MTH 251 Honors, Differential Calculus
Fall 2017, BEXL 412, MWF 8:30-9:50am

Instructor: Prof. Juan M. Restrepo
Office/Phone: Kidder Hall 46, (520) 990-4866 (email is best)
Office hours: W 1:30 p.m. -- 4:50 p.m., or by appointment.
Email: restrepo@math.oregonstate.edu
Homepage: www.science.oregonstate.edu/~restrepo

Enforced Prerequisites : MTH 112 with C- or ALEKS math placement test: 75% or math placement test: 33, or instructor permission.
Texts: Briggs, Cochran, Calculus, Early Transcendentals, 2nd Edition (either the e-book or the standard book) with mymathlab access code, Pearson Learning, 2015.

MyMathLab is not required. The particulars of MyMathLab will be discussed on the first day of class.

MyMathLab, Course ID: restrepo20989

Upon successfully completing this course a student
  • Calculate average and instantaneous rates of change and identify instantaneous rates of change with derivatives.
  • Apply ideas of differential calculus to motion problems (velocity, speed, and acceleration)
  • Apply the algebraic limit laws and the standard rules of differentiation including the chain rule to calculate particular limits and derivatives.
  • Use methods of calculus to solve maximum and minimum problems.
  • Use methods of calculus to determine the shapes of curves.

    MTH 251 satisfies the Baccalaureate Core Skills category for Mathematics and successful completion of the Mathematics category is one of OSU’s First Year Skills requirements.
    Baccalaureate Core Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify situations that can be modeled mathematically.
  • Calculate and/or estimate the relevant variables and relations in a mathematical setting.
  • Critique the applicability of a mathematical approach or the validity of a mathematical conclusion.

    Syllabus:

    Course Syllabus.

    Class Notes:

    Notes from class.

    The Study Guide:

    The highly-recommended Study Guide.

    The Mathematica Demonstrations

    Mathematica Demos by Prof. Jorge Ramirez.

    Assigned Problems:

    List of assigned problems.
    Note: You are only responsible for the problems listed in this link.
    There are extra practice problems in mymathlab, the electronic homework system.

    Exams:

  • The 2 midterm exams will be on Monday Oct16, and on Friday, Nov17.
  • Extra Credit test (due Nov 17)
  • The TAKE-HOME final exam is DUE Mon Dec 4, 11:30am. The final exam. .

    No make-up midterms or final exams. If you miss a midterm due to a documented emergency, you will have the other midterm count for 2. If you miss both midterms you will receive an incomplete fail. If you miss the final exam you will receive an incomplete fail.



    Grading information:
    Recitation/Homework100 points
    2 Midterm Exams200 points
    Final Exam200 points
    Total points possible500 points

    The grading scale for the course is guaranteed to be no higher than the following cutoffs:
    A:450 – 500
    B:400 – 449
    C:300 – 399
    D:275 – 299
    F:0 – 274

    HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE:

  • This course requires a lot of time. Plan accordingly: for every hour of class time, plan on 2-3 hours of study time.
  • Most students who find this course challenging have poor command of calculus. During the first week recitation your instructor will administer a test on basic calculus. If you score less than 50/100 in this exam you will likely have a hard time pulling a good grade. The solution is to review calculus 1 and 2 and vector calculus 1.
  • Many students who perform best, not surprisingly, are those that seek help during office hours from the instructor or the recitation instructor. Make time for office hours. It's one of the best and fastest ways to clarify questions and perform better in exams
  • The exams are structured to reward hard work and/or for being clever, and clear and structured ideas.
  • If you come prepared for the exam, you should be able to do well: there will always be two problems from the Practice Problems (one of which will be done in class). This is 60% of your grade. The rest is based upon the material assigned. That means that there is no reason to have less than 60/100 if you were doing all of your homework.
  • Every quiz in the recitation is a take-home quiz. If you do all of your homework correctly, you should have a perfect score on the quiz.
  • Study in small groups.
  • If you miss a day of class you should try to obtain notes from one of your classmates and study the missed lesson as soon as possible.
  • Calculus classes move fast and MTH 251 will be no exception, and you will find it difficult to catch up if you fall behind.
  • Be sure to seek help immediately if you are having trouble with any concepts by asking questions in class, by making full use of the free tutoring services provided by the MLC located in Kidder 108, or by visiting your recitation instructor or me during the scheduled office hours.

    You can find (at times witty) advice on how to survive a calculus class on the websites How to Ace on Calculus and Calculus Tips. Additional online exercises on differential and integral calculus can be found on the freely available Calculus on the Web (COW) and Visual Calculus web portals. COW also comprises an extensive collection of problems in vector calculus.


    Course Catalog Description

    OSU Academic Dishonesty Policy

    Disability Access Services

    Further Information:

    Tutoring is offered in MTH251 material by Supplemental Instruction

    Computational Illustrations and Resources

    Exercises in the course text are divided into several categories. Review Questions test your conceptual understanding of the narrative, while solving Basic Skills exercises will improve you computational dexterity. Exercises under the Further Explorations and Applications heading are built on the Basic Skills problems and are more demanding. Finally, Additional Exercises will challenge your thinking and often involve mathematical proofs. Each chapter in the text concludes with Review Exercises which will help you to synthesize the contents of the entire chapter.

    The edition of Briggs and Cochran employed at OSU comes with an access code to MyMathlab. In order to log into the site you will need to register via CourseCompass, a mirror site of MyMathLab. During registration you will be asked to enter the ID for your section of the course, which is restrepo20990. MyMathLab comes with a number of useful tools, including video lectures, review cards, and tutorial exercises, for organizing your studies and to facilitate learning the course material. The features are rather extensive and using some of the applications might require installing additional software on your computer, so it will pay off to take the time to familiarize yourself with the various aspects of the portal. MyMathLab is also designed for delivering online tests and graded homework assignments, and your recitation instructor may choose to administer some of the graded course activities via the site.

    Last modified on Sep 2, 2017 by Juan Restrepo.