Math 2000.001: Fall 2016
Meets: 11:00-12:20 in Wooten Hall, Room 111.
Instructor: Professor
John Quintanilla
Office: GAB, Room 418-D
Office Phone: x4043
E-mail:: John.Quintanilla@unt.edu.
Web
page: http://www.math.unt.edu/~johnq/Courses/2016fall/2000/
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 11-2, or by appointment. I'm
fairly easy to find, and you're welcome to drop by outside of office hours
without an appointment. However, there will be occasions when I'll be busy, and
I may ask you to wait or come back later.
Required Text: Discrete Mathematics: An Introduction to
Mathematical Reasoning, Brief Edition, by Susanna S. Epp.
The textbook is available in both electronic and hardcopy form from the UNT
Bookstore.
Strongly Recommended: Lecture notes for the semester can be purchased from
the Eagle Images Print Center for approximately $25. The Eagle Images Print
Center is in room 221 of the University Union.
The lecture notes for the semester will also
be available on Blackboard. You are welcome to print these out at home; however,
be aware that it's probably far cheaper to purchase the notes at Eagle Images
than to purchase the ink cartridges and paper necessary to print out all of the
notes. If you have sufficient print credits, you also can print these on
campus. For more information about print credits and other rules and
regulations regarding the use of printers on campus, please see http://computerlabs.unt.edu/printing.
Technology: Any standard scientific calculator is acceptable for
this class.
Course Description: Introduction to proof-writing, logic, sets, relations and functions, induction and recursion, combinatorics and counting techniques.
Prerequisite: Math 1650 and Math 1710 (may be taken concurrently).
Course Topics
The following chapters and
sections of the textbook will be covered according to the projected schedule
below. Dates may change as events warrant.
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Student Responsibilities
·
Student behavior that interferes with an instructor's ability
to conduct a class or other students' opportunity to learn is unacceptable and
disruptive and will not be tolerated in any instructional forum at UNT.
Students engaging in unacceptable behavior will be directed to leave the
classroom and the instructor may refer the student to the Center for Student
Rights and Responsibilities to consider whether the student's conduct violated
the Code of Student Conduct. The
university's expectations for student conduct apply to all instructional
forums, including university and electronic classroom, labs, discussion groups,
field trips, etc.
·
You should read over this syllabus carefully, as I will hold
you responsible for the information herein.
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Students will be expected to read the chapters carefully,
including the examples in the book.
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Students will be responsible for obtaining any and all
handouts. If you are not in class when handouts are given, it is your
responsibility to obtain copies.
·
You should begin working now. Frequent
practice is crucial to the successful completion of a mathematics course.
Cramming at the last minute will certainly lead to failure.
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WARNING: If you are in academic trouble, or are in danger of losing
your financial support, or if your parent or guardian is expecting a certain
grade at the end of the semester... start working today. I will refuse to
listen to any pleas at the end of the semester. You will receive precisely the
grade that you earn.
Grading Policies
The following schedule is tentative and is
subject to capricious changes in case of extracurricular events deemed
sufficiently important to the upper administration.
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Cooperation is encouraged in doing the
homework assignments. However, cheating will not be tolerated on the exams.
If you are caught cheating, you will be subject to any penalty the instructor
deems appropriate, up to and including an automatic F for the course.
Refer to the following university site for the official policy with regards to
academic dishonesty: http://vpaa.unt.edu/academic-integrity.htm.
Attendance is not required for this class.
However, you will be responsible for everything that I cover in class, even if
you are absent. It is my experience that students who skip class frequently
make poorer grades than students who attend class regularly. You should
consider this if you don't think you'll be able to wake up in time for class
consistently.
The grade of "I" is designed for
students who are unable to complete work in a course but who are currently
passing the course. The guidelines are clearly spelled out in the Student
Handbook. Before you ask, you should read these requirements.
Exam Policies
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I expect to give exams on the days shown above. However,
these are tentative dates. I will announce the exact date of each exam in
class.
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You will be
expected to bring to class a calculator that can perform the calculations
described in class.
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After exams are returned in class, you have 48 hours to
appeal your grade. I will not listen to any appeals after this 48-hour period.
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I will not drop the lowest exam score; all will count toward
the final grade.
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Students missing an exam for unauthorized reasons will
receive 0 (zero) points on the exam. Students will be required to provide official
written verification of any authorized absences.
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The Final Examination will be comprehensive in the sense
that problems may come from any of the sections that will be covered during the
semester.
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The grade of A signifies consistent excellence over
the course of the semester. In particular, an A on the final is not equivalent
to an A for the course.
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I reserve the right to test and quiz you on problems which
are generalizations of material covered in the class and/or in the text. In short,
the problems may not look exactly like the ones in the book.
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Everything that I say in class is fair game for exam
material. You will be responsible for everything unless I advise you to the
contrary.
Homework and Project Policies
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Homework will be collected in class every Tuesday. Weekly
assignments will be posted on Blackboard.
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I
expect the assignments that you turn in to be written
up carefully and neatly, with the answers clearly marked. You must show all
of your work. Messy homework will not be accepted.
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Entire
homework assignments will not be graded. Instead, only five representative
problems will be graded per assignment. As a consequence, it will be possible
to not do the entire assignment and still receive a perfect score on that
particular assignment. Deliberately leaving homework uncompleted is highly unrecommended, however, as the law of averages will surely
catch up with you as the semester progresses.
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When computing grades, I will drop the two lowest
homework grades before computing the homework average. Therefore, in principle,
you could get a 100% homework score and also not turn in two assignments during
the semester. I have this policy in case you get sick, a family emergency
arises, etc., during the semester. You will still be responsible for the
material in such assignments during the examinations.
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I will not give extensions on homework assignments,
nor will I accept late assignments.
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Two class projects (on the Fibonacci numbers and on the Twin
Primes Conjecture) will be assigned on Blackboard.
Solution Guides
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All students will be randomly assigned to groups to prepare
homework solution guides. The groups as well as detailed instructions from
writing an effective solution guide can be found on Blackboard.
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Each solution guide will be due one week after the
corresponding homework assignment has been submitted. I encourage groups to
make contact with each other at least one week (and maybe two weeks) before the
due date.
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Each group must debate choices of word and notation, as well
as choice of correct proof to include based on aesthetic taste. The solution
guide will be distributed to the whole class via Blackboard. All students will
work on this project once this semester.
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All students (including the authors of the solution guide)
will be required to complete a short questionnaire on each solution guide,
asking if the guide provided effective and well-crafted mathematical
communication. All students will receive a participation grade for completing
the questionnaire, while the results of the questionnaire will be used to give
a grade to the solution guide’s authors.
Note to TNT Students
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If you’re pursuing secondary teacher certification
through Teach North Texas, then you may be aware that you will be required to
construct a preliminary teaching portfolio in EDSE 4500 (Project-Based Instruction)
and a final portfolio during your final semester of student teaching. Section 2
of this portfolio will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge of your content
field. You may find that some of the assignments may naturally become artifacts
toward part of this task, and so I encourage you to keep your work after the
semester is over to make the eventual construction of your portfolio easier.
You may even want to write (and save for later) a brief reflection on the
artifact you select, rather than try to remember why the artifact you chose was
important once you reach EDSE 4500.
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The specific indicators in the portfolio related to
knowledge of mathematical content are as follows:
o
Reflect on one or more artifacts in which you state a
mathematical theorem or conjecture and apply both formal and informal
mathematical reasoning to the same conjecture.
o
Reflect on one or more artifacts that show your ability to
describe a mathematical concept that can be represented in multiple ways and
articulate the connections between its representations in clear, expository
prose. Where relevant, identify appropriate technology for exploring the
concept and explain limits the technology may place on the knowledge acquired.
o
Reflect on one or more artifacts that show your ability to
generate a model of a natural phenomenon or describe an already existing model
and evaluate how well the model represents the situation, including
consideration of the risks, costs, and benefits of the alternatives.
o
Reflect on one or more artifacts that show your ability to
identify a topic in your subject area and describe its connection with
prerequisite topics, future topics, and other subjects.
o
Reflect on one of more artifacts that show how you bring out
the historical and cultural importance of your subject material, its
contribution to large ideas, and its significance in today’s society.
Include a specific lesson plan that incorporates the general history and
cultural context of modern science or of mathematics as these fields have
evolved.
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Just to be clear: the above are suggestions for TNT
students. This is NOT a course requirement for Math 2000.
Pokémon
Final Note
The University of North Texas
makes reasonable academic accommodation for students with disabilities.
Students seeking accommodation must first register with the Office of
Disability Accommodation (ODA) to verify their eligibility. If a disability is
verified, the ODA will provide you with an accommodation letter to be delivered
to faculty to begin a private discussion regarding your specific needs in a
course. You may request accommodations at any time, however, ODA notices of
accommodation should be provided as early as possible in the semester to avoid
any delay in implementation. Note that students must obtain a new letter of
accommodation for every semester and must meet with each faculty member prior
to implementation in each class. For additional information see the Office of
Disability Accommodation website at http://www.unt.edu/oda. You may also
contact them by phone at 940.565.4323.