Revised syllabus for Calculus III

New or substantially changed material is indicated in bold green.

Professor: Mark McClure

Course purpose

As the follow up to Calc I and II, we hope to accomplish the following in this third semester course:

• Learn multi-dimensional calculus: The main theme of Calculus III is application of the ideas developed in Calculus I and II to higher dimensional settings. You already have most of the necessary fundamental ideas; we just need to do a little extra book-keeping.
• Understand the universe: Seriously! Newton developed calculus to help understand the motions of the heavens.
• Develop 3D visualization: You will definitely need some skill in geometric visualization to succeed in this class. The computer will help quite a lot in this regard.
• Reinforcement of algebraic skills: We will constantly use skills you developed in Calculus I and II. You should find that you get better at differentiation and integration as we go along.

Materials

• Text: We will use The APEX Calculus text. This is an open text made freely available through a Creative Commons license. You may
  • Download a free PDF and/or
  • Purchase from Amazon
  You are not required to purchase a hard copy; I suspect that use of the PDF will be just fine for many students.
• Websites
  • MyOpenMath: Our auto graded homework system
  • Multi-Calc Talk: Our online forum
• Technology:
  • We will not be using calculators and they will not be permitted on quizzes or exams. A calculator or other computational tool will often be useful on homework assignments, however.
  • Our online forum : I've set up an online forum Multi Calc Talk where we can discuss all kinds of aspects of multivariable calculus.
  • Online office hours: I'll email you a Google Meet link where you can find me during the first half of our regularly scheduled class time. You are not generally required to attend office hours. This is simply an opportunity for you to ask questions. Of course, I can set up private links in situations where that's appropriate.

Grades

• Quizzes: We had frequent quizzes the first half of the semester and we will have try to have more the second half. These will simply be timed MyOpenMath assignments.
• Exams: We had two exams during the first half of the semester:
  • Thursday, February 6
  • Thursday, March 5
  I'm hopeful that we will be able to have some time of exam near the end of the semester but the University is still working on the resources for that. We shall see.
• Homework: We will continue to have three types of homework:
  • MyOpenMath, which is online and automatically graded.
  • Textbook assignments, which will not be collected but offer important practice. We might discuss some of these on...
  • our forum - where we will have a few more assignments than previously thought.
• Final grades: I will determine final grades using a scale not more stringent than the standard 90-80-70-60 scale. You will be apprised of your standing as the term progresses.
• Cheating: I expect that your work on all in class quizzes and exams is yours and yours alone. If I suspect cheating my policy is to assign you a score of zero on that assessment and to refer you to the adminstration. You can read more on our legalese document

Advice

• Learning mathematics: I expect that you wouldn't be in calculus if you didn't already know that mathematical study is a challenging, yet worthwhile endeavor. Mathematics is the most natural language with which we describe the world around us and, I believe, this this helps us better comprehend and enjoy the world. However, understanding this deep language has a price - it's hard and takes loads of work! I suggest that you spend at least 1.5 hours between classes and at least 3 hours over the weekend studying each math class. Remember that college is a full time job!
• Help: You are not undertaking this challenging task alone. Here are a few sources of assistance:
  • Me: I like to talk to people about mathematics! That's why I chose this profession. My schedule with office hours is posted on my webpage, but I'm around much more regularly than that. Please feel free to approach me any time you have questions.
  • Your classmates: Most people learn mathematics best by talking it through with others. You will find that you can both learn from and help your fellow classmates. In particular, if your classmate is explaining a fine point to you, then you are helping them!
  • Multi-Calc Talk: A kinda combination of the previous two that never sleeps!
  • The Math Lab: We all know the Math Lab rocks! It's open long hours and is located right across the hall from my office. You will be welcome there and will definitely find people to talk to about mathematics. The Math Lab is also available now through a Moodle forum. Just log onto Moodle and look for the course titled "Math Lab Forum for all Math and Stat Students" to meet with your favorite Math Lab tutors!

Your rights and responsibilities

It's worth understanding your rights and responsibilities as a student at UNCA. One of my responsibilities is to make sure you have the information that you need to do that. Since this is common to all classes, I've got that information on this legalese document.