Syllabus and course information

Honors Elementary Differential Equations
MAP 2302 Section 4219 (26581)
Spring 2023
MWF 8th period (3:00–3:50 p.m.), Matherly 16 (changed from the originally assigned room)

Link to class home page


Prerequisite: MAC 2312 or equivalent. You will need a good working knowledge of Calculus 1 and 2 (as well as precalculus algebra and trigonometry). In particular, you will be expected to know integration techniques; the chain rule; partial fractions; and the algebra, calculus, and general properties of sines, cosines, and exponentials. If you are weak in any of these areas, or it's been a while since you took calculus, you will need to spend extra time reviewing or relearning that material. Mistakes in prerequisite material will be graded harshly on exams.
    Prior knowledge of partial derivatives (usually covered in Calculus 3) is not a prerequisite but is helpful.

Syllabus (course content): This course is an introduction to ordinary differential equations (ODEs). ODEs enable a mathematical description of the laws of simple physics and virtually every science. We will cover chapters 1, 2, 4, and 6–8 of the textbook, with some omissions, and some material may be presented differently (and in a different order) from the way it's presented in the book. The content we cover will be similar to that of the non-honors sections, but with some enhancements. Concepts, definitions, and some theorems will be important, in addition to techniques for solving ODEs. Topics will include:

Textbook: Nagel, Saff, and Snider, Fundamentals of Differential Equations, 9th edition.

    There will also be some required readings from notes by Dr. Groisser. These notes will be linked to the Miscellaneous Handouts page.

Tentative, approximate weekly schedule of lectures: Click here.

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Communicating with Dr. Groisser outside class

    For anything that needs a response, the primary way to communicate with me outside class is to see me in office hours.

  • Communications from me. You are required to read fully, and reasonably promptly, any communications from me. These communications include, but may not be limited to, emails (either to the class listserv or to you personally) and announcements on Canvas.

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    Graded components of course. Your final grade will be determined by:

    I reserve the right to adjust the above percentages in individual cases, to a student's benefit, if I feel that circumstances warrant. I will not answer any questions about hypothetical situations in which I might do this.

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    Homework

    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 your past experience makes you think that you'll 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 webpage. Assignments that are posted prior to class are estimates; they will often be modified within a few hours after class, according to how far we got that day. You are responsible for checking this page frequently (early enough for you to complete each assignment by its due-date), 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. However, if you are unaware of a changed exam-date because you were absent when the change was announced and you didn't bother to check the homework page for several days, and this causes you to miss an exam or do poorly on it, that poor 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 questions about homework (or the material we're covering). Time permitting, the class day before an exam may be used for Q&A, during which homework questions will be fine.

    I advise against using solutions-manuals. To learn mathematics, you need to see a small number of problems worked out by someone else, just to see the principles illustrated; you need to do a large number of problems by yourself. The problems that I assign are selected to be doable based on what should be your accumulated store of knowledge and skills from your previous math classes, plus the material covered in class (or the textbook, or the assigned readings from my notes) up to that point. In the long run, you will learn more by struggling with a problem unsuccessfully for two hours, than by giving up after a few minutes and looking at someone else's solution. Also, the solutions in solutions-manuals are sometimes wrong or inefficient.

    I do not use any online homework system. I have not seen any that I could trust not to count some right answers as wrong, or some wrong answers as right.

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    Attendance policy

    Classroom decorum:

    What if you miss an exam?

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    Student Honor Code

    UF students are bound by The Honor Pledge, which states:

    The Honor Code (which can be found here) specifies a number of behaviors that are in violation of this code, and the possible sanctions. Furthermore, students are obligated to report to appropriate personnel any condition that facilitates academic misconduct. If you have any questions or concerns about student conduct, please consult your instructor.

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    My grading system for this course

    1. After each homework or exam, I decide grade cutoffs for that item according to the philosophy "A = excellent, B = good, C = satisfactory, D = unsatisfactory but passing". In setting these cutoffs, I do not have a predetermined grade curve or predetermined percentages for letter grades.

    2. At the end of the semester, I compute a numerical "raw score" for each student, on a 1000 point scale, using the weighting scheme stated earlier: 20% (200 points) for each midterm and 40% (400 points) for the final exam.

      On the exams themselves, you'll see point-totals different from the ones above. These are rescaled appropriately in the raw-score computation. For example, if point-values for the problems on the first midterm add up to 138, your exam score will be multiplied by 200/138 in the above computation.

    The grades that UF currently allows instructors to assign are A, A–, B+, B, B–, C+, C, C–, D+, D, D–, and E. (For grade-point equivalencies of these grades, see this catalog page.) All of these are grades are possible in this class, except the D–.

    In my philosophy (and that of my own college professors) of what a minus-grade means, a B–, for example, is not the lower end of the B range; it is somewhat below the bottom of the B range, and means that your work falls a little short of "good". (Said another way: another professor whose regards your work as "a little short of 'good' ", but who regards B– as meaning "the low end of the 'good' range", would not assign you a B– ; he/she would assign you a C+.) This philosophy is consistent with the degree-requirements for most majors at UF: courses count towards your major only if you get a "flat" C or higher, because a C– means that your performance was less than satisfactory—not that it was barely satisfactory—and therefore that you did not satisfactorily complete the course. This philosophy is also consistent with UF's S-U grade option.

    For similar reasons, I have never given the D– grade. "D" means "unsatisfactory but passing". My D cutoff is the rock bottom of what I consider to be the "passing" range, so anything below that is a failing grade, which at UF is the E grade. (Note: Because a C is usually needed for a course to count towards requirements for majors, minors, etc., an unfortunate number of faculty, advisors, and students have come to refer to every grade less than C as "failing". This is not the correct meaning of "failing grade", nor has it ever been; again see this catalog page.)

    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. The grade-scale page for the last time I taught the honors section of MAP 2302 (Spring 2018) may give you a rough idea of what to expect. You can find more examples of my past grade-scales by navigating from the "Past Classes" link on my home webpage. However, there is no guarantee that this semester's grade-cutoffs will be close to those of any particular past class of mine; they could be higher or lower. (There has been a great deal of variability in the strength of my students in the more than 35 times I have taught MAP 2302. Also, most of my past sections have been non-honors sections, and have been graded somewhat less rigorously than my honors sections.)

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    Workload

    On average, in order to receive an average grade, students should expect to spend eight to ten 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:

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    Scheduling appointments with Dr. Groisser outside office-hours

  • Before asking to make an appointment outside of my scheduled office hours, please make sure you have first checked when all my office hours are. Even though my office hours are really easy to find (in this syllabus and on my home webpage), more than half the conversations I have with students who think they can't make my scheduled office hours go something like this:

  • Scheduling an appointment usually requires some back-and-forth questions about possible and/or convenient times. Usually, coming up to me at the end of class (rather than sending me an email) is the most efficient way to handle this. Email is inefficient for this. But in case you do try to handle this by email, here are some do's and don'ts for what to send me:

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    In-class recording by students

    Students are allowed to record video or audio of class lectures. However, the purposes for which these recordings may be used are strictly controlled. The only allowable purposes are (1) for personal educational use, (2) in connection with a complaint to the university, or (3) as evidence in, or in preparation for, a criminal or civil proceeding. All other purposes are prohibited. Specifically, students may not publish recorded lectures without the written consent of the instructor.

    A class lecture does not include private conversations between students, or between a student and the instructor, that happen to take place during a class session. Recording of these conversations is prohibited.

    Publication without permission of the instructor is prohibited. To "publish" means to share, transmit, circulate, distribute, or provide access to a recording, regardless of format or medium, to another person (or persons), including but not limited to another student. Additionally, a recording, or transcript of a recording, is considered published if it is posted on or uploaded to, in whole or in part, any media platform, including but not limited to social media, book, magazine, newspaper, leaflet, or third party note/tutoring services. A student who publishes a recording without written consent may be subject to a civil cause of action instituted by a person injured by the publication and/or discipline under UF Regulation 4.040 Student Honor Code and Student Conduct Code.

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    Accommodations for students with disabilities. If you wish to request accommodation for a disability you must first register with the Disability Resource Center. It is always important that you share your accommodation letter with your instructor, and discuss your accommodations, as early as possible in the semester. "Discuss" does not mean merely "notify"; it means more than just having the DRC email me your accommodation letter. Initiating a discussion of your accommodation, is the responsibility of the student.

    Teaching-evaluations. Students are expected to provide professional and respectful feedback on the quality of instruction in this course by completing course evaluations online via GatorEvals. Guidance on how to give feedback in a professional and respectful manner is available at gatorevals.aa.ufl.edu/students/. Students will be notified when the evaluation period opens, and can complete evaluations through the email they receive from GatorEvals or via ufl.bluera.com/ufl/. Summaries of course-evaluation results are available to students at gatorevals.aa.ufl.edu/public-results/ .

    UF Health and Wellness Resources:

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    Goals of course: For the student to master the course-content.