This is a joint page for both sections of the course: Section 1 (with Casey Dowdle) and Section 2 (Ahmadreza Hajsaeedisadegh).

Section 1 Logistics

Instructor Casey Dowdle
Class MWF 2:10-3:15 PM (Kemeny 006)
X-Hour Th 1:20 - 2:10 PM (Kemeny 006) Will be used for office hours.
Additional Office Hours

Tu 1:00 - 2:30 PM (Kemeny 221)

Section 2 Logistics

Instructor Ahmadreza Hajsaeedisadegh
Class MWF 11:30 AM - 12:35 PM (Kemeny 108)
X-Hour Tu 12:15 - 1:05 PM (Kemeny 108) Will be used for office hours.
Additional Office Hours W 2-3 PM (Kemeny 310)

 

Course Schedule

Schedule may change slightly as term progresses. Any changes will be announced. Please read textbook section before coming to class, this will help with better understanding the material and asking questions. 

 

Lectures Sections Descriptions Homework
Week 1: M Sept. 15 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Week 1: W Sept. 17 2.1
Week 1: F Sept. 19 2.2, 2.3
Week 2: M Sept. 22 2.4 Homework 1
Week 2: W Sept. 24 2.5
Week 2: F Sept. 26 2.6, 2.7
Week 3: M Sept. 29 3.1 Homework 2
Week 3: W Oct. 1 3.2
Week 3: F Oct. 3 3.3
Tentative Group Project Topics, Oct. 3

Groups are finalized

Projects titles are submitted

 
Week 4: M Oct.6 3.4 Homework 3
Midterm 1 Oct 6 Rockefeller 001
Week 4: W Oct. 8 3.5
Week 4: F Oct. 10 3.6
Week 5: M Oct. 13 7.1, 7.2 Homework 4
Week 5: W Oct. 15 7.3
Week 5: F Oct. 17 7.4
Project Deadline, Oct. 19 Project Proposal  
Week 6: M Oct. 20 7.5 Homework 5
Week 6: W Oct. 22 7.6
Week 6: F Oct. 24 7.7
Week 7: M Oct. 27 7.8
Week 7: W Oct. 29 7.9
Week 7: F Oct. 31 7.9, 9.1
Midterm 2 Oct 31 Rockefeller 001
Week 8: M Nov. 3 9.2
Week 8: W Nov. 5 9.3
Week 8: F Nov.7 9.4, 9.5
Week 9: M Nov. 10 6.1
Week 9: W Nov. 12 6.2 
Week 9: F Nov. 14 Project Presentation Day 1
Week 10: M Nov. 17 Project Presentation Day 2
Week 10: T Nov. 18 Review
Final Exam, Nov. 25 (3 PM)

General Information

In person lectures

All lectures will be held in person unless otherwise stated. They will not be recorded, nor will slides or lecture notes be available. All material follows the textbook quite strictly, and the textbook is good, so you can easily catch up by reading it. 

If you are not feeling well, have been instructed to not come to class, or have athletic team commitments, please contact the instructor prior to class. For Friday travels to meets, your coach should submit the standard notification/excuse verification. Attendance is expected and taken into account in determination of your final grade.

Office hours

Office hours will generally be held in person. If you need to meet outside of scheduled office hours, please email your instructor to make arrangements. Instructors are accommodating, but everyone should at least be able to attend X-Hour office hours.  

Math 23 tutorial sessions

Course tutorials will be held in Kemeny 108, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays from 7-9pm --- beginning Thursday September 18th. Tutorials are drop-in help sessions and will not present new material. Tutorials will be led by Xin Jin, our course TA. Xin should not be contacted about any grading concerns.

Grading

Your course grade will be based on the following weights:

  • Written Homework: 20%
  • Final Project: 10%
  • Midterm 1: 20%, 
  • Midterm 2: 20%, 
  • Cumulative Final: 30%.

Final Project

In order to gain experience with research, collaboration, and applying differential equations to your specific major, this course will include a final project. The last two days of class will be dedicated to final presentations. Attendance will still be required, please support your fellow classmates. 

Please form groups of 3-5. If you have a specific topic in mind and want to work alone or with one other person,  let your instructor know as soon as possible. Everyone in the group is expected to contribute. A project proposal will be due midway through the term. Please email/ talk to your instructor for advice on topics, expectations, or specific technical details related to your project. Remember that plots, graphs, animations, greatly help with communicating and visualizing mathematics. Instructors are familiar with coding as well, but their experience with specific languages may vary. Mathmatica, Python, and Julia are three great programming languages for numerical analysis in differential equations. Excellent past projects from Math 23 will be posted to Canvas to get a sense of expectations. 

Exams

For exams, we will provide past exams for you to practice. You should not draw any conclusions about the topics, problem structure, or level of difficulty from them. Working on textbook problems (found at the end of each section) and carefully reviewing your homeworks and class notes are other great ways to prepare.

Written Homework

Written homework is assigned weekly and posted on the assignments page, with submissions through Gradescope. Each problem set will be assigned equal weight toward the total points. If you don't assign each page to a problem, 1 point will be subtracted. It hinders the graders and delays their ability to quickly grade your homework, impacting all students. Please, make sure your Gradescope submissions are orderly. If submitting a written homework, please use a PDF scanner, for example Adobe Scan.

Homework is due each Thursday by 11:59PM Eastern time, with the first assignment due September 25th. As all homework is posted well in advance, no late homework will be accepted. If a major conflict comes up, e.g. sickness, another class midterm day of assignment, please email instructor as soon as possible to make arrangements regarding your homework. 

Homework reinforces concepts and skills while challenging students to extend what they have learned to other types of problems. Because it is important for students to have this experience, instructors will not solve assigned homework problems during office hours before the due date. We will of course answer questions you may have in approaching problems that give you difficulty. It is therefore essential to begin homework sets early so that you may get help if difficulties do arise.

Your lowest attempted homework score will be dropped. In other words, all homework must be attempted and solutions submitted, i.e., you can't just not do anything at all for one homework and expect the zero score to be dropped. In this case, the zero will be counted and your next lowest score greater than zero will be dropped. 

Textbook

We will follow the following textbook:

Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 11th Edition, by Boyce, DiPrima, and Meade. The PDF can be found here, in the Textbook folder in Files on Canvas. Please do not distribute it (the PDF can also easily be found online). Past editions cover similar material, but equation numbers and textbook problems might differ. 

Honor Principle

We will strictly enforce Dartmouth's Academic Honor Principle.

On Exams: Giving and/or receiving assistance during an examination violates the Academic Honor Principle.

On Homework: Collaboration is both permitted and encouraged, but it is a violation of the honor code for someone to provide the answers for you.

Violations of the Academic Honor Principle will be referred to the Committee on Standards. In particular, please be aware of rules regarding plagiarism and collusion.

Generative AI

The use of any generative AI (such as ChatGPT) to solve any homework or exam problems is strictly prohibited and will be considered a violation of the honor principle. The use of AI for studying is allowed, for example, to understand concepts and definitions, but consultation with the textbook and Wikipedia first is encouraged, as generative AI is known to give wrong answers when it comes to mathematics. You are welcome to have a conversation with your instructors during office hours about the use of generative AI in mathematics and our reasoning for prohibiting its use to solve problems. 

Accommodations for Disabilities

Students with learning, physical, or psychiatric disabilities enrolled in this course that may need disability-related classroom accommodations are encouraged to make an office appointment to see their instructor before the end of the second week of the term. All discussions will remain confidential, although the Student Accessibility Services office may be consulted to discuss the appropriate implementation of any accommodation requested. At such a meeting please provide your instructor with a copy of a disability registration form, which lists the accommodations recommended for the student by Student Accessibility Services within the Academic Skills Center. The person you might want to contact at the Academic Skills center is Ward Newmeyer, Director of Student Accessibility Services 205 Collis Center - (603) 646-9900.

Religious Observances

Some students may wish to take part in religious observances that fall during this academic term. Should you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in the course, please come speak with your instructor before the end of the second week of the term to discuss appropriate accommodations.

Title IX

At Dartmouth, we value integrity, responsibility, and respect for the rights and interests of others, all central to our Principles of Community. We are dedicated to establishing and maintaining a safe and inclusive campus where all have equal access to the educational and employment opportunities Dartmouth offers. We strive to promote an environment of sexual respect, safety, and well-being. In its policies and standards, Dartmouth demonstrates unequivocally that sexual assault, gender-based harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking are not tolerated in our community. 

The Sexual Respect Website https://sexual-respect.dartmouth.edu at Dartmouth provides a wealth of information on your rights with regard to sexual respect and resources that are available to all in our community. 

Please note that, as a faculty member, I am obligated to share disclosures regarding conduct under Title IX with Dartmouth's Title IX Coordinator. Confidential resources are also available, and include licensed medical or counseling professionals (e.g., a licensed psychologist), staff members of organizations recognized as rape crisis centers under state law (such as WISE), and ordained clergy https://dartgo.org/titleix_resources Links to an external site..

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dartmouth's Title IX Coordinator. Their contact information can be found on the sexual respect website at: https://sexual-respect.dartmouth.edu.