- CourseMath 1550 Section 30
- TextCalculus: Early Transcendentals, 8th ed.
- AuthorJames Stewart
- Course ContentCh. 2–6, plus some topics from Ch. 8 of textbook
- Classroom115 Residential College One—North Hall (Engineering Residential College)
- TimeMTWThF 1:30–2:20 pm
Instructor Information
- InstructorC.-M. Michael Wong
- Office105 Lockett Hall
- Office HoursM 2:30–3:30 pm in 111 Residential College One—North Hall (Engineering Residential College), or by appointment in 105 Lockett Hall
- Phone578-1626
- Emailcmmwong [at] abbreviated-university-name [dot] edu
Course description This course is a five (5) hour introductory calculus course designed for math, science and engineering majors and certain other technical majors. It satisfies five hours of the General Education Analytical Reasoning requirement. This course is a General Education course in the analytical reasoning area because it includes the following area learning objective: “LSU graduates will employ scientific and mathematical models in the resolution of laboratory and real-world problems.”
As a 5-credit course, students are expected to have ten hours of coursework outside of class per week, for a minimum time commitment of 15 hours per week.
ALEKS Course Prerequisite To enroll in this course you need to have a minimum score of 70% on the ALEKS Calculus Placement Test. More information on the LSU calculus ALEKS requirement is available here.
This test covers the fundamental precalculus skills that you will need to succeed in this course. If you achieved your ALEKS score in a way that does not reflect your own skills and knowledge, then you may have difficulties succeeding in this course. In such a case, you are strongly urged to work through the ALEKS learning modules over the next two weeks so that you can attain a passing score that reflects what you know.
Graded Work
- Homework 30%
- 3 Midterm Exams 42% (14% each)
- Final Exam 28%
Final Exam The Final Exam will take place on Dec 9 (Sat), 3–5 pm. There will be no early final exam exceptions. Any makeups will take place on the following Monday, Dec 11.
WebAssign Available for purchase on this website. There, you may purchase an online access code for WebAssign and an e-book for $92.50, or the above plus the unbound loose-leaf pages of the book for $103.50. The online access code here will be good for future use of the 8th edition of this book, for future semesters. Note that the regular online price at webassign.com is $126, and the retail price of a bound book is more than $200. These products are also available in the local bookstores for a small mark-up.
Create a WebAssign account by going to the WebAssign website and clicking on the link labelled “I have a class key.” The key for our class is lsu 4907 1659. In the field that asks for your student ID, enter your LSU ID number (89...) without any hyphens or spaces. The student ID number is needed to transfer your scores into the Moodle gradebook.
Calculators and Collaboration You can use any technology available to help with homework assignments, and you may collaborate with others while doing them. However, you are encouraged to learn to do the problems without relying on calculators. On exams, you will not be allowed to use a calculator. Also, you must work on exams with no assistance from anyone else. During an exam, attempts to look at other students’ exams and the use of crib sheets or formula sheets will be considered to be a violation of the LSU Code of Student Conduct and will be reported to the Student Advocacy and Accountability Office.
Grading Scale
| Percentage Grade | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 98+ | A+ |
| 93–98 | A |
| 90–93 | A- |
| 87–90 | B+ |
| 83–87 | B |
| 80–83 | B- |
| 77–80 | C+ |
| 73–77 | C |
| 70–73 | C- |
| 67–70 | D+ |
| 63–67 | D |
| 60–63 | D- |
| 0–59 | F |
Exam Schedule
| Exam | Date |
|---|---|
| Midterm Exam 1 | Sep 15 (F) |
| Midterm Exam 2 | Oct 6 (F) |
| Midterm Exam 3 | Nov 3 (F) |
| Final Exam | Dec 9 (Sa), 3–5 pm |
Topics Covered A partial list of basic skills you should acquire during the course.
- Limits and Continuity
- Evaluate limits from a graph
- Evaluate limits at points of continuity
- Evaluate limits of indeterminate forms
- Know what continuity implies about a graph and behavior of a function
- Determine points of discontinuity for functions defined as formulas or graphs
- Differentiation
- Know the various interpretations of the derivative (velocity, rate of change, slope
- tangent line)
- Evaluate the derivatives of simple functions using a difference quotient
- Evaluate the derivatives of combinations of the basic elementary functions
- Take the derivative using implicit and logarithmic differentiation
- Find tangent lines and be able to use them as linear approximations
- Find critical values, local extrema and the intervals of concavity for differentiable functions
- Find absolute extrema of constrained functions
- Solve problems involving related rates
- Solve basic optimization problems
- Understand the Mean Value Theorem for derivatives
- Integration
- Understand anti-derivatives and know the basic anti-derivative formulas
- Have an understanding of the Riemann integral as a limit of Riemann sums • Be able to use both parts of the Fundamental Theorem
- Evaluate definite integrals using substitution
- Find the area between two curves and the volumes of solids of revolution
- Find arc lengths and areas of surfaces of revolution
- Understand the Mean Value Theorem for integrals
- Read the material to be covered before each class. Make notes of things that confuse you.
- Ask a lot of questions during class. Active participation will help ensure you learn the material well. Almost always, students ask too few questions and allow things to go over their head for fear of looking silly or disrupting the class. Don't! If you are asking too many questions (or the wrong ones), I will let you know, but that is highly unlikely.
- Review the material covered on the same day after each class. This will help you retain whatever you have learned during class in your long-term memory.
- Start attempting the homework early. All too often, students rush into the help room a few hours before the problem set is due, hoping that the supplemental instructors will do their homework for them. Do not let this happen! The WebAssign problems are designed to give you an opportunity to practice; even if somebody does all the problems for you, you will not do well on the exams.
- Get help as soon as you need it. Do not wait. As soon as you are confused about something, come to office hours or go to the supplemental instructors within a day or two. If you wait, you will be lost.
- Practice, practice, practice! This is the one and only one way to learn calculus well. Keep a list of hard problems to practice for your exams.