c a l c u l u s     t h r e e

c o l l e g e     o f     t h e     a t l a n t i c

w i n t e r     2   0   0   8

C o u r s e     O v e r v i e w


Instructor: Dave Feldman
Email: dave@hornacek.coa.edu
Office: Second floor, Turrets Annex
Phone: x249, 276-5284
Mailing List: calc3 at h0rnacek dot coa dot edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Teaching Assistant: Dechan Angmo
Help Sessions: Wednesdays, 6:30 -- 8:00 pm, dining hall

Goals

  1. I want to help you improve your problem solving skills, and mathematical confidence, and overall ability to use mathematics.
  2. I want you to understand and know how to use partial derivatives, directional derivatives, double and triple inte mathematical ideas and tools: series, sums, vector functions, and partial derivatives and their applications.
  3. I want you to gain experience using a computer algebra system to do mathematics.
  4. I want you to understand and know how to use the main elements of vector calculus: the divergence, gradient, and curl; line and surface integrals; and Greens Theorem, Stokes Theorem, and the Divergence Theorem.
  5. I want you to have fun while working hard and learning a lot.

I hope to cover the most of the textbook. We will skip a few non-essential chapters but cover all of the main topics. This is similar to the material covered in most other semester-long Calc III courses at colleges and universities.

Evaluation


Your evaluation will be based roughly on the following: I recommend against grades; I believe they are more likely than not to interfere with genuine, reflective learning. However, I will assign grades (for those who so opt) by following the guidelines in the COA Course Catalog. I do not have any quota of A's, B's, etc.


Policies, Advice, and Stuff:

  1. Our textbook will be McCallum, Hughes-Hallett, et al., Calculus: Multivariable. 4th edition. J. Wiley. 2005. ISBN: 0-471-48480-6.
  2. Homework will be due Fridays at the end of the day. More than one unexcused late homework assignment will result in me mentioning this in your narrative evaluation and may result in a lowering of your grade.
  3. You are strongly encouraged to work together on homework. You can also consult me, class tutors, other faculty, friends, and family. However, the homework you hand in should represent your own understanding. This means that if your friends get a homework problem and you don't understand how they did it, you shouldn't photocopy their solution and turn it in.
  4. Unless students prefer otherwise, I do not plan on giving any exams in this class. If there is time, however, I would like to give a final, synthetic problem set.
  5. You'll want a calculator that can handle scientific notation, trigonometry, and logarithms. There's no need to buy an expensive graphing calculator.
  6. We will be making use of Maple for this class. Maple is an extremely powerful mathematics package that can do graphical, numerical, and symbolic computations.
  7. I will be sending out class info via email. Thus, it's important that you check your email.
  8. Academic misconduct -- cheating, plagarizing, etc. -- is bad. Any cases of academic misconduct will result in a judicial hearing, as per pp. 14-15 of the COA handbook. Possible consequences range from failure of the assignment to expulsion. For more, see the revised statement on academic integrity passed by the faculty winter term, 1999.
  9. Here is some additional information on what is expected for homework solutions.
  10. Here is an informal description and some advice about the course.