Teaching

Fall 2019 - Math 131 Sections 5 and 8

Welcome to the home page of UMass Calculus I, Math 131 sections 5 and 8 for fall 2019.

Read First

The course chair, Jinguo Lian, has created a course webpage which contains the syllabus, schedule, and important information about homework, exams and policy:
http://people.math.umass.edu/~lian/math131_course%20web.htm
You are responsible for reading the contents of this page and learning the policy information relevant to this course.

The webpage you are presently reading is for information, announcements, and resources specific to sections 5 and 8 of math 131 in fall 2019. Check back frequently for important updates.

Announcemments

Check back frequently for announcements, such as exam dates, reviews, and more!

The first discussion quiz will be on Thursday, 9/12.

My CTC hours have been settled: I'll be available in the calculus tutoring center from 11 to noon every tuesday and thursday during the semester, except when umass follows a monday schedule on a tuesday (such as 10/15).

Exam 2 is Wednesday, November 13th, 7-9pm. Sections 5 and 8 are in the Integrated Learning Center North, 151 (ILCN 151).
Please arrive by 6:50 pm. Bring your student ID.
The exam will coverthe material of sections 3.1-3.10 and 4.1-4.2 of the textbook. The main topics are thus:
-Techniques of differentiation (3.1-3.4), including power, product, quotient, and chain rules, and derivatives of trigonometric and exponential functions
-Implicit differentiation, including logarithmic differentiation and related rates, as well as derivatives of logarithmic and inverse trigonometric functions,
-Applications of derivatives in the context of natural and social sciences, and exponential growth and decay (3.7 and 3.8),
-Linear Approximations and differentials (3.10),
-Maximum and minimum values, Extreme Value theorem and Fermat’s Theorem (4.1),
-Mean Value Theorem and Rolle’s Theorem, and their corollaries (4.2).
Note that no calculators or formula sheets are allowed. It is your responsibility to know the definitions and formulae needed.

Information by section

Section 5

The section's policy sheet is here.

We meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:25 pm to 2:15 pm in the Lederle Graduate Research Tower, room 123.
Attendance counts for 4% of the final grade. I will often collect a one question assessment to determine attendence and help you identify concepts that you need to revisit or ask questions about.

Your TA is Jiangyi Qiu. Jiangyi will host discussion sections. The discussions are:
Math131.05AA: Thursday, 2:30 - 3:20 pm in the Lederle Graduate Research Tower, room 171.
Math131.05AB: Thursday, 1:00 - 1:50 pm in the Lederle Graduate Research Tower, room 171.
Discussions are mandatory; assessments given in discussion will determine 6% of your final grade.

The course code to enroll inthis webassign section is umass 7956 3618. You need this course code to ensure that you can do the homework. See Jinguo's webpage for instructions on getting started with WebAssign.

Section 8

The section's policy sheet is here.

We meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:10 am to 11:00 am in Goessmann Lab Addition room 151.
Attendence counts for 4% of the final grade. I will often collect a one question assessment to determine attendence and help you identify concepts that you need to revisit or ask questions about.

Your TA is Matheau Santana-Gijzen. Matheau will host the discussion sections. The discussions are:
Math131.08AA: Thursday,5:30 - 6:20 pm in the Lederle Graduate ResearchTower, room 173.
Math131.08AB: Thursday, 2:30 - 3:20 pm in the Lederle Graduate Research Tower, room 143.
Discussions are mandatory; assessments given in discussion will determine 6% of your final grade.

The course code to enroll in this webassign section is umass 5075 8100. You need this course code to ensure that you can do the homework. See Jinguo's webpage for instructions on getting started with WebAssign.

Homework

Note that WebAssign is required, and worth 10% of your final grade (though, if you miss a significant portion oif the homework, the impact is realistcally much more than 10%, as it is improbable that you will perform well on exam without doing the homework; doing calculus problems is seemingly the only way to get good at doing calculus problems.) See Jinguo's page linked above for information on setting up WebAssign.

The course code needed to self-enroll into the appropriate section on WebAssign is in the introductory email. If you enroll into either 131.05 or 131.08 after the first day of classes (9/3) or if you did not see the introductory email, then please send an email to my department email address (my last name at math dot umass dot edu) and I will forward the introductory email to you. (if you were already enrolled and did not see the email, check your spam folder.)

Office hours and contact

The only reliable way to reach me when I'm out of the office is by email, and the only reliable email to write to is my department email address. If math does not appear in the email address, I probably am missing your emails! Since UMass switched to gmail managed student email accounts, it often autofills another email address if you begin to type my name; the email address it autofills is not the email address to use when contacting me about this course. An easy way to be sure I see your emails and respond in a timely manner is to reply to emails you've recieved from me in the past, as these are always sent from me using my department email address. It may take 24-72 hours to hear back from me, especially if you send an email late in the week.

Office hours are held in LGRT 1316 Monday, 11 am to noon and 4 pm to 5pm, Wednesday noon to 1pm, and Thursday 9 am to 11 am, or by appointment. Appointments must be confirmed by email, preferably a day or so prior to meeting. I'll also be in the CTC (LGRT 140) from 11 am to noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Note that you can get help in the CTC from any of the TAs or instructors there, not just your own. The CTC is open Monday through Thursday, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, starting the second week of class.

Resources

Practice quizzes, quiz solutions, and practice exams will be posted here when available.

Sample quiz on Limit Laws. Solutions here. Note: this quiz uses a fact from section 2.6 (which we did not cover before the actual quiz 1): the limit of the composition of a continuous function f with another function g, whose limit extss, is f evaluated at the limiting value: lim_{x to a} f(g(x)) = f(lim_{x to a} g(x)). In particular, this rule is used to pass a limit into a cosine. You can use this quiz as a guide/standard for how a solution may be ideally presented. As in the second sample quiz, you can be lax about citing every principle/theorem used as long as the algebra makes the reasoning clear, and where needed, explanation is provided.

Sample quiz on continuity. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on the derivative as a function and the meaning of differentiability. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on differentiation rules. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on chain rule and implicit differentiation. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on exponential growth and decay, with a related rates question. Solutions here.

Supplementary related rates problems. See me in office hours to discuss solutions.

Sample quiz on extreme values and applications of derivatives in science. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on the Mean value theorem, rolle's Theorem, and their corollaries. Solutions here.

Sample quiz on first and second derivative tests, concavity, and curve sketching. Solutions here.

Sample Optimization questions. To discuss solutions see me or a TA in office hours.

Sample quiz on anti-differentiation. Solutions here.

Quiz 1. Solutions here.