Written materials: You are expected to learn things from written
materials, which you can read at your own pace.
. . . Textbook: Bretscher, Linear Algebra with Applications, 3rd
edition.
. . . Printed material distributed by the professor,
. . . Documents placed on-line by the professor.
On-line documents will be posted and revised, without being
announced in lecture.
Check the website
daily.
The dates and times of posting or revision will be included in the index;
this way, you can see at a glance what is new.
Material:
You are responsible for the material in all sections of the textbook
and other documents from
which homework is assigned. Note that you can be held responsible
for material that is not covered in class.
The orientation material in the folder What Hopkins students should know
about math in
college is to be read, understood and followed by the student. (This
is, no doubt, consistent with what Dr. Richard Brown said in his Orientation
Week presentation on Sep 1.)
The basic unit of time within the course is the week. We shall follow, more or less, the schedule below (if there are changes, they will be announced as described above). Sections written in boldface set the limits for the subsequent exam. Note that the weeks of the fall semester begin on a Thursday; a week's lectures will consist of F-M-W.
. . . . . WEEK BY WEEK
Week 1 (of 9/4/08). Introduction, Ch. 1.1-1.3
Week 2 (of 9/11/08). Ch. 2.1-2.4
Week 3 (of 9/18/08). Ch. 3.1-3.2
Week 4 (of 9/25/08). Ch. 3.3-3.4
Week 5 (of 10/2/08). Ch. 4.1-4.2
Week 6 (of 10/9/08). Ch. 4.3, [Fall Break], [Exam 1: Weeks 1-4]
Week 7 (of 10/16/08). Ch. 5.1-5.3
Week 8 (of 10/23/08). Ch. 5.4-5.5
Week 9 (of 10/30/08). Ch. 6.1-6.3
Week 10 (of 11/6/08). Ch. 7.1-7.3
Week 11 (of 11/13/08). [Exam 2: Weeks 5-9], Ch. 7.4-7.5
Week 12 (of 11/20/08). Ch. 7.6
Week 13 (of 11/27/08). [Thanksgiving], Ch. 8.1, 8.2, 8.3(some))
Week 14 (of 12/4/08) 9.1 [short week]
Basic Premise: It is intended that you make good use of the lectures, the textbook, the on-line documents from the course website, and your own intelligence to build your understanding of the material. These resources should get combined to produce command of the material. Other ways of operating may work, but you do them at your own risk.
Recitation Sections: The class is divided into sections, for problem
sessions led by your teaching
assistant (TA), who is a graduate
student in the Department of Mathematics. The TA is instructed to answer
questions about the material of the preceding and current homework assignments.
The TA should not go over problems from the current
assignment due, but should instead be asked to discuss other problems from the
corresponding sections of the book.
The TA is also authorized to talk at a
basic level about
the material of the upcoming lectures. It is recommended that you
always try to get a
general idea of what's going to happen in lecture by looking over the
relevant section(s) in the textbook beforehand.
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Homework: Assignments are given on-line each week, and collected at
the beginning of class when due.
The homework problems need to
be done so that you gain some command of the material, and thereby to prepare
yourself for the exams.
In writing up any problem, you are to show all
steps leading
up to your solution.
For a writing intensive (WI) problem, it is
part of the question to write up the solution as though it were to be
published in a textbook, but with no steps omitted. Illustrations abound in
our book.
Selected problems will be graded and returned in recitation that
week.
Ordinarily, we will refuse to accept late homework.
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You are encouraged to discuss the material with other students.
However, you are to write up your homework solutions by yourself. Failure
to do so (i.e., copying) is a violation of University policy on Ethics, which
I quote from below, to which I add, Cheating is theft! We will
report all suspected cases.
Cheating is wrong. Cheating hurts our community by undermining academic integrity, creating mistrust, and fostering unfair competition. The university will punish cheaters with failure on an assignment, failure in a course, permanent transcript notation, suspension, and/or expulsion. Offenses may be reported to medical, law or other professional or graduate schools when a cheater applies.
Violations can include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments without permission, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments for unethical purposes, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse.
You may collaborate with other students in this course, but only under the conditions above. If you have questions about this policy, please ask the instructor.
On every exam, you will sign the following pledge: "I agree to complete this exam without unauthorized assistance from any person, materials or device. [Signed and dated]"
Please report to the instructor any violations of our ethics policy that you witness (unless you intend to cheat).
For more information, see the guide on "Academic Ethics for Undergraduates" and the Ethics Board web site Ethics Board web site.
Exams: There will be two Midterms and a Final. You may not use books, notes or calculators during the exams. To give you more than just 50 minutes, the midterms will be given in the evenings of Wed Oct 15 and Mon Nov 17, and will cover the sections of the textbook from which homework assignments were returned to the students prior to those dates. The lectures on these dates will be replaced by a student-powered review session. Times and rooms for the midterms will be announced as soon as they are determined.
Anyone who misses an exam must make arrangements within two days of the missed exam for a make-up exam. We require proof of a valid excuse. Make-up exams may be given orally by the professor.
Old exams from this course may be found at [insert location here (e.g., MSE
Reserves, Internet location, etc.)].
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Students with documented disabilities or other special needs that require
accommodation must register with the Office of Academic Advising.
After that, contact the instructor at least 5 days prior to each exam; we
will need to have received confirmation from Academic Advising.
The Final will be a 3-hour exam that covers the entire course.
It will be held Fri Dec 12, 9am-noon. The Final will
weight
the material beyond the second Midterm, i.e., of Weeks 10-13, so that each week
of the course contributes more or less equally to the determination of the
course grade (see description of the grading method below). In effect,
the Final is half "Exam 3," half comprehensive exam.
Grading: Homework: 100 pts.(20%); Exam 1: 100
pts. (20%); Exam 2: 100 pts. (20%); Final: 200 pts. (40%).
Note, however,
that in this course the homework
score will be counted only up to 1.2 times the total midterm exam
percentage.
This can be stated more efficiently in symbols. Let H
denote your homework score (out of 100 pts.), and S your
midterm exam
total (out of 200 pts.). Then the point score credited to you for the
homework and quiz is
min(H,1.2S/2).
(In other words, your homework score is capped by 1.2 times your rescaled
midterm grades. In effect, you are assigned credit for learning
from doing the homework.)
Office Hours: Students tend to feel better about the course after coming to my office hours. The weekly hours (available to walk-ins) are: Th3, F4:30-6:00 in Krieger 210. If these times are unsuitable, you may arrange an appointment (e-mail zucker@jhu.edu , or call 410-516-7403).
In addition, there are pooled TA office hours in the Help Room, Krieger 213, in which the Math Department TAs are on duty in shifts. The hours are [to be confirmed] :
. . . . Mon-Fri 9am-9pm with the following exception: closed F5-9pm.
Even beyond that, Academic Advising is starting a new Learning Den, to be held in Dunning Hall, Sun through Thurs, 6 to 10 pm. Await further information.
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Steven Zucker