Syllabus for Technical Math IB 804-114-0005 (21453)

Madison Area Technical College

Fall 2009

Office Hours:

Or by Appointment

Take Home Quiz/Exam Solutions: http://faculty.matcmadison.edu/alehnen/TechMathI/TM1QuizExamSolutions.html

Text: A. Washington, Basic Technical Mathematics, Ninth Ed., Addison-Wesley, 2009.

Course Objectives: To provide the student with the background in mathematics to:

(1) Successfully complete an Associate Degree Program in a technical field.

(2) Use mathematics as a means of clearly communicating ideas and concepts.

Course Outline of Instruction: http://wids.matcmadison.edu/10804114.pdf

Attendance: This is the responsibility of each individual student. An exam missed without adequate notification and explanation will result in an automatic grade of zero. Quizzes will never be accepted late. There will be No Exceptions to these two rules !

Grading: Two sources will contribute to the grade in this course :

(1) The three highest of four take-home quizzes, each quiz worth 25 points.

(2) Three hour exams each worth 100 points.

Note: Any exam missed without an official excuse counts as a score of zero, as does any take-home quiz not handed in when due. Since the lowest quiz score is dropped, this is the only one that you can afford to miss. Exams may always be taken early to avoid conflicts.  The following final point totals are guaranteed as minimum grade requirements:

These minimum values may be lowered if results warrant. In borderline situations class participation, attendance, the trend of exam scores, etc., may be used to justify the higher grade. For more details see the "grade scorecard".

Assignments: A course in technical mathematics is not necessarily difficult. However, it will involve a good deal of work on your part. It will be nearly impossible for you to learn and master the content of this course without persistent practice. Hence, there will be three kinds of assignments.

(1) Working assigned exercises associated with the sections of the text covered. It is the responsibility of the student to keep current, as these problems will not be collected.

(2) Assigned take-home quizzes each worth 25 points. These should be completed as directed and handed in when due. They will not be accepted late. Copies of the quizzes can be downloaded from http://faculty.matcmadison.edu/alehnen/TechMathI/QuizPacketMath1Bf09.pdf . Some of the projects involve using WinPlot. Detailed instructions for using this program are at http://faculty.matcmadison.edu/alehnen/winptut/winpltut.htm.

Calculator/Exam Policies: A handheld scientific and/or graphing calculator should be used on both homework and exams. All exams will be open note/open book.

Course Content:

Take-Home Quiz Due Dates: