The sections of the course are taught individually, by instructors working off of a common syllabus and roughly common schedule. All sections will take the same final exam. The general adminstrator for the course is Prof. Xiangjin Xu. To see the class times, locations, and instructors for all sections, go to the math department schedule of classes. The instructor for your section will provide you with her/his contact information.
You need a good background in algebra and trigonometry, which is usually satisfied by a High School precalculus course or Binghamton University's Math 108. The Mathematics Department administers a Placement Test, which is designed to identify students who do not have adequate preparation for the course. The Placement Test is an absolute prerequisite for Math 221: you must pass it or you will not be allowed to take the course. See the placement test home page for details.
Each instructor will inform you of office hours or scheduled problem sessions outside of class times.
The text for Math 221 is Calculus, (sometimes called Single Variable Calculus) 7th Edition with WebAssign Key, by James Stewart. It is published by the Brooks/Cole division of Thomson. The version available in the University book store covers the material in Calculus II as well. Any errors discovered in the book will be posted in errors .
You may want a graphing calculator to help with homework, but a calculator is not required. In fact, their overuse is heavily discouraged. Neither calculators nor any other electronic item, e.g. a cell phone as clock, may be visible to you during tests.
The course covers the basics of differential and integral calculus, covering most of Chapters 1-5 of the text, as well as Appendices A-E. The precise sections to be covered are listed in the schedule. All class sections will eventually cover the same material, but perhaps at a different pace and on different days according to the meeting schedule and holidays. The objective of the course is to acquire mastery of the material covered in the course in the following senses: 1. Mathematical understanding, as demonstrated by the ability to solve appropriate mathematical problems. 2. Practical understanding, as demonstrated by the ability to solve appropriate word problems in the sciences, in engineering and in the social sciences.
Help! Help!
The Calculus Help Room room, located at Library North 2408, is staffed by some of the instructors and is open during most business hours. Students can walk in any time it's staffed and can ask questions of any of the instructors there, not just their own instructor. Click HERE for a schedule. The Discovery Program has tutors for various subjects. See the FAQ page for more information.
See the schedule for the dates of the 3 midterms and the final exam. Your lowest midterm score will be dropped. Your remaining two midterms will each count for 20% of your final grade. The final exam will count for 30% of your final grade, and homework will count for 12% of your final grade. The remaining 18% will be determined by your instructor (usually based largely on quizzes).
Grade scale: A: >=900; B: >=750; C: >=600; D: >=500; F: < 500.
Curving grades, if necessary, will only be done after the final.
For each section of material covered there will be an assignment of problems from the textbook. We will be using the WebAssign system for homework. It is important that you buy the version of the textbook with WebAssign key: otherwise your homework will not be graded.. WebAssign is an online question answering program that comes with an e-book and enhanced learning materials. Your instructor will be able to schedule assignments for you to complete online, and it will guide you and grade your answers. You will be given instructions on how to use WebAssign by your instructor.
Study groups are encouraged, but students should not become dependent on others too much. Watching the instructor, or other students, do the problems will not be enough to learn the material. It will be necessary for you to do many exercises yourself in order to be successful on the exams. Attempts to solve homework problems provide the best way to learn the material and to prepare for exams. We hope that WebAssign will be a valuable learning tool for all students.
There will be no make-ups for tests. The cushion of dropping the worst of the three test scores takes care of unavoidable missing of a test. Even if you do well on the first few tests, you are strongly encouraged to take the third test seriously, since it covers some of the most difficult material, which you'll need to have prepared for the final soon after.
IF YOU HAVE A CONFLICT WITH THE FINAL EXAM, YOU SHOULD TELL YOUR INSTRUCTOR ABOUT IT AT THE START OF THE SEMESTER.
You are reminded of Binghamton University's Student Academic Honesty Code. Cheating in tests or quizzes will be dealt with severely and can result in suspension from the University for multiple semesters. Don't even think about it.
Midterms will be returned after they are graded, and an answer
key will be available. . If you do not understand your mistakes, or
you think your exam was not correctly graded, you should immediately
(at most within two days) bring the test to your instructor for
re-evaluation. If you are not satisfied with the re-evaluation of
your test, you can appeal to the course coordinator, Prof. Xu, whose
decision will be final. DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES OR WRITE NEW
MATERIAL ON YOUR GRADED EXAM!! Turning in a modified exam for extra
points is CHEATING. Instructors may be making copies of exams
before they are returned, so if a student changes a graded exam, it
will be clearly shown by comparison with the copy.
Any cases of cheating will be subject to investigation by the Academic Honesty Committee of Harpur College.
Regular class attendance is important for success in this course. You are expected to attend every class (on time) and be prepared to discuss the homework at each class. If you miss an excessive number (>25%) of classes you will not receive a passing grade in this course according university policy.
Even if you've taken a previous Calculus course, this course is likely to be taught from a more sophisticated perspective, and if you think this class will be review you're probably mistaken. If you do have to miss a small number of classes, you are responsible for finding out what was covered and being aware of any announcements that were made.
You should expect to spend two hours studying outside of class for every hour spent in class. In contrast to most high school math classes, if you don't understand the material being covered, you should NOT assume that your instructor will repeat the material until you get it. Ideally, you should ask questions at the time in class. Of course, you'll also probably need to spend time thinking things through on your own, but if you've tried that and are still confused, make use of the Help Room and office hours. Don't wait! The material in this course is very cumulative, so anything you don't understand now is likely to keep giving you trouble as the semester goes on.
Tests from some past semesters
Wolfram Alpha, if you want a free, simple alternative to a graphing calculator
Visual Calculus- Step by step tutorials on some of the topics of our course
Calculus On the Web online tutorials
If you'd like to explore more high-powered computational tools for mathematics, three possibilities are Mathematica, Matlab, and Maple. These are available on POD computers and for free download by BU students here. These packages are not necessary for the course and will not be covered in the course.
The math forum- various math resources (check out the topics on calculus!)
MathWorld - more math resources.
Mathnerds - get hints on your math questions.
The archives: Copies of the Math 221 home page for previous semesters.
File last modified on 01/31/2012