Math 21A: Calculus (Winter, 2019)

Math Placement Requirement (Important!)

You must satisfy the MATH PLACEMENT REQUIREMENT (MPR) to be enrolled in this course. Every student who has not met the MPR will be ADMINISTRATIVELY DROPPED by the Math Department after the first week of classes.

If you have not previously passed the MPR, you should have been automatically registered for one of the Fall Quarter testing sessions. If not, you can fill out the manual registration form at the link on this webpage to sign up for the last Fall Quarter MPR Testing Session.

To be enrolled in MAT 21A you must take the MPR and get a total score of 35 or more with a trigonometry sub-score of 3 or more.

Important Dates

• Instruction begins: Monday, January 7
• Last day to add: Wednesday, January 23
• Last day to drop: Monday, February 4
• Last class: Friday, March 15
• Academic holidays: Monday January 21, Monday February 18

TA information

Wencin Poh (lead TA), wpoh@ucdavis.edu, MSB 3129
Jeffrey Nichols, jsnichols@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 2232, Calculus room Mondays 12-2
William Wesley, wjwesley@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 2232, Calculus room Mondays 3-4, Wednesdays 12-1
Priya Kshirsagar, pskshirsagar@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 2129, Mondays 5-7

Discussion sections:

• A01, R 7:10-8:00pm, RESSLR 55, Jeffrey Nichols
• A02, R 6:10-7:00pm, Wellman 7, William Wesley
• A03, R 7:10-8:00pm, Wellman 1, Priya Kshirsagar
• A04, R 6:10-7:00pm, RESSLR 55, Jeffrey Nichols
• A05, R 5:10-6:00pm, Wellman 7, William Wesley
• A06, R 6:10-7:00pm, Bainer 1132, Priya Kshirsagar

Calculus Room

The calculus room is located in the ground floor of the Mathematical Science Building (MSB 1118). It is staffed with MAT 21 TAs from 1:00–7:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 1:00–6:00 p.m. on Friday. The TAs can answer questions about the homework and course material.

Grade

Grades will be based on webwork homework, weekly quizzes, and the final exam, weighted as follows:

• 30%: Webwork Homework
• 30%: Quizzes
• 40%: Final

There will be no make-up exams. If you require special accomodation in taking the exams, please let me know well in advance of each exam.

Ungraded homework problems from the book will be assigned in Canvas each week. They will be discussed in the discussion sessions. These homeworks will not be collected or graded, but the quizzes and final will be based on the homework problems. The due date on Canvas is set to 3:10pm each Thursday, so that you are ready for the quiz (but this does not mean that you need to hand the homework in). Don't expect to pass this course unless you do the homework.

Quizzes will take place each week on Thursday in your discussion session. The quizzes will be based on the assigned homeworks from the book (which will be assigned before the quizz each week, so you will know the problems!). There are no make-up quizzes, but the lowest 2 scores will be dropped. You will need to take the quiz in your assigned discussion session!!

In addition to the book homeworks, there will online homeworks through WeBWork. There is roughly one assignment per section in the book that we cover. I strongly recommend that you do the problems once we have covered the material in class. However, all online homeworks are due on March 15, the last day of class. Instructions on how to log onto the system are given here. If, for some reason, you have trouble with WeBWork, please contact our lead TA Wencin Poh.

The course grade will be determined on an absolute scale with slight modifications using the normal distribution curve if appropriate. An approximate guideline is

• 85% - 100% = A-, A, A+
• 70% - 85% = B-, B, B+
• 55% - 70% = C-, C, C+
• 45% - 55% = D-, D, D+
• Less than 45% = F

Exam dates

• Final: Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 10:30am–12:30pm in Social Sciences Lecture Hall 1100.

All exams are closed book. No calculators or other electronic devices are permitted.

Exam scores will be posted on Canvas.

Syllabus

The department syllabus for MAT 21A is here. We will cover the following topics from the text:

• Chapter 1: Functions
• Chapter 2: Limits of functions and continuity
• Chapter 3: Derivatives
• Chapter 4: Applications of derivatives

Text

The text (Thomas' Calculus) is a new (14th) edition (Early Transcendentals), which comes in both print and digital form. Homework problems will be assigned from the text, but you can use either the print or the digital form. You aren't required to buy the digital text if you don't want to. We will not be using MyMathLab. Access to the online content for this course has been arranged at reduced costs through the UC Davis Inclusive Access Program. Use of the online platform to access the text is optional but includes pre-quizzes and sample homework sets you may find useful for self-study. Please look for an email from no-reply@verbasoftware.com for access instructions, billing terms, and opt out information. If you choose to access and use the platform, the access charge covers the entire MAT 21 series. Students who have been billed for the series already will not be billed again. For questions, or to request that your access email be re-sent please email the Inclusive Access Help Desk at inclusiveaccess@ucdavis.edu. You may also visit http://inclusiveaccess.ucdavis.edu.

The numbering of homework problems and sections in older editions of the text may differ from those in the newest edition, so I recommend that you get the 14th edition (which will also be used in subsequent quarters of the MAT 21 calculus sequence).

Other Resources

Calculus Textbook by Gilbert Strang. The entire content of this book is available free of charge in the pdf format. The chapters we cover in MAT21A roughly corresponds to Chapters 1 - 4 of Strang. It is quite handy to carry the whole calculus textbook in your smartphone or iPad.

Calculus on the Web by Gerardo Mendoza and Dan Reich. Their "Calculus Book I" corresponds to our MAT 21A.

Sage for Undergraduates by Gregory V. Bard. Sage is a free open-source software system that can help you to define and plot functions, take their derivates and integrals! Also have a look at the online tutorial. You can sign up for a free account on CoCal.