Mathematics 103 Autumn Quarter 1999

Coordinator: Harry P. Allen
640 Math Tower
292 7652
allen.2@osu.edu

Tests: Unannounced quizzes will be given in recitation. There are no hour exams in Math 103 but there is a final project.

Grades: Final grades will be computed as follows: Attendance and Participation 30%, Homework 20% Quizzes 20%, Final Project 20%, Consultation 10%.

Office Hours . . . Getting Help: If you experience any difficulty with material in Math; problems, concepts, techniques etc, you are expected to take the initiative and to get help asap. If you don't, you run the risk that the difficulty will rapidly escalate and undermine your ability to make satisfactory progress. Feel free to see your Math 104 TA or lecturer or your Math 103 TA or SCA during established office hours. You do not need to make an appointment to get help during fixed office hours...just drop in. If you are unable to come in during these established hours, you should contact you're your teachers for an appointment by either leaving a note with the receptionist on the first floor of the Math Tower, or by phone or by e-mail. If no one is available, you can get help in the Math 104 tutor room Monday through Friday (10:30 - 4:30) Your TA's and SCA also has two tutor room hours and are also available to you in the tutor room at these times.

Dropping by regularly to see your TA's or SCA to check out what you know and to possibly identify basic material and techniques that you need to sharpen up, can save you from unpleasant surprises. Engaging in risk taking, by waiting until after an exam to learn whether or not you had the level of control that was required over the material, is not advised. Many students appear to be embarrassed by going to a TA or lecturer for help. "I don't want her/him to think that I am having trouble with the material" is a common concern. The short response to this is "providing help is part of his/her job". The best strategy for you is to be pro-active in your learning and to get the help that you need in timely fashion. Students often seek help from "someone down the hall who is a math brain" or "someone who had taken the course and got a good grade". This is not advised as your main support in this course and should only be used primarily when no other help is available.

Studying and Learning Math: Many students falsely believe that they will do well in a Math class if they just know how to obtain the answers to the homework problems. Not only is this not the case, but acting on it usually creates a major obstacle to success in Math. This narrow viewpoint can prevent you from being able to solve similar problems on exams owing to marginal differences between problems (see point 3 below). Job number one for you in this course in this course is to learn the material of the course. From this perspective, homework should be viewed as a self-test of your understanding of the material. Re-read this paragraph.

At this point, you are probably wondering how you can learn the material without working on the homework problems first. That is a fair question and I'll try to give you some ideas for an alternative modus operandi for a Math course.

1. Try to read over the text material to be lectured on prior to the lecture. Pay close attention to the examples, and first see if you can understand the mechanics of each step. Then see if you can understand how the example relates to the material just presented. Finally see if you understand the "strategy" that guided the example. Many students make the mistake of trying to remember the specific steps in the examples instead of trying to uncover and recognize the strategies that are involved. The specific steps in the example may not apply to closely related similar examples, but the strategies will! Ignoring the strategies makes adequate learning more difficult.

2. In your 104 lecture, try to establish a reasonable balance between taking notes and trying to understand the material that is being presented. If you have read through the section(s) as indicated above, then pay close attention when the lecture deals with material that you had some difficulty with. If the lecture does not clarify the difficulty, then try to ask a question. Every lecture should cover the important aspects of the current section(s) well. This does not mean that every aspect of the section(s) will be covered. You need to take some responsibility for the remaining material. Many students whom I have spoken with indicate that their lecture notes often had marginal utility. If this is true in your own experience, then you might consider these first two recommendations, at least as a starting point, to see if you can derive increased value from the time that you spend in MCM.

3. After a lecture, on the same day as the lecture, allocate one or two forty-five minute sessions toward learning the material. These sessions need to be productive. Begin by turning to the two (or three) previous sections and work out 3-5 problems (that you had not yet worked on) without any additional resources (friends, notes, examples, or text). This mini-review (or warm-up) will usually establish a context for the new material. Then re-read the current section(s) paying close attention the issues raised in the first point above. Exercises in each section are usually broken up into groupings. Each of the initial groups of problems usually involve a single issue...an idea, a computation, a formula, etc. Work through the odd problems in the first group, checking examples in the text, re-reading portions of the text, checking the answer in the back of the text etc, as necessary. Continue until you think that you understand the "issue" that the grouping is about. Then work out any homework problems that are in that group without referencing the text or any notes that you might have. Continue in this manner though the remaining groupings. Before long, the "issue" will become more complicated, requiring that you learn how to blend together the "single" issues of the previous groupings in order to solve more complicated problems. Failure to achieve this skill may limit your ability to recognize how to solve reasonable problems, even ones that are closely related to homework problems or examples from the text or class.

No one will tell you that learning Math is easy. If you have had difficulty with Math in the past, and you need to have control over a body of Math for your major, then you owe it to yourself to try a different approach.

Students in MCM are expected to:

• Attend all Math 104 and Math 103 classes regularly.
• Work cooperatively in small groups, both inside and (if possible) outside of Math classes.
• Obtain timely help from their teachers whenever material or problems are encountered that they are unable to deal with, either individually or within their group.
• Spend about 1-2 hours each day (Fridays and weekends included) outside of class working seriously on Math 104 and Math 103 homework, material and problems, as well as getting additional help as needed.
• Hand in all assignments on time.
• Arrange schedules (both school and work) that do not conflict with Math classes.

In addition

• Math 103 is not a class where you learn how to do your Math 104 homework. It is a class where you experience a new way to learn Math.
• Attendance is not optional in Math 104, it is required.
• Math 103, because it is so different, may seem frustrating at first. For example, your teachers will rarely show you how to solve a problem that you are having trouble doing. Rather, they will interact with you and attempt to enable you to solve the problem by yourself. Think of it this way: if someone always has to show you how to solve a problem, how are you going to answer questions on a test by yourself?