SYLLABUS FOR MATH 107 - MATHEMATICAL REASONING & APPLICATIONS WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY - WINTER 2015 Time: 12:00-12:50pm MTRF Office: BH 430 Location: BH 109 Office Phone: (360) 650-3801 (email preferred) Instructor: Clark Musselman, Ph.D. Email: [email protected] 1. Course Webpage The course website, located at http://clarkmusselman.weebly.com/teaching.html, will be updated with various documents pertaining to the course throughout the semester. 2. Required Text ***Be sure to buy the exact version or edition of the textbook.*** Bennett, J., (2011). Using and Understanding Mathematics: A Quantitative Reasoning Approach, Fifth edition. Boston: Pearson. ISBN: 0-321-65279-7. 3. Calculators A scientific calculator (arithmetic plus scientific notation, exponents and factorials) is required. A graphing calculator (such as the TI-83) is more than sufficient but is not required. 4. Office Hours When classes are in session, office hours are M 11-12 and 1-2, R 1-2, F 10-11, and by appointment. This time is reserved for you to talk to me about homework, exams, or anything else pertaining to the course. You do not need to make an appointment with me; you may simply stop by my office. If you have another class during my normally scheduled office hours, send me an email and we can make an appointment. 5. Course Description From the WWU Course Catalogue: Assessing quantitative information, reasoning, personal finance, data display and summary; making quantitative decisions about personal and public issues; understanding linear and exponential growth models; using basic probability techniques. Students interested in taking higher level mathematics courses should instead take an appropriate course from MATH 112, 114, 118, 124, 156, 157 or 240. Note: This course is not an acceptable prerequisite for MATH 112. 1 2 6. Special needs accommodations Western is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination in all programs and activities. Requests for accommodation or assistance should be directed to Disability Resources for Students located in Old Main 120; additional information is available at: http://www.wwu.edu/depts/drs/ Telephone: 650-3083 / Email: [email protected] 7. Evaluation Your grade will be based on homework (15%), three midterm exams (14% for the lowest, 23% each for the other two), and a final exam (25%). There will be no extra credit. All homework must be turned in by the end of class. If you need to turn work in early, you may leave it in the box outside of my office. Students will not be reminded to turn work in during class. It is the students responsibility to remember to submit work to the instructor. Work delivered by campus mail, fax, or email will not be accepted. There will be no make-ups given. If you must miss a midterm exam then you must notify the instructor in advance. Instead of a makeup exam, your grade will be determined by the corresponding problems on the final exam. Final exams cannot be missed. Missing the final exam will result in a grade of zero for the final exam. 8. Homework Homework assignments are posted online and will not be announced in class. Homework will be due almost every day. Due dates will be posted on the schedule. Your six lowest homework scores will be dropped.The following information must be on the top of the front page of your homework. • First and Last Name • Math 107 • Unit (i.e. Unit 4A) • Staple all pages together, no paper clips. Don’t do the “fold the corner” trick. It doesn’t work. When submitting homework, please make sure that no additional assignments are included. If you prefer to write your homework in a notebook, you may turn in a photo-copy of the assignment, as long as it is your original work and in your own hand writing. No notebooks, email submissions, or typed work will be accepted without permission from the instructor. Also, label each problem and leave plenty of space between them. This will allow your ideas to come across more clearly. If you find yourself crossing out much of your work, please re-write the page. Each homework assignment will be graded out of five points by an undergraduate assistant as follows. One problem will be selected by the instructor and graded out of three points for correctness. If this problem is not attempted, the student will not earn any of the three points. Another two points will be awarded for attempting every assigned problem. If some problems are not attempted, the student can still earn a single point for attempting at least half of the assigned problems. Completing homework assignments and checking your answers are the two most important things you can do to be successful in mathematics. Whether or not a given assignment is collected or graded, it is the responsibility of the student to complete every problem and to verify that every answer is correct. While it is expected that each student write solutions on their own, it is highly recommended that students work in groups, especially on difficult problems. Eventually, every student will require some assistance in completing their homework. Help is available in many forms. The student can talk to their classmates, see a tutor, visit my office 3 hours, or email me. Do not let more than a day or two go by without getting your questions answered. 9. Exams Two midterm exams will be given throughout the semester. A final exam will be given at a date and time to be determined by the College. Calculators are permitted but no notes or books will be allowed on any exam. The final exam will be based on material from the entire course, although it will be weighted slightly more heavily on the material covered after the last midterm exam. 10. Student Learning Objectives By the end of the course, you should be able to: (1) Identify and apply linear and exponential growth patterns. (2) Calculate compound interest, know how and when to use the Savings Plan and Loan Payment formulas, and have a basic familiarity with mortgages. (3) Interpret and create common statistical graphs and charts (such as frequency tables, bar graphs and line charts, as well as graphics used in the media). (4) Use scatter diagrams to identify correlation, and distinguish between correlation and causality. (5) Summarize distributions numerically, using mean, median, mode, range, five-number summary and standard deviation. (6) Describe the shape of a distribution (unimodal, symmetric, etc.) and understand the effects of outliers. (7) Recognize a normal distribution and know how to use the 68-95-99.7 Rule and z-scores to answer questions about a normal distribution. (8) Calculate and interpret a 95% confidence interval. (9) Calculate theoretical probabilities, make a probability distribution, and know how and when to calculate P(A and B), P(A or B) and P(at least one event A in n trials). (10) Calculate and interpret expected value. (11) Count the number of arrangements with repetition, permutations and combinations and know which quantity to find in a given problem. 11. Further Information • Free tutoring is available: http://www.wwu.edu/tutoring/ • Keep a copy of all your work before you turn it in so that nothing is lost in the unlikely event that papers go missing. • You should expect to spend at least three to four hours working on this course outside of class for each hour in class. • Academic dishonesty is not tolerated at Western Washington University. All students are expected to know and uphold the University’s policies on academic honesty as described in the Catalogue. • This syllabus is subject to change. • Last updated 10:39 Tuesday 13th January, 2015.