************************************************************************* date: Fri, May 3, 2013 at 9:10 AM subject: Fwd: Final Exam review sessions for Math 1271 FYI. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, May 2, 2013 at 10:40 PM Subject: Final Exam review sessions for Math 1271 Dear Professors Marden and Adams, I want to alert you that the PAL facilitators will hold two final exam review sessions for Math 1271, on May 6 and May 9. I would appreciate your telling students the information below, or just direct them to find it on the Golden Gopher Workshop Database: www.workshop.umn.edu The sessions are listed under "Exam Review". We always have a large turnout so I would encourage students to register this weekend to secure a seat. They can do that on the Gopher Workshop website. If you would like to recommend extra attention to a particular topic, please advise any of the three facilitators who are cc'd. Math 1271 Final Exam review workshop I Monday, May 6 - 4:40 PM to 5:40 PM Location: STSS 131B Math 1271 Final Exam review workshop II Thursday, May 9 - 4:05 PM to 5:20 PM Location: STSS 330 Among the topics covered will be: *Chain Rule *Log Differentiation *U-Substitution *Optimization *Related Rates Thank you for your support of our efforts. Let me know if you have any questions. Mary -- Mary P. Lilly PAL Coordinator University of Minnesota smart.umn.edu 612-624-1071 ************************************************************************* date: Thu, May 2, 2013 at 11:10 AM subject: Fwd: Review session: Wednesday, May 8, 5-6 pm, Physics 170 FYI: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Maggie Ewing Date: Thu, May 2, 2013 at 10:50 AM Subject: Review session: Wednesday, May 8, 5-6 pm, Physics 170 Hi all, I booked a lecture hall for a review session: Wednesday, May 8, 5-6 pm, Physics 170. Any of your students are welcome to attend. Tell them to bring questions, I'll just be answering questions from the crowd. Best wishes, Maggie ************************************************************************* date: Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 1:51 PM subject: Room assignments for final exam on M 13 May, 1:30pm-4:30pm To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Our final exam is on Monday 13 May from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. I just received the room assignments. If you are in one of Cihan Bahran's sections (Discussion Sections 31 and 36), then you will take the final exam in Smith 231. If you are in any other section (Discussion Sections 32, 33, 34, 35 or 37), then you will take the final exam in Smith 100. Note that Smith 100 is our regular MWF lecture classroom. Room assignments for the common finals can also be found online at: http://www.math.umn.edu/undergrad/final_exams/PDF_Copy_Spring2013FINALROOMS.pdf Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 2:39 PM subject: Attendance To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Today's attendance rate was 59%. Mondays and Wednesdays are around 75% now. Attendance always drops off on Fridays, and at the end of the semester. This isn't just our class, either -- I occasionally substitute for other instructors who are unexpectedly unable to teach, so I'm aware that a 50% attendance rate at the end of the semester is not uncommon. There's no logical reason this. The material covered at the end is important, and Fridays are not vacation days. Each year several students explain to me that they understood it to be University policy that Friday classes are supposed to be designed to be "skippable", but I'm afraid that's just a myth. Performance on the final is strongly correlated with attendance. I'm currently working through old final exam problems, and so these last two weeks of classes are extremely important to your grade. Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 10:13 AM subject: Final exam review will begin this coming Monday, the 22nd To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: I'm going to deviate from the Class Diary, and start our review for the final exam this coming Monday, the 22nd (rather than one week later). This will give us three full weeks to spend on review. Most of the time I'll be going over old final exams, which you can find at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/SampFinals/ As with midterms, I'll work backward chronologically, starting with the Fall 2007 final exam, moving on to the Fall 2005 final exam, etc. I hope to cover at least two final exams. It is a good idea, if you can find time, if you can work the problems in advance. That is, I suggest you work through the Spring 2007 final exam this weekend, so that, if you find some of the problems difficult or confusing, you'll be able to note those issues, and think about them in class, as I'm working out the same problems. Keep in mind that, if you follow the Class Diary, at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html then you won't view the last video until Friday of next week, the 26th. So there may be a couple of problems on the Spring 2007 final that you're unable to do simply for not having learned the material. Of course, you shouldn't worry about those problems too much, until you view the relevant videos. After Friday 26 April, this problem should go away. Some of the time spent in review will also go toward working problems that do not appear on earlier exams, but which illustrate techniques that may be relevant to the upcoming exam. Don't think that, if I work a problem that doesn't appear on an old exam, then you can ignore it. Quite the contrary. Attendance in the last three weeks (during this review) is very important. Also, feel free to bring questions to the final exam review, or to any class. Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM subject: grading codes, go over midterm today, midterm returned tomorrow, cancel W afternoon office hours To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: ---------------------------------------- There were only two grading codes for the midterm. If you see "2-A" in red on your midterm, it means "You found the logarithmic derivative, but you were supposed to find the derivative." If you see "4-A" in red on your midterm, it means "Use l'Hopital's rule, not the quotient or product rule." ---------------------------------------- Today, in lecture, we'll go over Midterm 2. ---------------------------------------- Midterms should be returned to you tomorrow, in recitation. ---------------------------------------- I am canceling my office hours this coming Wednesday afternoon (2:20pm-3:20pm, 10 April). My other office hours (including Wednesday morning, 9:20am-10:20am) are unaffected. ---------------------------------------- Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 3:17 PM subject: looking up midterm problems, organized by topic To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: A student mentioned to me today that he didn't see any old midterm problems for Topic 0460 (The Mean Value Theorem), and was wondering if that meant that that topic wasn't covered on the upcoming exam. First, let me say directly that Topic 0460 *is* covered on tomorrow's midterm. All topics up to and including Topic 0480 are covered. I want to point out, that, in general, if you'd like to know about midterm problems connected to a particular topic, you can point to the course website http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ then look on the right hand column of that website and click on the link that reads "Midterm problems, by topic". This takes you to the PDF file http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/probsbytopicMATH1271.pdf If, in that PDF file, you scroll down to Topic 0460, you'll find three old midterm problems associated to that topic. Also, I should point out that it's possible that problems associated to later topics might use material from earlier topics, so, even if a particular topic has no problems directly associated to it, it doesn't mean that you can ignore that topic. Math is a structured subject, and sometimes later topics do rely strongly on earlier ones. For example, the increasing/decreasing test relies on the Mean Value Theorem, but problems about intervals of increase and decrease would appear in Topic 0470 and Topic 0480, not in Topic 0460. So you can't skip *any* topics -- they're all important. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 10:01 AM subject: Review for Midterm 2 starts Monday To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: On Monday and Wednesday of next week, we'll have our review for Midterm 2. This will involve going through the Fall 2012 Midterm 2, followed by the Spring 2012 Midterm 2, and so on, working back through the archive, doing as many problems as time allows. As with Midterm 1, I will also stress some information peculiar to the upcoming midterm that didn't appear on old midterms. The midterm itself will be during Thursday recitation, on 4 April. It covers all of the course material up to and including Topic 0480. I plan to give two lecture quizzes on Friday 5 April, so be sure to attend, since that day will likely count double! The day after a midterm is not a vacation day. To find the midterms from earlier semesters, point to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ then look down the right hand column and click on the links "Fall 2012 archive", "Spring 2012 archive", etc., then look down the second column from the left for the links that have the text "Midterm 2" in them. (Exception: For Spring 2011, you'll want "3rd midterm".) Note that midterm solutions are also posted. Please try to work through as many of the old second midterms this weekend as you have time for. It will help you a lot to know which problems you find difficult, so that you can focus your attention on those particular problems. As always, please feel free to come to see me or your TA if you have any difficulties with any of the material. Finally, note that http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/addlprobs.html is a good source of additional problems. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 3:04 PM subject: Topics 0480/0510/0520, Midterm 2, new formatting of videos, lecture attendance To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Welcome back from Spring Break. I hope you're well rested because there'll be a lot to do in the next two weeks. First, Topics 0480, 0510 and 0520 are the hardest for most students, and anything you can do to give extra attention to them will help you on the final exam. Second, next week, on Thursday 4 April, is Midterm 2. Over this coming weekend, I recommend working through old versions of Midterm 2 from the archive. Next week, on Monday and Wednesday, I'll be doing the same, in class. The more "advance work" you can do, the more my Monday/Wednesday review will help you. Third, I've been putting many of the remaining course videos into the newer format (HTML5/Flash 9). However, because of some technical issues, I won't be able to put Topics 0670, 0700 and 0720 into those newer formats until this summer. I should be able to do all the rest soon, though. Unfortunately, for those three (0670, 0700 and 0720), you'll have to view them in the older format this semester. Fourth, some comments on attendance: Monday and Wednesday attendance rates have been around 85%. Friday attendance is about 70% to 75%. In my classes, I can monitor lecture attendance from lecture quizzes, and look at how it affects performance. As you might expect, there is a strong correlation between attendance and a good final exam grade. See, e.g., the section on "Students in good standing" in http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Fall2012/fall2012effclassflip.txt I fully expect that this correlation will continue this semester. I'm doing **everything** I can think of to give you the ideas to understand the course material, and the skills to do the problems, but I need your cooperation to succeed at this, and it begins with all the items on the Course Expectations page http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/expectMATH1271.html This includes class attendance. I believe that each missed class has a significant impact on course performance, especially since later classes build on earlier material. So if you miss just one class, it may make it difficult to understand the later lectures. Also, Fridays are NOT vacation days. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 3:08 PM subject: video formats To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: A student requested that I post my videos in a format that can be viewed on an iPad, and I've been working on that. If you point to the Topics website, at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/topicsMATH1271.html you'll see that you can select "IP8" and "DL8" for each of the topics. These links are exactly the same as what I used to call "InstPlay" and "DwnLoad". So, if you were able to view the videos in the past, it should work just as easily now -- only the names of the links have changed. The web addresses are the same, and the videos are the same. What's new is that some topics also have links labeled "IP7" and "DL7", which link to video in HTML5 format, and that video should be viewable on mobile devices. I'll be working to get more of the videos available in HTML5 format in the coming days. As always, I can only offer limited technical support, though, if you have trouble, please show me during office hours, and I'll see if I can help. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 5:31 AM subject: Gateway update, upcoming topics, additional problems Some good news: Every one of the 200 or so students in this class have made at least one attempt at Gateway, and only five have not yet passed. Also, two of the five remaining students have a maximum score of 7, and so have been close to passing. Today is the last day to pass, so good luck to those remaining five students. I know that this course comes with a great deal of work, and I appreciate how, as a group, you've risen to this challenge. I wish I could say that it's all downhill from here, but, in fact, we're just getting to the most difficult three topics, namely 0480, 0510 and 0520. Those are the "crescendo", and, after that, most students do find that the course material gets a little easier, if not exactly easy. So do keep working hard. Some students have recently been asking me for sources of additional problems, for practice. Two suggestions: See http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/addlprobs.html and http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/probsbytopicMATH1271.pdf That latter link is a pdf file that has all of my old midterm problems, and a nice thing about it is that they're organized by topic. So each time you finish a topic, you can work the old midterm problems that only require material from that topic and earlier topics. Also, in the pdf file, an answer is given for each problem. Finally, in the file, each problem has a note that tells *when* it was given. So, if you want to, by going into the archive, you can find the midterm (with solutions) where the problem was given and look at a (handwritten) solution -- more than just the answer. Thanks once more for all your hard work. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 4:53 PM subject: Gateway update FYI: Currently 86% of the students enrolled in our class have passed Gateway. (We have about 200 students.) Good luck on your next try, and do feel free to come and see me (with a printout of your last attempt) for help. Less than 5% have not yet made their first attempt. As I mentioned before, if you haven't yet made your first attempt, then you're really playing with fire. Please come and see me immediately. The deadline is this Wednesday, 13 March, after which those who have not passed Gateway will not be able to pass the course. The Gateway exam will completely close down after Wednesday, so please don't think that you'll be able to ask for an extension. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 3:52 PM subject: Gateway To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Currently, we have about 200 students in our class. All but 59 have passed Gateway. Among those 59, there are 24 students who have yet to make their first attempt. I can't stress how dangerous it is to delay. Each one day delay means you have two fewer chances to pass, and not passing Gateway implies not passing this course. There are only a few days left: The deadline is this coming Wednesday, 13 March, after which the exam will close, and anyone who hasn't passed will have their Moodle scores set to zero. Those students should drop our course; they will otherwise receive a failing grade. Again, take note: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE GATEWAY EXAM AFTER THIS COMING WEDNESDAY, 13 MARCH. If you are having difficulty passing Gateway, please come to see me or your TA. Be sure to print out your last attempt and we can talk through it. If you haven't made your first try at Gateway, see me as soon as you can -- we need to get you started on the exam right away. To start the Gateway exam, point to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html and read through the instructions there. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:20 PM subject: Progress report on Gateway To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: According to my records, 54 students in our class have not made their first attempt at Gateway, and another 50 have made at least one attempt, but haven't yet passed. (Our class has about 200 students in it, and more than half have now passed -- congratulations!) If you are among the 54 who haven't made their first try at Gateway, then please start on the exam right away. There's only about one week left to pass, and the consequences for not passing by the 13 March deadline are serious: You will either drop the course, or fail it. Moreover, you can only make two attempts per day, so each day of delay lowers your chances of passing the exam quite a bit. Please bear in mind that the skills being tested by Gateway are very basic to the course. If you can't differentiate, it's quite hard to pass the course, Gateway exam or no. To start on Gateway, point to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html If you're having trouble logging in to WeBWorK, or are having any other technical difficulty, do come and see me -- it should be very easy to fix the problem. If you're among the 50 who are trying, but haven't yet passed, do feel free to come and see me or your TA for help. It's useful if you can bring along a printout of your last Gateway attempt, so that we can go over what you got wrong. Good luck on your next try! - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 5:07 PM subject: Gateway exam To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Currently, our class has about 200 students. Of them, 53 have passed Gateway -- congratulations if you're in this group! However, 125 students have not yet made their first attempt. If you're in this group, then you're playing with fire. REMEMBER: Each day of delay means you lose two chances to pass the test. If you don't pass the test, you don't pass the course, so there's no sense in waiting. The deadline for passing is Wednesday 13 March. Those who do not pass the course by the deadline will have their Moodle scores set to zero and will therefore FAIL THE COURSE, if they don't withdraw. To start the test, point to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html and read the instructions. Please let me know if you have trouble logging in to WeBWorK, or starting the Gateway test. Good luck! - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 3:17 PM subject: The Gateway Exam and the midterm To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: First, a reminder again about the Gateway, see http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html If you don't pass Gateway by the deadline, you should drop the course, or your grade will be an "F". Do start on this as soon as you can! You should get your midterms back tomorrow, in recitation. If you have questions about multiple choice, true/false, or totaling, please see your TA. If you have a question about grading of the hand-graded part, please see me. I only used one "code" on the exam. If you see "4-A" written on your exam it means: =================== To indicate that f(x) > 0, for all x in the interval (a,b), one typically writes either f is positive on (a,b) or f(x) is positive on a < x < b. I also accept, for example, f(x) is positive on (a,b), but it's not really good form, since it mixes functions and expressions. =================== I plan to set the grade lines as soon as I can, probably in the next two days, and certainly by the end of this week. They'll be posted at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ExamAndGrades1271/notready.txt To see the versions of the first midterm, with or without solutions, point to the main course website http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ and then look down the middle column. Most of the "Midterm 1" links are now active, and they should all be active soon, and certainly by the end of this week. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 10:05 AM subject: Gateway exam To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: The Gateway Exam is now open. Details about the Gateway Exam are posted at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html Be sure to read the NOTES section at the end of that website. If you have difficulty accessing the exam, please let me know. Gateway must be passed by Wednesday 13 March. If you don't complete it by that date, you will need to drop this course, so please get an early start, to get as many attempts as possible. I strongly recommend getting started on this as soon as you can. If you're unsure of your differentiation skills, you might want to wait until finishing viewing Topic 0380 (which is due on Monday), but please don't wait longer than that. Keep in mind that, after each Gateway try, you must wait 12 hours until the next attempt. So, if you are considering waiting until just before the deadline, thinking you can then take the test repeatedly until you pass, I'm warning you now that that won't work. The longer you wait to start, the fewer the number of attempts you'll have, so it only makes sense to start soon. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 12:45 PM subject: Change to grading system To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Some of the TAs have asked me to change the grading system so that, in addition to dropping two recitation quizzes and four lecture quizzes, the Moodle system will also drop one homework grade. I'm not sure how much difference this will make, but it's easy enough to do, and, unless I hear serious objections, I plan to make this change next week, probably on Wednesday. Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 4:39 PM subject: Attendance and grades To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Today, 31 out of 220 students were absent for the quiz, about 14% of the class. Fridays tend to be days of low attendance, and there's no good explanation for that. If past experience proves true, the attendance rate will decline significantly toward middle of the semester, especially during the weeks after an exam. Some food for thought: Last semester, I defined a student to be "in good standing" if he/she were in attendance for more than 90% of the quizzes. One could argue that this is a very low bar, because a student who misses 10% of the classes in a 15 week semester has missed a full week and a half. The results were dramatic: Among students NOT in good standing, 34.48% (more than one third!) received a D or F grade. Among students who WERE in good standing, the rate was only 16.74%. I'm sure it would be much lower among, say, students with a 98% quiz attendance rate. I understand that this only shows correlation, but I also believe that it's partly driven by cause and effect: Students who attend class learn things that students who don't will miss out on. Moreover, taking the opposing point of view, if you should encounter someone who claims that class attendance is unrelated (or inversely related) to learning, be sure to ask for evidence. I think the conversation will end quickly. It is in everyone's best interests if the U can bring its D-F rate down, and I honestly believe that one key to success toward this goal is to get attendance rates UP. This is one of those cases where helping the group and helping yourself are in alignment. By the way, I don't have a good system for monitoring faithfulness in keeping up on the videos, but all my experience leads me to think that similar correlations exist there. For correlations between grades and precalculus mastery, see http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Spring2011/spr2011precalccourse.txt For correlations between grades and faithfulness on homework assignments, see http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Fall2011/fall2011homework.txt I know I'm asking for a lot from you, but remember that it's with your own best interests at heart. Sincerely, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 10:40 AM subject: Gateway Exam To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: The Gateway Exam will open on Friday 22 February, one week from today, and the day following the first midterm. It must be completed by Wednesday 13 March. If you don't complete it by that date, you will need to drop this course, so please get an early start, to get as many attempts as possible. Details about the Gateway Exam are posted at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/gatewayMATH1271.html Be sure to read the NOTES section at the end of that website. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 10:04 AM subject: ACTION ITEM: START WORKING THROUGH OLD MIDTERMS. DETAILS BELOW. To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: ACTION ITEM: START WORKING THROUGH OLD MIDTERMS. DETAILS BELOW. You may have noticed on the class diary that, Monday to Wednesday of next week, there are no videos to watch, no quizzes and no homework, so that you have time to prepare for the first midterm, which is on Thursday, the 21st, one week from today. I recommend you use this time (starting with this weekend), to work through midterms from previous semesters. These can be found by pointing to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ and going down the right hand side (under "ARCHIVE:") to the desired semester. For example, if you click on "Fall 2012 archive" it will take you to http://math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/archF12.html and, on in the right hand column of *that* website, you can see a link for "Midterm 1A (Fall 2012)". This will give you Version A of the first midterm of Fall 2012, without solutions. If you want to see solutions, click instead on "Midterm 1A w/ sol'ns (Fall 2012)". In lecture, on Monday and Wednesday, I will plan to work through that version of that midterm, followed by Version A of the first midterm of Spring 2012. If we have time, I'll then go on to the first midterm of Fall 2011, and continue working backwards chronologically. I believe that, if you have already worked through the problems that I'm working through in class, it will be much more helpful than if you come to my presentations "cold", as a passive observer. So, over the weekend, please print out and work through as many of these old midterms as you have time to do, starting with Fall 2012, and working backward. For semesters where you find more than one version of a given midterm, I'd suggest working only Version A. If you finish all the A versions, and want more practice, it might make sense to go through the B versions, then the C versions, etc. (WARNING: In Spring 2011, you should look at the second midterm, not the first. In that semester, Midterm 1 is a precalc midterm that I gave in the second week of the semester. Also, some of the early first midterms cover a bit more material than we're covering next Thursday.) This coming midterm covers up to and including Topic 0280 (The derivative of a function is a function). - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 4:30 PM subject: For-credit clicker quizzing to start on Monday (the 4th); finding your three-digit code; clicker policies To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: The Moodle online registration system for clickers is now closed. Any further registration, or changes to registration, will have to be done "by hand", and that typically involves some back-and-forth email messages, or a visit during office hours. IMPORTANT: When you come to class from now on, be sure you know your three-digit code. I'll explain how to use your three-digit code in class, on Monday (the 4th). HERE'S HOW TO FIND YOUR THREE-DIGIT CODE: ================================ Go to your Moodle site, and click on "Grades" (on the left column). You should see a row titled "Three-digit code". Ignore the columns that read "Range", "Percentage" and "Feedback". Under the column "Grade" you will see a number between 1 and 999. If, for example, it reads "17", then your three-digit code is 017. If it reads "8", then your three-digit code is "008". If it reads "127", then your three-digit code is "127". Etc. ================================ If you don't have a three-digit code, it's probably because your clicker is not registered. Let me know. For-credit lecture quizzing (using clickers) will start this coming Monday (the 4th). Be sure to have your clicker ready the moment class starts, at 11:15am sharp. Sometimes people miss a question while digging around in their backpacks, looking for their clickers. IMPORTANT: All electronic devices (except, of course, the clickers) must be shut down during for-credit clicker quizzing. Notes and books must be closed. No reference materials of any kind are allowed during the quiz. No talking is allowed during the quiz. I'll be very forceful about all of these rules, and may have to give out zero scores for people who violate them. If you are caught using someone else's clicker, you will FAIL THE COURSE. If you are discovered to have let someone else use your clicker, you will FAIL THE COURSE. If you forget your clicker, you'll get a 0 for that quiz. (Sorry, but the bookkeeping involved in letting people turn in answers on paper is prohibitive.) If you miss one or more questions from the quiz, you simply won't get credit for them. Incidentally, even a wrong answer gets you half-credit, so, for example, if you answer incorrectly to a 20 point problem, you'll still get 10 points. Of course, a correct answer gets full credit, and no answer at all gets 0 credit. I allow the possibility of canceling a quiz at any time during the lecture. I may have to do that due to technical problems, or I may choose to, simply because I decide spontaneously to give a different quiz. If I cancel a quiz, I may give another one, later in the lecture, so be sure to stay through the entire class. Once the lecture is over, I'll get the quiz scores posted on Moodle as soon as possible, and, typically, within an hour of the end of class. Once a score is posted, you have 24 hours to let me know if there's anything wrong with it. So keep a close eye on the Moodle grade book. If, at the end of the semester, you tell me that some of your lecture quiz scores are wrong, there'll be nothing I can do, except maybe for the last one, if it's been less than 24 hours since it was posted. In calculating the total of your lecture quiz scores, Moodle will drop your four lowest individual lecture quiz scores. For recitation quizzes, only the *two* lowest scores are dropped. No homework scores are dropped. I understand that it's a somewhat complicated system, but it really won't take too long to get used to it, once we get started. Let me know if you have questions. Have a good weekend -- see you Monday. Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 2:22 PM subject: Office hours To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Just a reminder that, generally, on Monday and Wednesday afternoons (2:20pm-3:20pm), I offer online office hours. See http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/onlineoffhrsMATH1271.html for more information. Call me at 612-625-5507, if you have difficulty joining my online office hours. WARNING: This coming Wednesday, 30 January, my afternoon office hours (2:20pm-3:20pm) are canceled. However, I'll have my usual Wednesday *morning* office hours (9:20am-10:20am). Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 9:56 AM subject: REMINDER: Register your clicker on time, for 100 lecture quiz points To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: If you are just joining this course, please read through the Email Record, at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/email.txt This message will be added to that record, soon after it's sent. Be sure to have your clicker registered by the deadline Friday 1 February which is one week from today. NOTE THAT YOU RECEIVE SOME COURSE CREDIT (100 LECTURE QUIZ POINTS) FOR REGISTERING YOUR CLICKER BY THE DEADLINE. For more detail, see Point 4 of my Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 8:53 AM message, which said: 4. You will need to purchase a student response device (a.k.a. "clicker") at the bookstore. Physics uses a different kind of clicker, and their clickers will not work in our class. You'll need a Turning Point clicker for our class, and the staff at the bookstore can help you to get the right one. You'll need to register your clicker, as follows: First, point to your Moodle site, as follows. Your MATH 1271 Moodle site is https://moodle2.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=16377 You can also access your Moodle site from the main course website http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ via a link near the bottom of the left column. Look in on the right side of your Moodle site for the link that reads Administer TurningTechnologies. Click on that link and the follow the instructions. Please register your clicker as soon as possible. If you register it by 10am on Friday of the second week of classes (1 February) will receive full credit (100 points) for Lecture Quiz 0. Those who miss this deadline will receive 0 points. As soon as you get your clicker, please bring it to every class, including, if possible, the first class on Wednesday 23 January (this coming Wednesday). Frequently there will be in-class clicker quizzes testing the material in the videos that you are supposed to have watched. If you don't bring your clicker, you'll lose credit for those quizzes. Have your clicker out and ready to use at the start of each class. The first for-credit clicker quiz will probably be on Monday 4 February, and no earlier. We will likely have several clicker quizzes before that date, but they will not count for credit. However, please do get and register your clicker as soon as you can. The more times you can test it in class before the for-credit quizzing, the better the chance is that you'll discover if there is any problem with it. Once the for-credit quizzing starts, clicker quiz grades will be posted within a couple of hours of the quiz itself, and you'll only have 24 hours to notify me if you notice a problem with your clicker quiz grade. If you wait until after that 24 hour deadline, the quiz score will stand, though, of course, we'll work to troubleshoot the problem. Your four lowest clicker quiz scores will be dropped, and there are no makeups on clicker quizzes. - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 3:06 PM subject: Correction about videos to watch by Friday; more info on clicker quizzes To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: -------------- If you are just joining the class, please read through the Email Record at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/email.txt This message will appear there, along with all my earlier email messages to the class, in reverse chronological order. -------------- Some more information about lecture quizzes: Most lectures will begin with a clicker quiz at 11:15am sharp. I reserve the right to cancel a quiz (even after some or all of the questions have been asked) and/or to give a second clicker quiz later in the lecture. So be sure to arrive on time and stay for the entire class. Also, I may give an ordinary paper quiz during a lecture and ask students to show ID to verify exactly who took the paper quiz. (If your clicker is in the room, responding to questions, but you yourself are not, then there'll be a significant problem.) Be sure to bring ID with you when you come to lecture classes, as well as your clicker. Keep an eye on the green light on your clicker. If you respond to a question, and the green light lights up, it means not just that your response was sent, it also means that my laptop received it and is sending confirmation back to your clicker. I've been testing these clickers for years and have never seen a case where the green light lights, but the response isn't received and recorded on my laptop. I think that's impossible, though I guess one never knows ... -------------- See you Friday. Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 9:39 AM subject: Information about PAL (Peer-Assisted Learning) To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs and Aaron Schneberger: I'm forwarding, below, a message about PAL (Peer-Assisted Learning). It's an excellent addition to our class. In the past, I've heard only positive reactions of students to the PAL sessions and facilitators. "Facilitator" may sound a little Orwellian, but they've been great -- very helpful to people who are struggling to learn the course material. Do consider attending these sessions, if you have time. See you in class, later today! - Scot ---- I, Aaron Schneberger, a senior math major here at the U of M, will be running a PAL session each Tuesday in STSS 123 from 1:25 - 2:15. PAL - Peer-Assisted Learning - is a program that encourages students to study by working in small groups of 3-5 on problems selected prior to the session by the PAL facilitator. The session is voluntary - you will not get attendance points for attending - but we will take attendance for our records, and we do have some research that suggests that students who attend PAL receive, on average, 1/3 of a letter grade higher in the course than those who do not attend. The first PAL session will be next Tuesday, and it will be held every Tuesday thereafter. In case you have any questions about the program and/or require more info about the location or time of the session, my email address is: schne938@umn.edu Thank you for your time, and I hope to see some of you at the PAL sessions! ************************************************************************* date: Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 11:26 AM subject: Information about clicker quizzes in MATH 1271 To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: For the next couple of weeks, I'll likely be sending a number of messages, clarifying the details the organization of our course. Please bear with me through this. As we get further into the semester, it's been my experience that the amount of communication you need to read will be less and less. I appreciate your patience. I want to remind you that you need to buy a clicker (at the bookstore), and you need to register it, in order to get credit for the lecture quizzes. Information on clicker registration can be found at the Email Record at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/email.txt Please be sure that you've gotten all of the information in those email messages. (FYI: This message will be added to the top of the Email Record soon after I send it.) The first for-credit in-lecture clicker quiz will likely be on Monday 4 February. Before then, we'll have clicker quizzes that are NOT for credit, and you can use those not-for-credit quizzes to test that your clicker is working. Remember to bring your clicker to every lecture. You can see, IN ADVANCE, the kinds of questions I'm likely to ask, by checking the Class Diary at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html to see the topics of the day, and then looking at the Problem Bank, at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/probBankMATH1271.html For example, tomorrow (Wednesday 23 January) is described in the Class Diary http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html under WEEK 01: WEDNESDAY LECTURE and you can see that there will be a Clicker quiz covering all material up to and including Topic 0050 (not for credit) In preparation for tomorrow's lecture, you might want to point to the Problem Bank http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/probBankMATH1271.html and then look at the slides for "misc" and, also, at the slides for "Topic 0010" through "Topic 0050". Remember that tomorrow's lecture quiz will not be for credit. When I prepare a lecture quiz, I USUALLY take problems from the Problem Bank, and modify them slightly to make the quiz. However, I do occasionally make completely new problems. Soon after each lecture, I take the slides I used, with the quiz questions, and post them at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/lectQuizzesMATH1271.html Best, Scot ************************************************************************* date: Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 8:53 AM subject: Initial remarks about MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (from Prof. Scot Adams) To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Hello! I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday in our first lecture. You will meet your TAs in recitation on Tuesday. I hope to cover most course organizational issues by email, to free up class time to spend on material. If you have questions, please feel free to write to me. Typically, if you ask a question about organization in class, I'll ask you to write to me about it, unless it concerns something imminent. If the question and its answer are pertinent to the entire class, I'll respond by a group email message, like this one. Several comments: 1. In case you joined the class recently and didn't see my earlier message, you can review it at the email record at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/email.txt Incidentally, the message you're now reading will be added to that archive soon, at the top, so do scroll down, to look for older messages. -------------------------------- 2. Please read through the Course Expectations page at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/expectMATH1271.html If you cannot fulfill these expectations, it would probably be better for you to find another class. This class is not for everyone. -------------------------------- 3. We will not have traditional lectures during class time. Instead, lectures have been recorded, and are posted at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/topicsMATH1271.html These lectures have a mixture of theory and problem-solving, and BOTH are very important for your understanding. During the MWF classes, we spend most of our time on skill training; only a small amount of class time will be devoted to deeper, more theoretical issues. We are "flipping the classroom". You can read about this on the web. This teaching system seems to have worked very well last fall, especially for "students in good standing" For more information, see http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Fall2011/fall2011effclassflip.txt http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Spring2012/spring2012effclassflip.txt http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/Semesters/Fall2012/fall2012effclassflip.txt You should watch the first five videos (Topics 0010, 0020, 0030, 0040 and 0050) by class time on Wednesday next week (23 January), and even by Tuesday, if you have time. The main textbook for the course is by Stewart, but, because of copyrighting issues, I was not allowed to reference Stewart in my slides. The recorded material instead references a different text, which can be downloaded for free, from http://sites.google.com/site/whitmanmathematics/ Summaries for each topic appear at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/summaryMATH1271 Much miscellaneous information about each topic appears at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/miscMATH1271 The miscellaneous information includes number of slides, the time of the recording, the section(s) covered in Whitman and the section(s) covered in Stewart. Also, errata appears at this website. -------------------------------- 4. You will need to purchase a student response device (a.k.a. "clicker") at the bookstore. Physics uses a different kind of clicker, and their clickers will not work in our class. You'll need a Turning Point clicker for our class, and the staff at the bookstore can help you to get the right one. You'll need to register your clicker, as follows: First, point to your Moodle site, as follows. Your MATH 1271 Moodle site is https://moodle2.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=16377 You can also access your Moodle site from the main course website http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ via a link near the bottom of the left column. Look in on the right side of your Moodle site for the link that reads Administer TurningTechnologies. Click on that link and the follow the instructions. Please register your clicker as soon as possible. If you register it by 10am on Friday of the second week of classes (1 February) will receive full credit (100 points) for Lecture Quiz 0. Those who miss this deadline will receive 0 points. As soon as you get your clicker, please bring it to every class, including, if possible, the first class on Wednesday 23 January (this coming Wednesday). Frequently there will be in-class clicker quizzes testing the material in the videos that you are supposed to have watched. If you don't bring your clicker, you'll lose credit for those quizzes. Have your clicker out and ready to use at the start of each class. The first for-credit clicker quiz will probably be on Monday 4 February, and no earlier. We will likely have several clicker quizzes before that date, but they will not count for credit. However, please do get and register your clicker as soon as you can. The more times you can test it in class before the for-credit quizzing, the better the chance is that you'll discover if there is any problem with it. Once the for-credit quizzing starts, clicker quiz grades will be posted within a couple of hours of the quiz itself, and you'll only have 24 hours to notify me if you notice a problem with your clicker quiz grade. If you wait until after that 24 hour deadline, the quiz score will stand, though, of course, we'll work to troubleshoot the problem. Your four lowest clicker quiz scores will be dropped, and there are no makeups on clicker quizzes. -------------------------------- 5. The daily plan for the entire course is set out in the course diary at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html -------------------------------- 6. The syllabus is at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/syllabusMATH1271.pdf The syllabus has my office hours. It also has textbook information, dates of midterms and final exam and our course grading policies, among other things. -------------------------------- 7. The course website is http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ Your MATH 1271 Moodle site is https://moodle2.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=16377 Grades will be posted at the Moodle site. -------------------------------- 8. Homework (a.k.a. NEW homework) for the course is at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/hm2wrkMATH1271.html Almost every NEW homework problem is modeled on a problem that appears in the OLD Homework at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/hmwrkMATH1271.html You can look at solutions to those OLD problems at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/solnsMATH1271.html These solutions can be an aid to solving the NEW problems. This should help you quite a lot, but be aware that sometimes a small change to a problem can cause the solution to change in a significant way. Due dates for homework appear at the diary website http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html but it may happen that not every problem is assigned. TAs will be responsible for telling you which problems to do, and will also be responsible for grading policies, including handling of late homework. TAs may also choose to assign some problems from the Stewart textbook. -------------------------------- 9. Most Thursdays (but NOT this coming Thursday, 24 January), there will be a written recitation quiz designed and graded by the TAs. What material is covered on each quiz appears in the diary at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html You can drop your two lowest recitation quizzes, and there are no makeup quizzes. -------------------------------- 10. Observe, in the course website http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ on the right hand side, there is a column labeled "Archive". This contains a number of old midterms (each one appearing twice, once without solutions, once with). You may find this to be a useful study guide. Be aware, however, that our pace this semester may not be exactly the same as in earlier semesters, so there is no guarantee that each midterm this semester will cover exactly the same material as the corresponding midterm from an earlier semester. -------------------------------- 11. I highly recommend Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ as another source of lectures, and to get extra practice. Khan Academy also has much precalc material, for review. However, please do not view Khan Academy as a substitute for the recorded lectures at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/topicsMATH1271.html The clicker quizzes will be based on these course topics, not on Khan's lectures. Note that there are some problems (in the Khan Academy format) that you can use, for practice, at http://math.umn.edu/~adams/KA/MATH1271-exercises/exercises/ These problems are not assigned and will not count for credit. -------------------------------- 12. I seek your feedback. Please don't hesitate to write to me with comments, questions and suggestions. I will try my best to respond individually, although, the volume of email could reach a point where I have to write to groups of students simultaneously. I'm happy to hear about all issues, large and small. In particular, please let me know about typographical errors you may find; however, if you do find a mistake, please review the errata at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/miscMATH1271 to see if it has already been noted, thanks. -------------------------------- See you Wednesday! - Scot ************************************************************************* date: Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 2:36 PM subject: MATH 1271: Videos, flipping the classroom, and some other information To students in MATH 1271 Lecture 030 (11:15am), copying TAs: Hi. According to my records you're registered to take MATH 1271 LECTURE 030 this coming semester. (If not, please ignore this message, with my apologies.) The MAIN POINT OF THIS MESSAGE is that you'll need to watch a lot of videos in the next two weeks, and you may want to get an early start. Details follow: I will be "flipping the classroom", a teaching technique in which lectures are viewed on video outside of class while skill-training is done in class. Basically, most of the passive learning is moved out of the classroom, and much of the class time is spent actively engaged in the material. It is important that you evaluate early whether this approach is likely to work for you. Toward this end, it may help you to have a look at the "Course Expectations" website at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/expectMATH1271.html See also http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ArchiveMATH1271/learnstats.html MORE INFORMATION ON THE VIDEOS: The course website is http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/ and I recommend looking over the "Class Diary" which is at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/diaryMATH1271.html According to this Class Diary, by Wednesday 23 January, you'll need to have watched the videos for Topics 0010-0050. Also, by Friday 25 January, you'll need to have watched Topics 0060-0130 (except, possibly, Topics 0070 and 0100, which are optional). This totals 7.43 hours of videos. Most weeks will have a lot less, but, since there is no homework due in the first week, there is extra time put into videos. If you have time, you might want to watch some of these videos this week, just to get an early start. Links to the videos can be found at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/topicsMATH1271.html The syllabus is at http://www.math.umn.edu/~adams/MATH1271/syllabusMATH1271.pdf I look forward to seeing you in class on Wednesday the 23rd. Best, Scot -- Scot Adams Professor of Mathematics University of Minnesota *************************************************************************