MAP 2302 Elementary Differential Equations

Welcome to the MAP2302 course web page for Summer B 2011 Section 4787 .

Course Syllabus

CLASS MEETS : MTWRF 3rd period, i.e. 11:00am - 12:15pm, at LIT 113
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK : Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 6th Edition,
by R. K. Nagle, E. B. Saff and A. D. Snider.
INSTRUCTOR : Jan Gregus
OFFICE: LIT 405
OFFICE PHONE: (352)-392-0281 extn 299
EMAIL: gregus@ufl.edu
OFFICE HOURS:

COURSE WEBPAGE: http://www.math.ufl.edu/~gregus/MAP2302/course.html
Here I will post homework problem numbers, test dates, and other announcements pertaining to the course. Also, a Sakai e-learnig website for the course will be set up, it will be accessible via https://lss.at.ufl.edu.. On the e-learning site you may view your grades, and it will contain a link to the course webpage (the one you are looking at).

COURSE GOALS: to help a student become familiar with methods of finding solutions of certain classes of ordinary differential equations and develop the corresponding computational skills.

COURSE MATERIAL: I intend to cover chapters 1.2 - 1.4, 2.2 - 2.6, 3.2-3.4, 4.2 - 4.7 (+ generalization to higher order linear equations with constant coefficients found in Chap.6), 7.2 - 7.7, 8.2 - 8.7 of the text. Note that due to the time constraint I may omit some of the sections.

GRADING: There will be four quizzes (each takes about 20 minutes) and two in-class tests (each takes 75 minutes), i.e. each week there is either a quiz or a test. Test 1 covers the material of the chapters 1, 2, and 4, Test 2 covers the rest of the material. A quiz typically covers the material discussed in class until two days prior to the quiz day (e.g. if the quiz is on Friday, it covers the class material discussed by the preceding Wednesday, including the Wednesday's material). The lowest quiz score will be dropped. Each quiz contributes 16% to the final grade (to encourage students' continuous preparation for the class), each test score will form 26% of the final grade. Tests and quizzes may contain some bonus problems. A typical quiz will have about 4 questions/problems and will be worth 8 points, so each quiz point counts as 2%. If there are bonus points, those too will count 2% of your grade. E.g. if the test is 8 points and it contains a 2 point bonus problem, then you can earn up to 20% on that quiz. To simplify the record keeping in Sakai, the record of your quiz score will show the percentage, i.e. what you will see there is double the score of your quiz. A typical test will be worth 26 points, but each of those points will count 1% toward your grade. Grading philosophy: each 2 point problem (or part of a problem) is graded as follows:

Test/quiz date schedule (preliminary): Unless announced otherwise, the use of calculators is NOT allowed during a test. You have one week after a test or a quiz was returned to express any concern about the grade. After one week the score will not be re-evaluated.

MAKE-UP POLICY: Make-ups are possible upon providing a written documentation of a serious reason to miss a test or a quiz (e.g. a doctor's note). This, except for a medical emergency, must be done in advance and in person. You may write me an e-mail to set up an appointment, but the issue must be settled in person. The make-up work must be completed within one week after the test or quiz was given. If you have a valid excuse for not taking a test or a quiz, PLEASE DO NOT TAKE IT, and let me know. There is NOTHING we can do about your test grade AFTER you have taken the test or quiz and the grade has been assigned (except for correcting possible errors in grading). Also, under NO CIRCUMSTANCE will anyone be allowed to take a test or a quiz earlier than the time for which the test or quiz is scheduled. Any make-up must be taken afterwards. In particular, if there is a reason serious enough (and documented) for a student to miss the last exam, so that he/she is not able to make it up before the semester ends, then, after the undergraduate coordinator's approval, the student will be assigned a grade of "I" (incomplete), and complete the course by taking the exam on the new date stated in the approval form.

GRADING SCALE: Ms. Hayriye Gulbudak will be the grader for this course. Please see her first if you have questions about how your test/quiz was graded. Her office is LIT 431, her e-mail is hgulbudak@ufl.edu, her office hours areon her webpage, here.

HOMEWORK: Because this is a Summer B course, it will be a fast paced one. Although I'll try to show you as many examples as possible, you'll have to work through quite a lot of exercises, since that is the only way to gain some computational skills as well as the proper understanding of the material. So please, ask questions and take the assigned homework problems (see below) seriously. You may, of course, do other problems in addition to the assigned ones, to ensure even better understanding of the subject. Also, the tests will contain problems similar to the homework problems (although they need not be the same). You are welcome to see me for the help on homework, and you may, of course, discuss the problems with your fellow students. The homework is not graded.

ACADEMIC HONESTY: All work that you hand in must be the product of your own efforts. See the University of Florida Student's Handbook for the policy on cheating.

ATTENDANCE: is required.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to me, during office hours, when requesting accommodation. This must be done at least a week in advance of the date of the requested accommodation.

Course Announcements

Homework Problems (the ones in parentheses are optional)

Here are the homework problems from the time when we were using 5th edition of the textbook. Although many of them are the same as the problems assigned below, the numbering need not match (because of the different editions of the textbook). Also, some of the problems assigned below may be completely different from the ones assigned previously (using 5th edition).