MATH 1501B6 (CRN 81354) - Fall 2005

Course Information

MATH 1501, Calculus I, is taught in the lecture-recitation format here at Georgia Tech. This means that for three hours per week you'll learn new concepts during the lead instructor's lectures and for two hours per week you'll review and practice those concepts in smaller groups (37 instead of over 200). I will be the facilitator for those two hours per week. Attendance of both lecture and recitation is vital to your success in this course, so be sure to show up. There's a lot of material to be covered this semester, so we're going to move at a quick pace. Keeping up on homework will be essential.

Announcements

Announcements will be placed here, with the newest announcements at the top of the list.

• 16 December 2005 - Final exam grading is complete. The final exam average was 72.6 with a median of 77. (This is data for 1501B6.) Grades have been passed along to Professor Trotter, who will be determining final grades and entering them into Banner before the deadline. According to the Registrar's Office, you should be able to see your final grade online in OSCAR by 1800 on Tuesday, 20 December 2005. They may be there by noon on that day, however. If you'd like to see your final exam, Professor Trotter has them, and I'm sure you can ask to see it and/or make a copy come January. If there are other exams you haven't claimed, I will keep them. You can pick them up from me whenever. Have a safe and happy holiday season, and good luck with your future studies! (I'll be TAing MATH 3012 in the spring, so I likely won't have any of you again this year.)
• 6 December 2005 - I'll be holding a review session for the final exam on Sunday, 11 December 2005, from 1400 to 1700 in Skiles 140. Come late, leave early, or do whatever you please. Students from all 1501B sections are invited, so spread the word.
• 5 December 2005 - Here's the grade estimator we talked about in class today. You can fill in your test scores and quiz average and have it compute what you need to get on the final in order to get a particular score in the class or what your score in the class will be if you get a particular grade on the final. Note that you have to enter zeroes for any tests you missed, otherwise it won't work right.
• 23 November 2005 - On Monday, we took quiz 12. The average was a little over a 6/10, and the solution is now online. Have a great Thanksgiving!
• 16 November 2005 - Test #5 has been graded and passed back. The median for B6 was 69 and the mean was 65.6. I don't have overall distributions at this time. If you weren't in class today, you can claim your test from me during office hours on Friday. I may remember to bring them to recitation on Monday, but don't count on it. Remember that we'll be having a quiz on Monday (21 November 2005). The content has not yet been determined. I'll probably make my decision after I learn what Prof. Trotter lectures on tomorrow. I may choose to do an integration problem along the lines of something that was on Test #5 or I may come up with a problem dealing with numerical methods. If I do the latter, I'll likely allow calculators for you to do arithmetic on. I'll send an email and post here once I've decided.
• 10 November 2005 - I've dealt with Quiz #11. Due to some miscommunication between Prof. Trotter and myself, I didn't realize that trigonometric substitutions had been de-emphasized during lecture. If I'd known that this was the case, I would not have given this problem for a quiz. Since the quiz overall was a disaster but everyone who took it appears to have tried valiantly, I am going to give everyone who took the quiz 5 points (out of 5). Since this helps everyone (who took the quiz), I will not put this in the set of quizzes that can be dropped, and I'll drop two of the other 11 quizzes from the term for each student. I know that I normally don't announce quiz dates, but I'm going to this time. Our final quiz of the term will be Monday, 21 November 2005, as that's the only remaining recitation that's not (1) during an exam week, (2) during dead week, or (3) the day before Thanksgiving. Let me know if you want your green piece of paper back for Quiz #11. Otherwise, I'm just going to file them in my office.
• 10 November 2005 - I'll be running a review session for Test #5 on Sunday, 13 November 2005, from 1500 to 1700 in Skiles 240. Come late or leave early as you need to. Students in other 1501B sections are welcome as well.
• 9 November 2005 - There will be a review session Friday afternoon starting at 1630 in Skiles 255 for Test #5. This review session will be run by Trevis Litherland, one of the other 1501B TAs. Watch this space and your email later today to find out if there will be other review sessions for you to attend. Information on Quizzes 10 and 11 will be forthcoming as well.
• 19 October 2005 - We had Quiz #9 in recitation today. The average score was 7.5/10, and I was very pleased with the results overall on this quiz. The solution is online as well.
• Old announcements are still available.

Links

Specific to this course

• Prof. Trotter's page for this course
• Solutions: Quiz 1 ~ Quiz 2 ~ Quiz 3 ~ Quiz 4 ~ Quiz 5 ~ Quiz 6 ~ Quiz 7 ~ Quiz 8 ~ Quiz 9
• Recitation policies and expectations for this section
• My schedule - My office hours are Fridays, 0805-0855 and 1005-1055, in Skiles 138A, and I can also be found in the Math Lab (Skiles 257) on Wednesdays from 1405 until 1455. You are welcome to schedule an appointment (recommended) or drop by outside office hours, but please check my schedule first to save a trip if I've got something else scheduled.

General links

• Mathworld
• GT SoM's Core Curriculum Course Materials - Includes sample tests for MATH 1501, 1502, 1711, 1712, 2401, 2403, and 2605, as well as web notes for MATH 2602. Be forewarned that these tests may differ greatly from what you will take in this course, but the more problems you solve, the more prepared you'll be.
• GT SoM's Math Lab drop-in tutoring facility. Includes a link to other tutoring resources at Tech.
• The Most Common Errors in Undergraduate Mathematics by Prof. Eric Schechter of Vanderbilt University. This is a very well-thought-out (and thus lengthy) essay on common mathematical mistakes, the deeper reasons behind them, and ways to avoid them. I encourage you all to read it. Be aware that on some computer systems (including my Mac) his integral signs and some other symbols show up as other characters. If you're reading this and can't figure out what he means, drop me an email.

Common questions

Q: What should I call you?

A: I'm not a professor, nor do I (yet) have a doctorate, so "Professor" and "Doctor" are not correct titles. "Mitch" will be just fine, but if you insist, I will try to respond to "Mr. Keller" as well.

Q: Will topic X be on the test?

A: Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Many students, particularly first-year students, love to ask this question. I can virtually guarantee you that the answer you will get any time you ask it will be "yes". If something weren't important enough to qualify for the test, it likely wouldn't be talked about in class. Unless told otherwise, you can safely assume that you will be responsible for everything covered in class when test time arrives.

Q: What should I do if I think I witnessed an Honor Code violation?

A: According to the honor code, if you see a violation, you must do something about it. Your options are to confront the student(s) involved, report it to the course instructor and/or teaching assistant, or report it to the Office of Student Integrity. All of these are good options, and you need to decide what's right for you and the situation. If you're unsure what to do, I strongly encourage you to consult a member of the Honor Advisory Council.

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