TMAT/AMAT 118 : Honors Calculus I

Fall 2018, Class #9699

Monday, Friday 12:35-1:30 in CH 151, and Wednesday 12:35-2:25 in SS 116

Instructor: Michael Lesnick
mlesnick [at] albany [dot] [the usual thing]
Office: Earth Sciences 120D
Office Hours: Mon. 1:50-2:50, Wed. 3:00-4:00, Thurs. 3:00-4:00, and by appointment
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Quizzes

Practice Partial Final
Solutions to Practice Partial Final

Practice Midterm 2
Solutions to Practice Midterm 2

Practice Midterm 1
Solutions to Practice Midterm 1

Sets and Functions "Cheat Sheet."

Notes and Exercises on Sets and Functions
Solutions to Exercises on Sets

Notes and Exercises on Limits

Exam Dates :
Midterm I: Wed. Oct. 12,
Midterm II: Wed. Nov. 14 (tentative),
Final: Fri. Dec 14 (10:30-12:30).

About this Course:
Calculus is one of the cornerstones of modern human thought and culture. It plays a pivotal role in science, engineering, statistics, the social sciences, and even the arts. In this era, where computers, machine learning, and data-driven approaches to problem solving have become dominant, calculus is more important than ever.

This course will introduce the fundamentals of caclulus: The main topics will be limits, derivatives, and integrals. If time permits, we may cover differential equations. As this is an honors course, there will be more emphasis on theory and conceptual foundations than in a comparable non-honors course at SUNY Albany.

Required Course Materials:
The course textbook is Stewart's Calculus, 8th Edition (Early Transcendentals). I recommend that you invest in physical copy of the book.

Students will also be required to use for WebAssign for homeworks. The class key is for this course is albany 3639 0658 .

There are two recommended options for purchasing access to the text and to WebAssign:
  1. You can subscribe to Cengage Unlimited for the semester, which gives you access to WebAssign. Once you have the subscription, renting a physical copy of the text for the semester is inexpensive.
  2. You can buy a version of the text which comes bundled with access to WebAssign. This is available through the bookstore.
Prerequisites:
Students must be comfortable with standard high school math, including algebra, trigonometery, analytic geometry, and functions.

Prior exposure to caclulus is not necessary, but will be helpful.

Expectations:
The material of this course is challening and requires time, patenience, and focus to learn well. Most students should expect to spend at least 8-10 hours of focused work per week on the course outside of class.

Grading:
25%: Homework and Quizzes
20%: Midterm I
20%: Midterm II
35%: Final

The class will use the university's A-E grading scheme.

Homework:
Homework will be assigned most weeks. Unless stated otherwise, it will be due by the start of class on Friday. All homeworks will have an online component, to be completed via WebAssign. In addition, some homeworks may have a written component, to be handed in before the start of class.

You may discuss the homework with others, but you must complete all of the web assignments yourself, and you must write up and hand in any written solutions on your own. I strongly recommend reading the text before working on the probems, and working on the problems by yourself before turning to your classmates for help.

No late homework will be accepted, but the two lowest homework scores will be dropped.

Quizzes:
We may occasionally have quizzes on Wednesdays, based on the homework of the previous week.

Academic Regulations:
Naturally, SUNY Albany's Undergraduate Academic Regulations apply to this course, and students are expected to be familiar with these. The regulations concern academic integrity and missing/rescheduling exams, among other things. Students should also be aware of the University's Medical Excuse Policy.

There will be no leeway on missed exams or last-minute exam rescheduling, except as noted in the regulations. If you anticipate an issue with the timing of an exam, please let me know as soon as possible.