Assessment of a New American Program in the Middle East

Thomas W. Rishel
Associate Professor
Weill Cornell Medical College
Doha, Qatar
rishel@math.cornell.edu

Math 104 Syllabus

Math 104 – Calculus for the Biological Sciences

Course Information – Fall, 2002 – October 21 version

Text: Calculus with Applications, Brief Version, by Lial, Greenwood and Ritchey.

Lecturer: Tom Rishel, Faculty Office 1.

T.A.: Justin Matis, T.A. Office.

Office Hours: T. Rishel: Saturday, Monday, 1-3:00,

                             twr2001@med.cornell.edu.

                       J. Matis: Sunday, Tuesday, 1-2:30,

                             jrm2004@med.cornell.edu.

Lectures: Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, 9-9:50.

Review Session: 11-12:30 Wednesdays.

As you will see from my tentative syllabus, some of the lecture days will be given over to a discussion of homework assignments.  At these times you are especially encouraged to bring up any questions you may have about any aspect of the course, including lecture materials. 

Review sessions are highly recommended, but will not count toward the final grade.  The sessions will be conducted as follows: bring your book; you will work in small groups on homework or homework-related problems in whatever manner and order your own group wants.  No lecturing or full-class discussion will take place.  Instead, Justin and I will go from group to group offering suggestions and answering questions about whatever you are working on at that time.

Text, Attendance and Homework:  Please read the relevant section of the text before you come to class each day. 

Attendance in class is strongly recommended; examinations will be based on the material covered in the lectures, and the best way to know what to study is to attend the classes.

Homework is given so that you can learn the course material.  You are expected to try it out as soon after lecture as possible so as to be prepared to ask and answer questions in classes and review sessions.  You will also see some similar problems as part of your examinations.

Applications and Quizzes:  On occasion, you will be assigned some of the later problems in each chapter that Lial, Greenberg and Ritchey call “Applications.”  You will be asked to hand in these problems for grading.  They will then count toward your final grade (as described below).

Sometimes you will also give very short quizzes in class.  These will also count toward the final grade, as explained below.  You will be allowed to drop the lowest grade from your quizzes, but I will not give makeup quizzes – you must attend class to take them.

Prelims and Final:  We will have three preliminary exams, tentatively scheduled for Mondays:

·        Prelim I – October 9.

·        Prelim II – November 6.

·        Prelim III – December 2.

The final examination is scheduled for December 17^th.

Grading: Each Prelim will be worth 100 points; the final exam counts for 150 points.  Application problems and quizzes will be worth 50 points.  I will drop the lowest quiz grade, as mentioned above.  This totals to 500 points.  Justin and I will assign a set of letter grades at the end of the course based the percentage of these 500 points that you receive.  Such issues as attendance, asking questions, and showing interest will provide us some final input into whether your numerical grade tells us the full story.

Philosophy:   Mathematics is, of course, useful in and of itself.  Your goal, however, is to go to medical school.  Thus my goal in this course will be to concentrate on the usability of mathematics for medically related fields, especially biology and chemistry.  As often as possible, I will offer applications of the materials contained in the course.  You are also encouraged to offer examples that you find in textbooks, on the internet, or in other courses that you are taking or have taken.

Syllabus – Math 104

Sept   7       Intro – Overview and Evaluation of Levels

 9       Linear Functions, Polynomials, 1.2, 2.3

11      Exponentials and Logarithms, 2.4, 2.5

14      Applications of Exponentials and Logarithms, 2.6

16      Definition of Derivative, Rate of Change, 3.1—3.4

18      Techniques of Finding Derivatives, 4.1

21               Derivatives of Products and Quotients, 4.2

23      Derivatives of Trig Functions, 4.4, 4.5

25      HW Questions

28      Chain Rule, 4.3

30      What the First and Second Derivatives Say, 5.1—5.3

Oct    2       HW Questions

 5       Curve Sketching, 5.4

 7       Review for Prelim I [Wednesday is Exam Day]

 9       HW Questions -- Exam at Math Review

12      A Biological Application not in Book

14      Applications of Max and Min, 6.2

16      HW Questions

19      Antiderivatives, Substitution, 7.1, 7.2

21      Areas and Definite Integrals, 7.3, 7.4

23      HW Questions

26      Computing Volumes, 8.2

28      Improper Integrals, 8.4

30      HW Questions

Nov   2       Review for Prelim II [Wednesday is Exam Day]

4             HW Questions

6        Functions of Several Variables, 9.1

9        Partial Derivatives, 9.2

11      Total Differentials, 9.5

13      More Total Differentials

16      Maxima and Minima, 9.3

18      Double Integrals, 9.6

20      HW Questions

23      Separable ODEs, Newton’s Cooling, Diffusion

25      Linear ODEs, Coupled Equations

26      HW Questions

30      Review for Prelim III

Dec    2       Prelim III In Class

4             Back to PDEs; Heat, Wave, Schrödinger

 9       A Model: Breathing and Panting

11      Sample Problems from Old Finals