Math 131-01**       Spring 2016
Course Information and Syllabus


Course title: Calculus for Life Science II
NOTE: Grades will be recorded on ELMS; other course information will be at the course page,
http://www.math.umd.edu/~mboyle/courses/131/

Large Lecture with professor: TuTh 9:30 -- 10:45, Armory 0131
Section meetings: Wednesday (Math TA) and Friday (Life Sci. TA)
Professor: Mike ("McBlaine Michael") Boyle
email: mmb@math.umd.edu
Office: Room 4413, Math Building
Phone: 301-405-5135

Professor office hours: TBA

Office hours and contact information for TAs (to be posted)

Preqrequisite: MATH 130 or MATH 140, with grade C- or better

Text. Biocalculus, by Stewart and Day. ISBN: 9781305607866, publisher Cengage.

Syllabus. A general list of topics covered is in the Math Department Syllabus for MATH 131 .
We will cover from our text Stewart and Day approxmiately the following: Sections 5.5, 5.8, 6.4; Chapters 7,8,9,12; Secs 13.1,2. There will also be supplemental material.

Schedule of work. See the Schedule of work for the semester, which will be filled in later in more detail. Note the exam dates.

Wednesday (Math) section meetings. In general, you will have an opportunity to ask questions about math homework, and the section will end with a quiz (to be graded and returned the following week). Unless announced to you by email, the quiz will cover material covered in the previous week's lecture meetings, as listed on the Schedule of Work; quiz questions will almost entirely be taken (perhaps with small modifications) from the assigned homework on that material.

Friday (Bio) section meetings. In general, in these sections you will have a project (worksheet) to do in groups of 3 or 4 as organized by your TA. In your group, ideally everyone should be involved, and reach a point of understanding the solution. Experience indicates that those who explain a particular solution learn as much from the process of clarifying their thoughts as does the listener. Everyone hands in an individually done worksheet. You can be guided by others in your group -- but do not just copy solutions. Material covered in these sections can appear on midterm and final exams.

Tutoring resoures. The Math department has links to academic support, tutoring and counseling resources. Math 131 is not among the courses covered in the Room 0301 tutoring (the "Math Tutoring Schedule" link). For the great majority of students, the best resource will be the TA office hours.

Grading. The weighting will be The total possible points for items will be normalized to the numbers above. (E.g., if you scored 80 out of 100 possible on your bio worksheets, you'd get a corresponding contribution of (.8)(12.5) to your course percentage score.)
The relatively "easy" points should come in the sections, if you are careful to attend faithfully and do the math homework in advance.

Course Grades. Here is the correspondence of course grade and course percentage points scored: A 85-100%, B 75-84%, C 65--74%, D 55-64%. F 0-54%. It might well happen that the curve will be relaxed, but it won't be made tougher. "+" might be added to some scores at the top of a range. "-" might be added to some scores curved up. (E.g., 80 is guaranteed B; if there's a curve, then 79 could be B-.)

Grade appeals. Generally, an appeal of a grade may not be considered if the appeal is not made within two weeks of the returned item (preferably sooner). Also, generally the only appeals considered after the final exam will be for grading of the final exam.

Homework. For practical reasons, we won't be grading your homework. However, TA reports confirm that doing the homework faithfully is well correlated to better grades -- not to mention learning. You have to do calculus (homework) to learn it; with rare exceptions, learning calculus just by going to class is about as successful as learning to shoot a jump shot or play piano just by watching.

To encourage you to do the homework, your math section quizzes will consist mostly or entirely of homework problems you should have done (possibly with numbers or mathematically meaningless details changed). Most midterm problems will be in the same fashion from the homework.

Makeups. There will be no makeup quizzes, worksheets or midterms. Calculators. You are not required to have a calculator. Calculators are NOT allowed on midterms, math quizzes or the final exam. However, it can be useful to have a calculator for the biology sections. There are also a number of homework problems which ask for some calculator computation. You don't have to do this, but I do think that doing this -- even though it is not graded -- can be useful for learning, and for checking work to catch mistakes.

Tips. Religious observances. If your religion dictates that you cannot take attend class on some dates with graded events, hand in assigned work on a particular date, then contact me at the beginning of the semester for my record (give day and date and reason for each miss) and to discuss possible alternatives.

Disabilities. If you have some disability related to testing under the usual timed, in-class conditions, you may contact the campus Disability Support Service (DSS). If they assess you as meriting private conditions and/or extra time, then you may arrange to take your tests at DSS, with extra time as they indicate. You must arrange this well in advance of a test.