"Calculus for the Natural Sciences, Part 2" --- Spring 2001


Information specific to our section

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00 - 1:20 in David Rittenhouse Lab, room A1.

Our textbook is "Calculus, 9th edition" by Thomas and Finney.

There is a course web-page, where I will post the homework assignments and other stuff.

There will be two midterm exams and one final exam. The first midterm exam will be on Monday February 12. The second midterm will be on Monday March 26. The midterm exams will be held in the afternoon rather than during class: 5:30-7:00 in DRL A1. If you have schedule conflicts with the midterm exams please see me before the midterm exam and we will make suitable arrangements. I will not give make-up exams or early exams for the final, so be careful in making your travel plans. The final exam will be common with the other section of math 141.

On grading, homework will be worth 10%, each midterm will be worth 20%, the quizzes will be worth 20%, and the final will be worth 30%. Quizzes will be given in recitation section every week starting the week of January 22. They will be given at the beginning of the recitation section and will take no longer than fifteen minutes.

Not all sections of 141 are created equal, so we don't want to punish the good students who're in a better-than-average section. Similarly, we don't want to reward the weak students who're in a worse-than-average section. We do this as follows. First, both the midterms and the final exam will be graded on a curve centered at B-. I will use these grades and the homework and quiz grades to make a ranked listing of the students in our section of the course. Normally, about the top 15% of the students would get A/A- in the course. If our section is a strong section and 30% of you get A/A- on the final exam then the top 30% of the students in our section will get A/A-. This is the fairest solution, but it makes it hard to predict the fine details of your final grade very early in the semester.

Homework will be assigned on Thursdays and will be due the following Thursday. Those of you in Monday recitation sections should work on the homework over the weekend so you have questions in recitation. I will accept _no_ late homework. I will drop the two lowest homework grades but will not drop any of the quiz grades. I encourage you to work in groups. Often you will understand something that stumps your classmates. And vice versa.

My office hours are Wednesdays 1-2, Thursdays 11-12, or by appointment. My office is David Rittenhouse Lab 4E5a. My phone number is (215) 898-8472 and my email address is mpugh@math.upenn.edu

Our TAs are Nadia Masri and Ian Blumenfeld. Nadia's office is DRL 3E2 and her office hours are Monday 3-4 and Wednesdays 11-12. Ian's office is DRL 4E14 and his office hours are Tuesday 4-5 and Wednesday 1-2. Each of them is leading four recitation sections: Monday 9-10, 10-11 and Wednesday 9-10, 10-11. You must attend the recitation section that you are registered for and take your quizzes in that section. You are welcome to attend other additional recitation sections if you find this helpful.

Please come to me if you have any problems with the homework, with the amount of homework, with the course, or with anything else. The sooner we deal with any problems you might be having, the better. My door is always open. Do feel comfortable stopping by --- if I'm busy, I'll just ask you to come back later! Also, if you see me eating my lunch at Hill House, feel free to stop and ask math questions (or just chat).


General Math 140 Information

There are Sunday review sessions every Sunday starting January 21. These are 7-9 pm and are held in DRL A8.

Math 141 has a newsgroup. This is an "electronic bulletin board" where you can post questions about either the basic calculus or computer aspects of the course. The questions can be answered either by TAs, who will check the newsgroup regularly, or by other students. The best way to access the newsgroups is from the WWW page of the course, using Netscape. It is also possible to log onto your email account and use the "tin" command. The name of the group is upenn.math.math141 Graduate students will be online three or four nights each week to answer questions posted to the newsgroups.

Math 141 has a general web-page. You can find old final exams and maple material and lots of other useful information there. Also, there's a general Calculus advice web-page.

Every First-Year House and College House on campus has a Math Advisor. This is an undergraduate who is qualified to assist calculus students with math and Maple. The Math Advisor in each house will announce hours when she or he is available to the residents of the house. Although these programs are primarily residence-based, they are open to all Penn calculus students, no matter where they live. In addition, any calculus student who lives off-campus or in a residence without a Math Advisor can choose to affiliate with the Math Advisor of a particular house.

There is a Math and Maple Help web page.

The Math Center and the Maple Center are places to go for individual help or to work on homework. The Centers are staffed by graduate mathematics students, and their location rotates among the residence halls on campus. We emphasize that the centers are open to ALL calculus students no matter where they live (but remember to bring your Penn ID to be admitted to the residence hall).

Math Center hours are from 6:30PM to 9:30PM on Monday through Thursday. Maple Center hours are from 7:00PM to 9:00PM on Monday through Thursday. Locations will be announced in class. A list is also available from the Math Office in 4W1 or on the Math Department Web.