Note on my email address: nweining@rci.rutgers.edu is my teaching email. Please use it, rather than any other address of mine you may find, for class-related questions.
Special note on the first week of classes: On Wednesday, September 3rd, the recitations will meet not in the regular classrooms, but in the ARC computer lab (ARC 119). The first recitation will be an introduction to Maple and a walk-through of a sample Maple lab.
Other notes and updates:
You can find the planned schedule of material to be covered in recitation sections on Prof. Sills' calendar page. This schedule may be revised over the course of the semester. Any revisions will be posted here.
How can I get a copy of the 4th edition of the textbook? The only new copies around are of the 5th edition!
There are several options:
If none of those options work for you, please email me.
Can I use Maple on my own PC rather than going to the labs?
Yes. There is a Unix version of maple (xmaple) on the eden server which you can run in a remote X window on your system. To do this, you need one of the following:
For help setting this up, contact RUCS support. On Linux, I've made it work simply by opening an ssh link to eden with:
ssh -X eden.rutgers.eduand then typing "xmaple" at the eden prompt. This may work on Macs as well.
How will the quizzes be graded?
There are eight quizzes in all; each is worth 10 points. At the end of the semester, I will add up your seven highest quiz grades (dropping the lowest one) to get a number between 0 and 70. I will then divide this number by seven to get a number between 0 and 10. I will report this number to Prof. Sills; the quizzes will count for 10% of your course grade.
What about the Maple labs?
There are four Maple labs; together they constitute 10% of your course grade. A grader (not me or Prof. Sills) will grade the labs according to standards laid down by Prof. Sills.
If I miss a recitation section, can I make up the quiz, or turn in a Maple lab late?
I will not allow makeup quizzes. Instead, I will drop the lowest of your eight quiz grades as a means of allowing you to miss one quiz without penalty. This makes life easier for you and for me, as you don't have to worry about taking makeup quizzes and I don't have to worry about scheduling them.
As for the Maple lab writeups: if you miss the recitation on the day a Maple lab is due, you can turn it in to my mailbox, which is in the mailroom on the third floor of Hill Center. You do need to turn in the lab by the end of the day it is due, however.
What if the lecturer does not cover all the sections the syllabus says are supposed to be covered?
I will keep in touch with Prof. Sills and keep track of what sections are actually covered in lecture. I will adjust the schedule of homework problems covered in recitations appropriately. Quizzes, likewise, will be based only on material actually covered in lectures and discussed at the previous week's recitation. However, if you aren't sure whether a lecture really fully covered material from a section, you should always do the homework problems from that section just in case, unless Prof. Sills specifically says otherwise.Can I email you with questions on homework, or on the Maple labs, or other math-related questions?
Yes, you can, and I encourage you to do so.The recitations will be organized roughly as follows:
Some recitation meetings will not have quizzes (e.g. those immediately following exams). The schedule tells you when the quizzes are scheduled to occur.
During each recitation section, I will attempt to discuss a representative sample of the homework problems from the sections you have covered in the previous week's lecture. The quizzes will be based directly on the homework problems from the sections we've discussed in the previous week's recitation. So, for example, on September 10 we'll discuss the homework problems from sections 12.1-12.5, and on September 17 the quiz will cover those sections.
Most quiz questions will be slightly modified versions of homework problems. Therefore, doing the suggested homework problems, and asking questions in recitation about those you find troublesome, is by far the best preparation for the quizzes. Note that calculators will not be allowed on quizzes or exams, so you should practice doing homework problems without a calculator whenever feasible.
Note that I will rarely be able to discuss the Maple labs during recitation time, especially later in the semester. If you have questions regarding the Maple labs, the best thing to do is to email me or Prof. Sills, or come to one of our office hours. If the times I've set for office hours are inconvenient for you, you can and should email me to set up other times to meet.
The syllabus and homework assignments are available from the course page.
Here are some good study tips, courtesy of Eva Curry.