems: |
20% |
|
Problem 1: |
40% |
|
Problem 2: |
40% |
-
Presentation
- Each student will be required to give a 5-10 minute presentation
during recitation at some point in the semester. The presentation will
be related to the material recently presented in lecture and I will
provide a rough outline of what you should cover. However, you should
build on this basic outline to provide an informative and interesting
presentation which delves deeper into the ideas than was done in
lecture.
You will sign up for a date during your first recitation and
the Wednesday of the week before your presentation you must
meet
with me between 1:30 pm - 2:00 pm in my office. If you
have a conflict with this time you must let me and your TA know a least
a week
before the scheduled meeting.
- At the end of all presentation in a section their will be a quiz
given to your section class on the material covered. Your grade will
depend in part on how your section does on this quiz
|
% Of Correct Answers on Quiz:
|
20%
|
|
Presentation of Material (Graded by TA):
|
20%
|
|
Material
Covered In Outline (Graded by TA): |
30%
|
|
New
Material Not Covered in Outline (Graded by TA): |
30%
|
-
Midterm
- There will be a midterm exam in this class on Thursday October
23.
It will be on the material covered up until that point. More details on
the exact format will be given closer to the actual exam.
-
Final Exam
- There will be a final exam in this class. The exact form of
which will be announced closer to the time of the final.
-
Bonus Points
- Throughout the semester students will be given the opportunity
to earn "bonus points". At the end the class a value between 3% and 5%
will be chosen (the value will depend on how the class as a whole
does). Each person will then be given extra credit percentage points
based on how many "bonus points" they received relative to the rest of
the class. These will be Pure Extra Credit. What this means is
that having bonus points can help you, but not having them can't hurt
you.
For example suppose the value was set at 5% then we might have
the following:
|
Grade |
Bonus Points |
Final Grade |
| Student A |
80% |
100 |
85% |
| Student B |
81% |
50 |
83.5% |
| Student C |
82% |
0 |
82% |
- Main Places Where Bonus Points Will Be
Awarded
- Lecture Quizzes: There
will often be quizzes given at the end of lecture. These quizzes should
not be difficult if you have been paying attention in class. If you get
the quiz correct, you will receive a bonus point. The goal of these
quizzes is to encourage all students to attend lecture. Because, while
not mandatory, attending the lectures will greatly improve your
understanding of the material.
Presentation
Quizzes: In section, after the presentations, everyone in the
section will be given a quiz on the material presented. If you get all
of the questions correct you will receive a bonus point.
Questions in Section: Asking
questions is one of the most important steps in learning. As such, each
student is encouraged to come with at least one question related to the
material discussed during the week. At the beginning of section the TA
will collect these questions and anyone who turns one in will get a
bonus point.
This page was created by Nate Ackerman, and last
revised on September 2, 2008.