Math 233H is the third and final semester of the calculus sequence. It develops the extension of calculus to functions of several variables. In particular, we study vectors, partial derivatives, double and triple integrals, line integrals, and surface integrals. The culmination of the course several generalizations of the fundamental theorem of calculus: Green’s theorem, Stokes’s theorem, and the divergence theorem.
This is a four-credit course, with three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section weekly. The pace of the course is rapid. The honors section will cover the same material as in Math 233, although the course will be more demanding.
The textbook for this course is Calculus: Early Transcendentals (8th Edition: Customized Hybrid Edition) by James Stewart. Please make sure you have a correct edition of the textbook. See SPIRE for ordering details. Be sure to use your UMass email address when ordering.
Homework assignments will be administered through WebAssign. You can purchase access to WebAssign when you buy your textbook. See below for how to sign up for your instructor’s section on WebAssign. You can also check out this Quick Start Guide.
Lectures will be given by Zoom live during the scheduled course meeting time. You will be sent an invitation to the lectures as soon as they are set up; the meeting info will not be posted anywhere online. You will need your UMass NetID/Password to log into the meeting.
The format of the lectures will be the instructor (yours truly) writing on sheets of paper under a document camera, to simulate as closely as possible the experience of a normal classroom lecture. This worked well in spring 2020. It has the added benefit that you will not suffer the indignity of having to look at my ugly face on camera … you will just see the lecture notes.
After the lecture is completed the pages will be scanned and posted to the course website for you to refer to.
The lectures will also be recorded during the livestream and will be posted online (details will be given later through your campus email). These lectures will not be available publicly; only the students in our course will have access to them. I know that some students will not want their images captured in a recording and posted online. That is totally understandable and I agree with this sentiment. To help with this, you will not be required to have your camera on during the lectures; it’s ok to have your camera off and to participate only verbally or via the chat (the chat log will not be posted; verbally asking a question is better because I don’t always catch the questions that come in through the chat, although I try to keep an eye on it).
The recorded lectures and posted lecture notes become part of the course materials that you have access to during the term.
Please attend the lectures live. Yes, I know they are at 8:30am. But the live lectures are the main time you have to interact with me and to ask questions. I generally like a lot of feedback during lecture; student feedback and interactions are extremely important. If I say something you don’t understand, you need to ask me right away! I find it difficult to teach without it.
This course will have two take-home midterm exams and a take-home final exam.
Exam I will be distributed Tuesday 9/22 and collected Thursday 9/24.
Exam II will be distributed Tuesday 10/20 and collected Thursday 10/22.
The final exam will be distributed the first day of finals week 11/30 and collected the last day of finals week 12/4.
The dates of the midterm exams do not have any conflicts with the 2020 New York City Alternate Side Parking Suspension Calendar, which is the most comprehensive list of religious holidays I know.
Sections covered on individual exams will be announced beforehand. The final exam will be cumulative, with some emphasis placed on topics covered since those on the second exam.
The exams will be submitted through our course’s Moodle section. More details will be provided before the exams.
You are expected to take all exams, including the final exam, during their scheduled times. Re-taking of exams is not allowed in this course: once an exam has been taken it cannot be retaken or made up. Reasons for taking an exam at a different time are limited to the following:
For these you must submit a statement from a medical professional. It is your right not to disclose any details, but we must be assured that you are medically incapable of taking the exam. A statement from a medical professional to this effect will suffice (although merely visiting a doctor is not sufficient; the doctor’s note should clearly state that you were unable, for medical reasons, to take the scheduled exam). If advance notice is possible and not given your instructor may refuse your request. If you miss an exam due to illness and advance notice is not possible, your instructor must be notified within 24 hours of the missed exam.
Notify the Dean of Students Office. Someone will then verify the details and notify each of your instructors.
State law and university regulations require that a student be excused from academic pursuits on days of religious observances. Any such claim requires notice from the student, in writing, at the beginning (first two weeks) of the semester.
It is impossible to anticipate all of the possible circumstances that can occur. In case of an exceptional event beyond those covered above, contact the instructor and explain the problem. (You should be prepared to provide a written statement.) Your instructor will evaluate the reasons that you have given and come to a decision.
Students receiving accommodations for exams should have their documented accommodations sent to the instructor as soon as they are available, and arrangements will be made.
Our TA will run a review session before the exam. There will be also some review sessions in the main Math 233 course that could be helpful. All such sessions will be announced after they are scheduled.
Total scores in our section of Math 233H will be computed as follows:
The online homework will be worth 30%.
The recitation grade will be 20%.
If your final exam score is less than or equal to the average of your Exam 1 and Exam 2 scores, then each of Exam 1 and 2 counts 17.5%, and the final exam counts 15%.
If your final exam score is greater than the average of your Exam 1 and Exam 2 scores, then your final exam will count 20% (instead of 15%) and each of Exams 1 and 2 will count 15% (instead of 17.5%).
Remarks about grading:
Note that attendance in lecture is not required as part of your grade (attendance will be required in recitation, and will be part of the discussion section’s contribution to your final grade).
At the end of the term, some of your webassign scores will be dropped (at least 3). This way, if you don’t do as well on an assignment because of extra work in another course or for any reason, it shouldn’t affect your final homework grade. Extensions for HW are not granted except for documented reasons, as described in the Make-Up Exam section above.
After being determined by the above algorithm, the total score will be truncated down to the nearest integer less than or equal to the total score. (Note that truncation is not the same as rounding. For example, a score of 89.75 will be truncated to 89, not rounded to 90. Rounding up of grades is not allowed by a policy adopted by the department.) The letter grade will then be determined by the following scale:
| A | A– | B+ | B | B– | C+ | C | C– | D+ | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 | 87 | 83 | 79 | 75 | 71 | 67 | 63 | 59 | 55 | <55 |
You will self-enroll with a class key to join our section on WebAssign. The class key for our section is
umass 5722 9151
Registering with a class key does not verify payment; you have to do that yourself. Also note that Webassign gives a 2 week payment grace period to enable you to go ahead and get started on the homework, but that you will have to pay to make sure you have continued access.
Enroll yourself only once. Basic instructions are the following (see also the Quick Start Guide).
If you have a Cengage Account, then
If you have a WebAssign Account
If you Don’t Have an Account
If you have trouble, please contact WebAssign’s customer support. They are very responsive and in any case you are paying them a substantial amount of money to be responsive!
The best way to get help is to ask your instructor or TA questions during class or in office hours. Unfortunately it is not possible to answer mathematical questions by email. Please bring all such questions to class, recitation, and office hours.
Usually our department runs the Calculus Tutoring Center with drop-in tutoring hours. At the moment it’s not known if this will be operational remotely. The syllabus will be updated once this is known.
Another option for help is the Learning Resource Center, which traditionally has offered tutoring for calculus students at Du Bois Library. There are plans to run a remote version of the LRC; more infomation will be provided when it is available. The best source of current information is the LRC website.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements.
Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. For more information see the website of Dean of Students Office.
Expectations for our course as as follows:
For homework, you will be allowed to work with other students collaboratively. In fact, I encourage you to form study groups to work together. However, it is your responsibility to make sure that you are learning the material. You also must submit your own work through webassign.
For exams, you will be allowed to use your textbook, your own course notes, the scanned notes from our lectures, and the recordings of our lectures available online. You will not be allowed to discuss the exam with anyone else, except me (I can help with clarifying questions, just like a traditional exam; I can’t help with actual mathematical contributions, of course). I will closely watch my email during exams to see if you have questions. You may not discuss the exam with any other students and may not use any resources other than those indicated above. Use of any unauthorized resources will be considered a violation of academic honesty and will be handled accordingly.