Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

I believe that everyone can learn math. I want you to succeed in your studies, but I cannot do it for you. We will work together for you to master the necessary concepts. Your classmates will also be a resource. We will be doing quite a bit of group work in this class. In-class group work will be a combination of reviewing problems covered by the textbook sections and videos, along with critiquing one another's work on written homework and your projects. 

If you need to miss class occasionally due to illness or outside commitments, you can take notes on the Zoom recordings instead of in class. You will be expected to complete the written homework problems after covering the material on your own outside of class time.

Your grade will be based on the following weights:

• Midterm exam = 30% of the grade.
• Cumulative final exam = 30% of the grade
• Written homework = 30% of the grade.
• Project (due Week 10 before the final) = 10%

You will need a digital or physical notebook where you can neatly organize your work on problems in the course, as well as your course notes. 

Make-up policy:

I do not allow makeups or late submission for written homework. However, I will drop your lowest 2 scores out of 8 assignments, meaning only your top 6 scores will count.

Missed exam can be made up if i) you can contact me before the deadline (or as soon as possible in an emergency), ii) the reason for late submission was unforeseeable, and iii) the exam is completed in a timely manner (we will decide when that is together). 

If you know that you will be missing an exam, please notify me at least 24 hours before the exam is scheduled if at all possible. I will require some form of documentation to allow you to take the exam at the earliest opportunity. Unless there is a documented and unforeseeable reason you needed to miss the exam, I can not allow exams to be made up if I am not notified after the class has taken it. I pledge to work with you to navigate difficult situations you may encounter this term, but there may be situations for which there is no satisfactory solution. I reserve the right to refuse any request by any student to make up a missed exam for any reason I deem fit.

Exam practice homework will be assigned, but not used for your grade. The online homework problems are to help you practice necessary procedures to solve differential equations. You can complete as many as you feel you need to prepare you for the exams.

This is an in person class. That means the course is designed for students to attend 90% of all class sessions and can schedule their obligations to keep up with the work on a weekly basis. If you cannot guarantee regular attendance, or fall more than a week behind on the coursework for any reason, foreseeable or not, I cannot guarantee you will be able to make up the work and you remain enrolled in the class at your own risk.

Why You Will Succeed

The biggest reason you will pass a math class is because you have STRONG PREREQUISITE SKILLS and you have a Growth Mindset. If it’s been more than one term since you have taken the previous math course or its equivalent in High School or you got a C in the prerequisite course you may need to get your prerequisites up. I will provide some review material, but much of this will need to be done on your own.

Time commitment:

You should expect to spend between 10-12 hours a week on our course. This means you will need to spend anywhere from 5-7 hours outside of class on the material. This is best done spread throughout the week in 45 - 60 minute sessions. So, plan to study for our class at least 4 times a week in addition to class time. 

You need to have access to a computer and internet at least several times per week. You will need to make sure to have the following (further details/instructions are given during the first week):

• a PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader) to read the PDF handouts,
• be open to or familiar with file management, email, and uploading documents,
• scan written documents to PDF format using a scanner or scanner phone app such as Adobe Scan (free), or Google Drive (free with your PCC account),
• a way to print PDF files for your written assignments or to print lecture note outlines (if you want hard copies)

• If needed I will work with students to get them access to alternative format documents (HTML, XML, etc.) for their own use or for the DRC to modify for accessibility needs
• Access to a web browser such as Chrome to have access to computational resources.

A graphing calculator is not required for the course. Instead, we will use one of two free apps called Desmos (most likely) or GeoGebra for graphing when a graphing utility is appropriate. Calculators will be allowed on exams, but the exams will be written so they can be answered without a calculator.

The syllabus, schedule, and grades will be on D2L Brightspace.

I will record in-class presentations on Zoom. These can be accessed later through D2L.