Syllabus
MAP 2302--Groisser Sections--Fall 2007
Elementary Differential Equations
MWF 6th period (section 3227), LIT 203
MWF 7th period (section 5010), LIT 125

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Professor David Groisser
If you would like to speak with me by phone or in person, please read the instructions on my schedule page before calling, emailing, or stopping by, and please do not call or stop by outside of my designated office hours and advising hours (unless we have previously agreed on an appointment outside those hours). My office is located in the 358 Little Hall area, and you must check in with the receptionist to see me. My phone number is 392-0281, extension 261, and my email address is groisser@math.ufl.edu. Please send email in plain text, not HTML. I will not answer math questions by email, and generally will not read email that lacks an informative subject line or if I can't quickly figure out the identity of the sender without opening the email. I will never provide any grade information by email.

Office Hours: Tentatively Monday and Friday 10:30-11:30 (roughly 4th period), and Tuesday 2:50-3:50 (roughly 8th period). The Monday and Tuesday hours double as general academic-advising hours for other students, but those students have to make appointments to see me, whereas you may see me either on a walk-in basis or by appointment. If you plan to come as a walk-in, please come early in the period or let me know to expect you later; otherwise I may not stay in my office for the whole period. See my schedule for updates. Students who present verifiable reasons why they cannot make my scheduled office hours may see me at other times on any weekday except Thursday.

Text: Nagle, Saff, and Snider, Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 4th edition. (Copies are on reserve at the Marston Science Library--ask at the circulation desk.) We will cover chapters 1,2,4,6,7, and 8, with some omissions. Topics will include:

• concept of "(ordinary) differential equation" (ODE) and meaning of "solution"
• statement and understanding of the fundamental existence/uniqueness theorem for solutions to initial-value problems
• first-order methods (separable, linear, and exact equations, and (if time permits) some equations reducible to these by substitutions)
• linear differential operators and linear ODE's
• second-order linear ODE's; constant-coefficient case treated in detail; variation of parameters
• higher-order linear ODE's, primarily the constant-coefficient case
• method of Laplace transforms
• power-series soutions of ODE's

Exams and Grading: Your final grade will be determined by the following

• Three midterms (hour exams), each counting 20% of final grade. Tentative dates for the midterms are Sept. 19 (Wed.), Oct. 15 (Mon.), and Nov. 14 (Wed.).

• Cumulative final exam, counting 40% of final grade. The final exam for the 6th-period section (#3227) will be given Mon. Dec. 10, starting at 7:30 a.m. (yes, a.m.). The final exam for the 7th-period section (#5010) will be given Tues. Dec. 11, starting at 10:00 a.m. Each section's exam will be given in the usual classroom for that section. Students are expected to arrange their post-semester travel plans accordingly, and should make those plans NOW. If you are unwilling or unable to arrange to be in town the day and time of your exam, you should try to switch to a section whose exam-date/time you find more convenient. I will have little sympathy for students who claim they are "unable" to take the final exam at its scheduled time, or that to do so would pose a hardship. If you put yourself in this position, expect a zero for your final-exam grade.

• Small bonuses (< 3%) may be given for exceptionally good classroom participation. ("Participation" does not simply mean "attendance"; there are no bonuses just for showing up and breathing.)

There will be no make-up midterms. If you have a valid, documented reason for missing a midterm, I will re-adjust the weights of your other exams.

See more about grading below for additional information.

Calculator Policy: Calculators are not allowed on exams, and generally should not be used for homework, although occasionally a homework problem may be assigned that requires a calculator.

Homework: will be assigned daily and is due by the next class, but will not be collected. It is critical that you keep up with the homework daily. Far too much homework will be assigned for you to catch up after a several-day lapse, even if you think from your past experience that you will be able to do this. I cannot stress this strongly enough. Students who do not keep up with the homework frequently receive D's or worse (or drop the class to avoid receiving such a grade).

The assignments will be posted on the homework web page . The dates more than one day in advance are estimates, and there will be frequent updates. Assignments may also be modified in class according to how far we get on a given day. You are responsible for checking this page frequently, since in addition to updated assignments, other important information such as exam dates will be confirmed on that page. Of course, changes of exam dates will also be announced in class well in advance, and more than once. However, if you are unaware of a changed exam date because you were not in class when it was changed and you did not check the homework page for several days, and this causes you to miss an exam or do poorly on it, that grade (0 if you miss the exam) will still be averaged into your final grade according to the percentages above.

On most days I will not answer homework questions in class; you should see me in office hours for such questions. The class day before an exam will always be used for Q&A.

Workload: On average, in order to receive an average grade (C or C+), students with good preparation for this class should expect to spend six to nine hours per week studying and doing homework for this class. This time estimate is an average, not a maximum--some students will require more time, some less; some weeks the workload will be heavier, some lighter. Some circumstances that may increase your workload are:

• You did not study a similar amount in your previous calculus classes.

• You cannot do algebra quickly and accurately without a calculator (this may be the case if you did not do a large number of exercises in your calculus or pre-calculus classes, or have relied heavily on calculators in the past).

• You want to get an A.

Attendance policy. I expect students to be in class every day and on time, paying attention for all 50 minutes of the period. Coming late to class is disruptive both to your instructor and to your fellow students. If another time commitment (e.g. a class the previous period in a distant location) will force you to be late on a regular basis, you should try to switch to another section. There are at least 11 sections of MAP 2302 being offered, and one of them is bound not to conflict with your schedule (although you may have trouble finding an open seat in a time that's convenient for you).

Currently I plan to take attendance but not to factor it into your grade directly. However, students without good attendance should not expect the same consideration in office hours that students with good attendance will receive. Be aware that the University of Florida Attendance Policies contains the following paragraph:

The university recognizes the right of the individual professor to make attendance mandatory. After due warning, professors may prohibit further attendance and subsequently assign a failing grade for excessive absences.

More about exams. Most exam problems will be similar to homework, but on most exams I try to put at least one problem that you won't have seen a clone of before. Such problems will involve no new concepts, but may, for example, combine concepts from different parts of the syllabus. I do this to see whether you've gone beyond memorizing a bunch of formulas and rules, and have achieved a real understanding of the material--which you'll need for an A.

More about grading. I don't have a predetermined grade curve or predetermined percentages for letter grades. I decide the grade scale for each exam and homework according to the philosophy A = excellent, B = good, C = satisfactory, D = unsatisfactory but passing. At the end of the semester, I use the cutoffs from the exams and homework and to determine the final grade cutoffs on a 1000-point scale. For example if the cutoff for a B is 72% on the first hour exam, 69% on the second hour exam, 76% on the third hour exam, and 74% on the final, to get a B for the course you'd need .20 x (72%+69%+76%) + (.40 x 74%) = 73% of the total number of points in the course, i.e. 730/1000.

Since I don't determine the exam-grade cutoffs ahead of time, I can't tell you in advance exactly how many points you'll need to get a particular grade for the course. However, for examples of past grade-scales in my sections of this course, see the grade-scale pages one and two and (Fall 2006, two sections. These sections did not meet consecutively, so did not use the same midterm exams and midterm grade-scales for both sections. You can find more examples by going to my past classes webpage and navigating appropriately.) There is no guarantee that this year's grade cutoffs will be close to those of the past classes; they could be higher or lower. But historically, most of my grade-scales have not differed by more than about 5% from past years' scales, and usually by less than 3%.

Student Honor Code: Students are expected to abide by the the Honor Code:

We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.

Religious Holidays: The following is part of the University of Florida Policy on Religious Holidays . "Students, upon prior notification of their instructors, shall be excused from class or other scheduled academic activity to observe a religious holy day of their faith."

Accommodations for students with disabilities: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.

Miscellaneous:

• Unless I say otherwise, you are responsible for knowing any material I cover in class, any subject covered in homework, and all the material in the textbook chapters we are studying.

• If you miss class the day I return an exam, you'll have one week to pick your quiz or exam up from my office, after which I may discard your paper.

• Cell phones should be off while you are in class. Please also avoid other disruptive noises, such as the zipping and unzipping of backpacks several minutes before the end of class.