Professor:

Stephen B. Robinson

Office: Calloway, room 305

Phone: X4887

Email: robinson@mthcsc.wfu.edu

Homepage: http://www.mthcsc.wfu.edu/~robinson/

Office Hours:

One of the most pleasant parts of my job is working with students one-on-one outside of class. I know that it helps me to improve my teaching, and I believe that it helps the students as well. Please feel free to drop by for help during my office hours, which are

Monday, Thursday, Saturday*: 11-12

Tuesday,Wednesday, Friday: 1-2

Help Sessions:

Our teaching assistant, Rob Houck, will be available to help you at the following times:

Text:

Applied Calculus for Business, Social Sciences, and Life Sciences, by Hughes-Hallett, Gleason, et. al.

We will cover chapters 1-5 in the following order: 1,2,4,5,3. It is important that you read and reread each section of the text thoughtfully and carefully. You will be responsible for all of the material assigned in the text even if it is not presented in class. Learning from a textbook can be difficult and frustrating but you must have the courage and the self-discipline to keep trying.

Homework:

You can find a complete list of homework assignments by double-clicking on the word Homework above. As material is covered in class I will tell you which problems are relevant. I expect you to do all of the problems in a timely manner, and I expect you to ask questions promptly when you are having trouble. In fact, I strongly suggest that you read a section and attempt its homework problems before that section is discussed in class. If you do this then you will find that classtime is more meaningful and that your chances of subsequently solving the problems is higher.

Some homework problems will be collected during the quiz sessions, as described below. I suggest that you obtain a looseleaf notebook and keep your neatly written solutions in the notebook. Then you can simply remove the appropriate solution to hand in with your quiz.

Quizzes:

The Monday and Thursday afternoon sessions will always begin with a 20 minute quiz. Each quiz will have three problems on it, one of which will be a homework problem. For the homework problem you may simply remove the solution from your notebook and attach it to the quiz. The quizzes will be collected and graded. A perfect quiz will contribute 3 points of extra credit to your next exam score. Solutions must be both correct and clearly explained to receive credit.

After the quizzes have been collected the TA will present the solutions to the quiz problems and to any other problems that the students care to discuss.

Exams:

There will be two midterm exams, worth 100 points each, and a comprehensive final exam, worth 200 points. The midterm exams will be held during the regular class periods on Friday, 7/17, and on Friday, 7/31. The final exam will be held on Friday, 8/7, from 2:00-5:00.

You should be prepared for exams that reflect the grading policy outlined below. A little over half of these exams will ask you to demonstrate a knowledge of standard facts and computations. The remaining questions will test your understanding more deeply by asking you to explain and apply important ideas.

Grades:

The secret to earning a C is consistent hard work and good study habits. I have tried to set up my homework policy and exams so that this is a clearly attainable goal, and a grade to be proud of. To earn a B or an A you must reach beyond a standard computational understanding of Calculus. You must be able to explain the ideas behind the computations, and you must learn to apply those ideas to new situations. In particular, an A requires consistently excellent performance in all of the areas mentioned above. Although I reserve the right to make reasonable adjustments to the grading scale , the following should give you an idea of what to shoot for. (Notice that a total of 400 points are possible in this class.)

A: 360-400

B: 320-360

C: 260-320

D: 200-260

Warning: No amount of hard work and good intentions will guarantee you a grade. For example, if your preparation for this course is poor, then it may be that the best grade you can earn is a D or an F, no matter how diligently you work. If you think that this applies to you, then you should talk to me about it now.

Study Guides:

As the semester progresses I will prepare brief study guides and post them at this site. This is one way that I can communicate to you what I feel is important. Please use these as a way of questioning your understanding so that you can identify the topics that you need to review and practice.