The main objectives of this course is to prepare the student for Math 125 (Chapter 1) and to expose the student to a variety of different applications of mathematics in business, economics, life sciences and natural sciences. Chapter 1 should be familiar to the student; our coverage should be mostly a review of topics covered in Math 119.
We are using a new text as of Fall 2001, Finite Mathematics, by Berresford and Rockett. We hope that this text will be easier to read and more interesting to the student, providing more real life data and problems that students are motivated to solve. Many of the sections begin with an "Application Preview." These can be very good introductions to the section and material found later in the text. I highly recommend that you either discuss in class or have the students read the Application Previews from sections 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.3, 3.1, 3.5, 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3. There may be an error in some of the texts on page 66; please call attention to the table in the upper left corner and help students correct it if there is such an error. Many sections contain "Graphing Calculator Explorations." These will be especially helpful in Chapter 3 when using matrices. Graphing calculator programs can be downloaded at the web site http://www.hmco.com and then loaded onto your calculator with the TI-GRAPH LINK software and cable. Check with the computer lab for help with this. I will probably be using the program PIVOT when I cover the Simplex Method (see page 304 of text).
There are a few extra days in the syllabus - these will enable you to get caught up if you fall behind. In an emergency (like snow or illness), you may omit 4.5 (Nonstandard, Two Stage Method), but be careful not to schedule your third exam in the last week of classes before finals. Please feel free to change the placement of the exams and the group projects. Fall 2001 is the first semester using this text and syllabus, so try to be flexible. I would appreciate your comments and feedback. It may take a semester or two to iron out any difficulties.
There are three Chapter Projects. The first is in the text (p. 96, #5), and the others can be found through the links Chapter 2 Project: Balance Sheets and Amortization Tables, and Chapter 3 Project: Linear Regression. These should work well as cooperative learning tools; I suggest having the students get in groups of 3 or 4 each. It is not necessary to lecture on the material, just provide 50 min. of class time in which the students can work together, and be available to answer questions. If they don't finish in 50 min., have them finish on their own time and turn in the materials at a later date (I usually give them a week). Lecturers will want to have the GTAs provide this time in recitation. You might consider counting the projects as quiz grades.
Feel free to assign additional problems; I see the problems in the syllabus as a suggestion of the types of problems students should be able to handle. I have included some problems from each Chapter Review to help students review for an exam; it is not necessary to cover each and every one of these problems on review day (there won't be time), but the answers to all review problems are found at the back of the text for the students. Again, I would appreciate any comments about the problem sets.
There will be no departmental final for this course; each teacher is responsible for writing a final for their class. Examples of old exams and finals given by instructors in past semesters are on file in the Mathematics Department office, in the test drawer. Feel free to get ideas from these, but do not use the exam questions verbatim.
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