Instructors: Professor George C. Nelson and Teaching Assistant Jenelle McAtee

Time and Place: Lecture 00C MWF 10:30 in 218 MLH.

Office Hours: in 225D MLH will be announced later or by appointment.

Phone: 335-0796 (office) or 337-4706 (home).

E-mail: george-nelson@uiowa.edu or gnelson@math.uiowa.edu.

Course WEB sites: http://www.uiowa.edu/~c22m025/ and WEBCT site password protected http://courses.uiowa.edu:8900/SCRIPT/22m025/scripts/serve_home/.

Goals: The purpose of this course is to study the methods of calculus that involve the notions of differentiation and integration. Calculus gives methods to solve a large variety of different kinds of problems in almost all areas of human endeavor. For this reason one finds that calculus is used in developing the foundations of most areas of science and engineering as well as serving as the basis for further work in mathematics such as in differential equations and analysis. We will study a selection of these problems and methods; hopefully, many of which you can personally relate to. Calculus was invented, approximately, three hundred years ago independently by Newton and Leibniz. The fundamental new idea in calculus is that of limits. Apart from its applications one can study calculus purely for its beauty and appreciate its body of knowledge as one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind over the past millennium.

Textbook: Calculus With Analytic Geometry Early Transcendentals by Edwards and Penney, Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall is required.

Text’s WEB site: http://edwardspenney.com/home/ .

Other Course Materials: One might consider obtaining the study guide or solution manual that is available for this text. One is not required to have a calculator and during exams and quizzes one can only use at most a scientific calculator without graphing capabilities.

Other Course Resources: Your teaching assistant is available for help at her office hours or in the Mathematics Laboratory. The Mathematics Laboratory is located on the third floor of MacLean Hall and you are able to obtain free help with difficulties that you may be having in this course there. It has a web page at http://www.uiowa.edu/mathlab/ where you can find more information about its hours and how it can serve you. Don’t be afraid to ask your professor for help too!

Course Content and Organization: The course will cover the material in the first seven chapters of the text. There will be weekly assignments made in lecture MWF and collected on Fridays the homework assigned up to that time. These assignments will be graded by the teaching assistant and passed back in your discussion sections on T. At the beginning of the semester the review material of Chapter 1 will be covered both in lecture and discussion. Later on most new material will be introduced only in lecture and discussion will be for your questions as well as for a weekly quiz over material that should have been mastered by that time. You should be prepared to spend approximately two hours outside of class for each hour spent in the classroom.

General Remarks: You will be expected to eventually understand how to do all assigned problems as well as those problems covered in lecture and discussion. Sometimes you may be asked to work a problem you have never seen before. Do feel free to ask questions at any time but most importantly in discussion sections. It is important to point out that knowledge that you personally have to struggle to obtain will be remembered, valued, and understood much better than knowledge that is just given to you. In fact it is this struggle which gives real meaning to what a college education entails. I encourage all of you to try to be as independent as is practical. The purpose of the written homework is to develop these skills in understanding how to work certain kinds of problems using calculus and communicate that understanding to others. You should work many more problems than you will be asked to hand in but those that you do hand in should be written up in more detail than is necessary just to get the answer. A correct answer to a handed in homework problem is not just the right answer but an explanation of the problem (step 1), the method or strategy (step 2), the work (step 3), and finally an overview of how this does what was intended (step 4). These steps refer to Polya’s Problem Solving Strategy which is described briefly at http://www.uiowa.edu/~c22m025/. The best way to see if you really understand something is to explain it to someone else. The correct reasoning is much more important than simply the correct numerical or symbolic answer. By writing up a few select problems each week with care and detail you will be developing an important skill as well as enhancing your learning experience. Also, with such a detailed record of you understanding of representative problems, it becomes easier to prepare for exams.

Attendance: It is important that you attend every class and discussion section scheduled for this course. If you do miss a class, you will need to learn the material that was covered in that class. It is much easier just to be there actively involved. So part of your assignments for this course is to come to each lecture and discussion. The very nature of this course and mathematics, in general, is that your understanding of new ideas in the future depend upon your having mastered previously encountered ideas and notions. Unless you have mastered the previous material, the new material becomes unnecessarily complicated and very hard to do. So do make every attempt to attend, keep up, read ahead, and ask questions when anything is unclear.

Grading: Your grade for this course with plus/minus grades possible will be determined by the following weights:

30% two midterm exams

30% comprehensive two hour final exam

40% homework, quizzes, lectures, and discussion

Exams: The first exam will be given around March 3, the second exam will be given around April 14, and the final exam is scheduled for Tuesday May 9 at 12:00 noon.

Disclaimer: This course plan may be modified during the semester. Such modifications will be announced in advance during class periods; the student is responsible for keeping abreast of such changes.

Disabilities: I need to hear from anyone who has a disability which may require some modification of seating, testing or other class requirement so that appropriate arrangements may be made. Please see me after class or during my office hours.

Note to Students: Attempt to resolve any disagreements with the person directly. If this is not satisfactorily settled, one can appeal to a higher authority. The Department of Mathematics has executive offices in 14 MLH. To make an appointment to speak with the chair of this department, call 335-0714 or contact the Departmental Secretary in 14 MLH.

We are glad that you are taking this course and hope that you find it enjoyable and useful. Please let us know of possible ways that we can improve it at any time during the semester. We wish you success!