Metropolitan Campus
Business & Technology Unit
Autumn/2006
MATH-0950
BEGINNING ALGEBRA I
Credits: 04
Section(s) Day(s) Time Rm
80949 Sat 9:00 am-12:40 am 312 MLA
(MLA means Metro Liberal Arts)
(Formerly HUM 312)
Instructor: Dr. Joseph Arendt
Office: MLA 202 (math lounge)
Mailbox in Part-Time Office, Health Careers & Sciences Building, Room 118
(Former Science & Technology Building, 118)
Phone: (216) 987-4123
E-mail Address: Joseph.Arendt@tri-c.edu
Personal Web Site: http://home.att.net/~arendtj
Office Hours: Before or after class, or by appointment.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
First of two semester sequence. Includes study of real numbers, basic algebraic operations, linear equations and inequalities, rectangular coordinate system, graphs of linear equations and linear systems. Includes applications and activities to build skills in problem solving.
Lecture Hours: 04 Laboratory Hours: 00
COURSE PREREQUISITE(S):
MATH-0910 Basic Arithmetic and Pre-Algebra; or sufficient score on assessment test; or departmental approval; equivalent coursework.
PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES:
Upon successful completion of MATH-0950 Beginning Algebra I, the student should be able to:
A. Demonstrate an understanding of real numbers, their operations and basic properties including the concepts of sets and number-line graphs.
B. Solve various types of linear equations and inequalities in one variable and graph their solutions.
C. Set up and solve word problems using linear equations.
D. Evaluate formulas and solve formulas for a specific variable.
E. Graph points, lines, and linear equations on the rectangular coordinate system.
F. Find the slope of a line
G. Find the equation of a line.
H. Solve linear equations by the graphing, substitution, and elimination methods.
I. Translate and solve word problems using linear systems of equations.
INSTRUCTOR'S EXPECTATIONS:
I expect regular attendance, selected homework announced weekly in class to be turned in, and ability to explain and use main concepts from this course. Careful reading of my Grading Policy will show that attendance by itself is not part of the grade. Only test scores and homework grades are used. Nevertheless, material from all lectures will appear in the homework and tests, so excellent attendance is highly recommended. In the past, those with poor attendance seldom got good grades, even though attendance itself was not directly used for grading.
I expect homework to be honestly done. The appendix of the textbook supplies answers to most of the problems asked for. Solving the problems oneself first, only after this comparing to these supplied answers to find and correct errors is an excellent studying technique. It also makes my grading of the homework easier to have students do that rather than merely giving a wrong answer when they might have found and corrected the solution themselves first. By all means, this kind of checking with the supplied answers and a search for corrections to get that answer should be done.
I am not a teacher who wants unnecessary steps written down if the problem can be solved by the student without explicitly writing these steps. Simply copying down the given answers from the back of the textbook may get one credit for the shorter problems that have few necessary steps. While it might get passing grades for homework to take this nearly effortless and perhaps enticing shortcut, the test scores are likely to be dismal as little understanding of the material is likely to result! That is not the purpose of the homework assignments. I only count the homework as 5% of the overall grade. Therefore, although homework will have an impact in overall grade, it is likely not enough to make up for poor test scores.
TEXTBOOK/INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS:
Beginning Algebra, M. Lial, J. Hornsby, and T. McGinnis, 9th Edition, Pearson: Addison-Wesley, 2004.
A calculator will be required in this course. The type of calculator recommended is typically priced between ten and twenty dollars. It should have an ¡§a b/c¡¨ key, a change-sign key, and a pi (ƒà) key. More expensive calculators, such as graphing calculators, will also work if one desires to have one, but that is not expected for this course. Sample calculators are the TI-30 series such as the TI-34, the Sharp EL-531V, the Casio FX-250, the Casio FX-115, the Sharp 506g, or Sharp 509g. The instructor will not provide a calculator to students who do not have one.
ATTENDANCE:
Regular class attendance is required, although I will not use attendance in computing the grade in this course. An instructor may withdraw a student for excessive absence if the student has missed the equivalent of one week of instruction unless arrangements satisfactory to the instructor can be made by the student to demonstrate that he/she can make acceptable academic progress (College Policy).
WITHDRAWAL:
Students may withdraw from any semester course prior to the end of the twelfth week of the full term, or 80 percent of any instructional part of term. Specific withdrawal dates are available by term in the Campus Admissions and Records Offices or published in the schedule of courses.
Up to the last day of the twelfth week of the semester, a student may withdraw from a course(s) for any reason. Withdrawal from a course prior to the last day of the second week of the semester will have no notation made in permanent records--withdrawal thereafter will be noted with a "W."
If a student misses class time for the equivalent of one week of instruction, an instructor has the option to withdraw the student for excessive absence. The instructor may elect not to exercise this option, however, and it is the student's responsibility to make sure that an official withdrawal takes place.
All transactions involving withdrawal from courses shall be done in writing and on forms provided by the college. A student's failure to attend classes shall not constitute an official withdrawal. The withdrawal date for this summer course without a record on the transcript is September 11, 2006. The withdrawal date with a W grade on the transcript is November 17, 2006.
TESTS, QUIZZES & HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:
There will be four regular tests, plus a cumulative final exam.
Homework to be collected and graded is listed in a separate column on the homework list from what is recommended to do. The selected problems are odd numbered for all of the problems from both the recommended and graded problems columns. An appendix of the textbook supplies the answers to most of the odd numbered problems. It is not cheating to use this appendix, but instead highly recommended. The homework collected and graded will be examined and evaluated based on technique to get to the solution, looking at the steps used to get there. The time and effort for my doing this kind of scrutiny is why I choose only a subset of the recommended list to grade. Doing other problems in the recommended list and comparing to the answers in the appendix oneself is what I mean by writing ¡§recommend¡¨ for the one column and ¡§graded¡¨ for the next column.
FINAL EXAM:
Saturday, December 16, 2006, 9:00 am¡V11:00 am, MLA 312 (normal class room). The Final Exam is two hours long. It is comprehensive. No other exam will substitute for it.
MAKE-UP POLICY:
Only for a verifiable doctor¡¦s excuse will a make-up test be scheduled. This is a strict requirement, but keep in mind that one of the four regular tests will be dropped as explained in the Grading Policy/Scale. For assigned homework, it will be accepted late with a penalty of the instructor¡¦s discretion until that material is covered on an exam, after which that late homework will not be accepted.
GRADING POLICY/SCALE:
A grade of A for 90%-100%; B for 80%-89%; C for 70%-79%; D for 60%-69%; F for 0-59%.
Lowest score of four regular tests (not including the final) will be dropped. The final exam is mandatory. No other test score will substitute for it.
20% each (for 60% total) Three regular tests (after lowest dropped)
35% Final exam
5% Homework
Consider if one had 90% on each of the four tests and 90% on the homework, but missed the final exam. One of the four regular tests automatically goes away. This then works out to 90%(0.2) + 90%(0.2) + 90%(0.2) + 90%(0.05) = 58.5%. That is under 60%, so it is an overall grade of F! This means one can be going into the final exam with a low grade of A, but merely by missing the final exam get an F! Taking the final exam is vitally important!
INCOMPLETE (I) GRADES:
A notation of "I" indicates that a student has not completed all course requirements as a result of circumstances judged by the instructor to be beyond the student's control. A student must complete all course requirements no later than the end of the sixth week of the academic term following the semester in which the "I" was noted. Failure to complete such requirements will result in an "F" (failing) grade. At least three of the four regular tests must be completed before the regular end of the course for a student to be considered for an Incomplete, ¡§I¡¨.
ACADEMIC CREDIT:
In order to award one (1) semester hour of college credit, the Ohio Board of Regents requires two hours of significant student study outside of class for each one hour in class for the equivalent of an academic semester (16 weeks).
DISABILITIES:
Students with disabilities at Cuyahoga Community College are expected to take an assertive role in communicating with faculty and staff members about their need for reasonable accommodation.
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please contact me as soon as possible.
Please communicate to the instructor any disability that might prevent taking the test in the classroom in the same time period as the other students early in the class well before the test itself is taking place. For my courses, under no circumstances will a regular classroom test or the final exam be given as a take-home test to be done without supervision overnight or over several days. Instead, a different location and time will be provided to students with disabilities who require it, with more time allowed or other requirements that they might have.
If you want to talk to me, I can be reached at arendtj@att.net
Last modified September 6, 2006