Assignment 1: Getting Started – Finding the text and course materials

Week 1

In class on Monday, [day 1]: Getting to know the course expectations

· Log into [the course web site] and find the course materials. 

o Find the syllabus, and begin to answer the syllabus discussion questions in small groups.  Complete the syllabus questions for homework, and turn them in when you come to class on Wednesday.  (If you want a clean copy of the Syllabus Questions handout, check the Assignments folder in Educator.*)

o Find the Study Guide for Quiz #1.  The material on this quiz is considered prerequisite for this course. Go through this study guide before class on Wednesday, and come prepared to ask questions (if you have any).

· Find the text for this course online at http://calculuscourse.maa.org/index.html. 

We will begin to work through Section 1.1 Related Variables in class.  Working together we should be able to get through Section 1.1 during class.  This will introduce us to many of the features of this on-line text. 

o Complete the Exercises at the end of Section 1.1 as a group.  Make these plots by hand.  (Notice the link for printing a sheet of graph paper.  Two of these sheets will be sufficient for all of these exercises.)  If you don’t finish these exercises in class, you may finish them on your own (and turn in your individual work on Wednesday).

By Wednesday, [day 2]: Prepare for class discussion.

· When you come into class, sit with different people than those you sat with on Monday, so that you begin to get to know more of your classmates.

· Complete the Syllabus Questions to turn in on Wednesday.

· Come prepared to ask questions about material on the Study Guide for the quiz (if you have any questions).  The topics on this study guide are prerequisite skills for this course.

· Review Section 1.1. Be sure you can navigate the text and course materials on your own.

· Preview Sections 1.2 Mathematical Models and 1.3 Terminology.  We will go through these sections together in class on Wednesday. 

For this first chapter, which is basically precalculus material, we will cover one or two sections per class period.  This will give us a chance to get to know each other, and to experiment with the features of this on-line text and some of the software tools that will be used throughout the course.  I plan to start Chapter 2 in class on Friday, [day 6].

By Friday, [day 3]:

· Prepare for Quiz #1.  We will take 30 minutes of class time on Friday for this quiz.

· Review Sections 1.2 and 1.3.

· Again, sit with different people than those you have been with during the first two class periods so that you continue to get to know your classmates.

· In class on Friday, we will take the Quiz first.  Then I will lead a lecture discussion on the important ideas of Sections 1.2 and 1.3.

· Check Educator* for Assignment 2, which will be posted before class on Friday. 

By 4:00 pm on Tuesday, [between day 4 and day 5]: Write and submit a personal essay.

· Write a personal essay in which you answer two questions:

1. What is a function?

The concept of function is foundational in the study of mathematics, and is also used extensively the natural sciences as well as in computer science.  Being able to see functions in a problem scenario is a useful problem-solving strategy in all fields.  What is your current understanding of this important concept?

2. What events in your mathematical life have prepared you for this course?

Discuss three to five significant events in your mathematical life that have helped to prepare you to take Calculus.  In particular, what background or experiences do you have in algebra and trigonometry?  (You don’t need to tell me about every teacher or every course you have ever taken, just those experiences that have helped to prepare you for this course.)  This essay will probably just be one or two pages long.

o Write your essay and save it as a Word document (in either .doc or .docx format). 

o Upload this document to your folder for this course in Educator* by 4:00 pm on Tuesday, [date]. Part of the point of this assignment is to be sure that everyone in the class can upload work to Educator*, so it is not acceptable to hand in a hardcopy on paper. 

o If you are having difficulty using Word or uploading files to Educator*, you should ask me for help with this by Monday (so that you can submit this assignment on time).

*Educator is the course management system in use at Cardinal Stritch University.