- CourseMATH 1553 Section 1
- TextCalculus: Early Transcendentals, 8th ed.
- AuthorJames Stewart
- Course ContentCh. 7, 10–13, and Section 14.3
- Classroom138 Lockett Hall
- TimeMTWTh 12:30–1:20 pm
Instructor Information
- InstructorC.-M. Michael Wong
- Office105 Lockett Hall
- Office HoursTh 1:30–2:30 pm, or by appointment
- Phone578-1626
- Emailcmmwong [at] lsu [dot] edu
Course Description This course is a four (4) hour second calculus course designed for math, science and engineering majors and certain other technical majors. It satisfies four hours of the General Education Analytical Reasoning requirement since 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 4-credit course, students are expected to meet in class for 4*50 = 200 minutes per week and have 8 hours per week outside of class for studying and homework, for a minimum time obligation of 12 hours per week.
Course Prerequisite MATH 1550 or MATH 1551
Graded Work
- Homework 28%
- 3 Midterm Exams 40% (see schedule below for breakdown)
- Final Exam 32%
Final Exam The Final Exam will take place on Dec 11 (Wed), 10 am–12 pm. There will be no early final exam exceptions. Any makeups will take place on the following Monday, Dec 16.
WebAssign We will be using WebAssign to do online homework. If you have already purchased a Webassign access code for calculus in a prior semester, you can re-use that code with no additional purchase if it is a multi-term “Lifetime of the Edition” code for the 8th edition of Stewart’s Calculus textbook. If you do not have an access code and need to purchase one, LSU has negotiated a special discount for Webassign access in calculus that is available at the Cengage website. (The linked webpage says that it is for MATH 1550, 1552, and 2057, but the same page is also relevant to MATH 1553.) Since the access code provides access to the online e-book, the physical pages of the textbook are not necessary unless you prefer reading from paper instead of from a screen.
Create a WebAssign account by going to the WebAssign website and clicking on the link labelled “Enter class key.” The key for our class is lsu 1063 2055. 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’ work, the use of crib sheets or formula sheets, and any attempts to access the internet 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 | Percentage of Final Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Midterm Exam 1 | Sep 23 (M) | 16% |
| Midterm Exam 2 | Oct 21 (M) | 16% |
| Midterm Exam 3 | Nov 4 (M) | 8% |
| Final Exam | Dec 11 (W), 10 am–12 pm | 32% |
Topics Covered A partial list of basic skills you should acquire during the course.
- Techniques of integration, numerical integration, improper integration
- Infinite sequences and series, convergence tests, power series and Taylor series
- Parametric curves and polar coordinates; areas and lengths determined by parametric and polar curves
- Vectors in two and three dimensions; lines and planes in space
- Analytic geometry of conic sections and quadric surfaces
- Calculus of vector-valued functions; arc length, curvature and motion in space
- Calculation of partial derivatives
- 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.