Syllabus for Technical Math II 804-116-0001 (52197)

Madison Area Technical College

Spring 2007

Home Phone: 238-7333 ; E-mail:  alehnen@matcmadison.edu or aplehnen@execpc.com 

website: http://my.execpc.com/~aplehnen/al.htm ; Arts & Sciences Office: Room 246 ; Phone: 246-6246

Office Hours:

Or by Appointment

Text: A. Washington, Basic Technical Mathematics, Eighth Ed., Addison-Wesley, 2005.

Course Objectives: To provide the student with the background in mathematics to:

(1) Successfully complete an Associate Degree Program in a technical field.

(2) Use mathematics as a means of clearly communicating ideas and concepts.

Official Course Outline:

Attendance: This is the responsibility of each individual student. A student who is absent without an adequate explanation for 16 calendar days after the last period attended will be withdrawn with a grade of 'W'. An exam missed without adequate notification and explanation will result in an automatic grade of zero. Quizzes will not be accepted late. There will be No Exceptions to these two rules !

Grading: Three sources will contribute to the grade in this course :

(1) The six highest of eight take-home quizzes, each quiz is worth 25 points.
(2) The highest four of five hour exams (the last is the final) each worth 100 points.
(3) Five labs each worth 50 points.

Thus, the final grade is based on a total of 800 points.

Note: Any exam missed without an official excuse counts as a score of zero, as does any take-home quiz not handed in when due. Since the two lowest quiz scores are dropped, these are the only ones that you can afford to miss. Exams may always be taken early to avoid conflicts. The grading system used is a modified curve. This means that, regardless of class averages, the following final point totals are guaranteed as minimum grade requirements:

These minimum values may be lowered if results warrant. In borderline situations class participation, attendance, the trend of exam scores, etc., may be used to justify the higher grade. For more details see the "grade scorecard".

Assignments: Technical Math II assumes a working knowledge of  Technical Math I material. It will also involve some work on your part. It is nearly impossible for you to learn and master the content of this course without practice. Hence, there will be three kinds of assignments.

(1) Working assigned exercises associated with the sections of the text covered. It is the responsibility of the student to keep current, as these problems will not be collected.

(2) Eight Assigned take-home quizzes each worth 25 points. These should be completed as directed and handed in when due. They will not be accepted late. Some of the quizzes involve using WinPlot.

(3) Five lab exercises each worth 50 points. Four of the five labs will be done in groups. For these labs only one report per group is handed in and everyone in the group receives the same grade. Labs may be downloaded at http://matcmadison.edu/alehnen/TechmathII/TechMathIILabs.html.

Calculator/Exam Policies: A handheld scientific and/or graphing calculator may be used on both homework and exams and should prove helpful. All exams will be open note/open book.

Course Content:

The fifth exam, a comprehensive final, will be given during final exams week.

Take-Home Quiz Due Dates:

Lab Days and Lab Report Due Dates: