Math 1080: Mathematics of change; Spring 2024

Class Structure for Spring 2023

What is Math 1080?
Math 1080 is a calculus course designed specifically around the mathematical
needs of certain majors. Currently the course is primarily for Wharton students
and (prospective) Economics majors.
Compared to other calculus courses covering similar material, Math 1080
places a greater focus on optimization and on qualitative mathematical re-
sults. This course also emphasizes the interpretation of mathematical results
and mathematical communication—reading math, writing math, and talking to
others about math.

Prerequisites
Math 1070 is ideal. Math 1400 or a comparable high school course also suffices;
there are a few times we’ll want to remember ideas from 1070 that might not
have been covered in 1400, but we’ll review those ideas when they come up.
this class will suffice for your requirements.

What does Math 1080 Prepare Students For?

Math 1080 might be the last math course you take—together with a previous
course, it fulfills the math requirement for an Economics major, and goes beyond
the requirements for most Wharton students.
It doesn’t haven’t to be the last math course, though. After Math 1080,
you’ll be prepared to take Math 2400 or most other courses which list Math
1410 as a prerequisite. There are a few topics covered in 1410 which are not
covered in 1080, but you’ll have the mathematical background to fill the small
gaps as you go if you need to.

Textbook
The textbook for this class is the Math 1080 E-textbook, available on our Canvas
site.

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Pre-Class Work
Before class on Tuesday you will read the chapter in the textbook, submit solu-
tions to the self-check exercises in the textbook, and take a pre-class quiz.
The self-check exercises are a mix of calculations and problems asking you to
think about the material you are reading. They will be graded for completeness:
you get full credit for submitting a real attempt at each problem.
The pre-class quiz will be a calculation similar to one from the chapter. To
get full credit, you need to get the correct answer. There will be an opportunity
to retake it and replace your score with the score you get on the retake. (You
do not need to take the retake unless you want to replace your score.)

Recitation Quiz
There will be a twenty minute quiz in recitation each week. This quiz will
typically be: one (more straightforward) problem based on the current week’s
material, and two (more challenging) problems based on the previous week’s
material. We will drop the lowest score from each block of four quizzes (i.e. one
from the first four, one from the second four, one from the third four). These
quizzes account for 30% of the final grade.

Written Homework
There will be a weekly homework assignment consisting of a mix of computa-
tional and conceptual problems. The homework is not primarily practice for
quizzes and exams. It is the main place students will demonstrate mastery of
the more conceptual aspects of the course, and it is weighted in the final grade
to reflect its importance: it also accounts for 30% of the final grade.

Final Exam
There will be a cumulative final exam at the time scheduled by the registrar. It
counts for 20% of the final grade.

Attendance and Participation

Participation in class is mandatory, as is one recitation per week (which one to
be determined before class starts). Anyone who attends (nearly) every class and
recitation and engages in any sort of meaningful participation will receive full
credit for this part of your grade. The other recitation is an optional opportunity
for extra practice.
If you miss more than two class, or more than two mandatory recitations
(counted separately), or if you are present but thoroughly disengaged (e.g. chat-
ting on your computer while ignoring group work most of the time), your class
participation grade will be penalized.

Late Work
There are different late work policies for different kinds of assignments due to
different practical concerns:

• For self-check exercises: no credit for late work, but two missing exercises
will be excused.

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• For the pre-quiz retake and written homeworks: you may obtain an exten-
sion by filling out the late work form on Canvas and sending it to me. This
form asks you to tell me when you’ll be able to submit the work. These are
always accepted. If you ask for a lote of date changes, we’ll work together
to find ways to help you keep up with the work in the course.
• For in-class quizzes: one quiz from each block of four is dropped. This
is how we accommodate students who miss a quiz for whatever reason.
If you have a personal emergency that causes you to miss more than one
quiz in a single month, contact me to work out a specific accommodation.

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Topics by Week
• Week 1: Multivariable integrals 1—Multivariable functions and integra-
tion in more than one variable
• Week 2: Multivariable integrals 2—Integrating multivariable functions
over complicated regions and interpretations of integrals
• Week 3: Linear algebra 1—Vectors and matrices

• Week 4: Optimization 1—Partial derivatives

• Week 5: Optimization 2—Graphing multivariable functions and critical
points
• Week 6: Optimization 3—Optimization over regions with a boundary

• Week 7: Linear algebra 2—Determinants and inverses

• Week 8: Optimization 4—Lagrange multipliers
• Week 9: Optimization 5—The multivariable second derivative test
• Week 10: Differential equations 1—Introduction to differential equations

• Week 11: Differential equations 2—Exact solutions to separable and linear

differential equations
• Week 12: Differential equations 3—Equilibria of differential equations
• Week 13: Differential equations 4—Solutions to linear system of differen-
tial equations and approximating non-linear differential equations

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Resources
This is a difficult class. Penn provides many resources to help you succeed in
Math 1080:

1. Recitation sections exist to help you learn the material. Make the most
of the opportunity: come prepared and ask questions.

2. I hold office hours twice per week. These are times I’m always scheduled
to be available, both in my physical office and on Zoom, for you to drop
by and ask questions. If you are unable to make those times, I can often
(time permitting) schedule additional appointments outside of that.

3. Your TAs will also be holding office hours (times to be announced)

4. The Tutoring Center http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/tutoring/index.php
5. The math department maintains a list of tutors http://www.math.upenn.
edu/ugrad/tutors.html

Active Learning
This class is taught in an active learning format. (At Penn, these courses are
often called SAIL, which stands for Structured Active In-class Learning.) That
means that class time will be spent on a mix of lectures, small group problem
solving, and classwide activities and discussion.
All learning requires encountering ideas multiple times, struggling with them,
and sometimes being confused. The active learning format has you confront and
think about challenging problems in class, so that I can be there in the moment
to answer questions, talk to you about the problem, and help you.

Respect
We are all responsible for creating a safe classroom environment where everyone
feels comfortable asking questions. Exercise consideration and respect when
talking to each other. When working in groups, make sure everyone, including
you, understands the probelm before moving on.

Devices
Students often find it useful to have laptops out in class in order to look up
information in the book, use websites to graph functions or do calculations,
and so on. However devices can also be very distracting. Consider silencing
notifications or otherwise taking steps to avoid being distracted. You should
generally not need your phone during class, so please keep them out of sight to
avoid distractions.

Food and Drink

There is not a problem with bringing food or drink. (But please be mindful of
other students.)

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Solutions, not just answers
Writing intelligibly about mathematics is a core topic of this course. A complete
solution to a mathematics problem is not just a number or a formula. It is a
convincing explanation that includes what that number or formula means and
why it must be the answer.
What constitutes a covincing explanation depends on your audience. In this
class, whenever we write solutions, the audience is you and your classmates.
Imagine that one of your classmates got a different answer; your solution should
convince that student that they made a mistake and your answer is right. (How
much do you need to include in intermediate steps? You don’t need to include
every intermediate step if they’re easy to do in their head—after all, you’re
writing for someone who can probably do the same steps in your head. On the
other hand, your classmate is probably a little confused—they got a different,
presumably wrong, answer—so if you have to think a bit to get from one step
to the next, it’s probably too big a leap.)
For quizzes and the final exam, because the work is timed, we don’t expect
you to have a lot of time to rewrite or fill in steps. But we still want to see your
thought process, not just an unexplained answer. You’ll get full credit as long
as there’s enough information for me and your TA to figure out what your steps
were.
For the homework, there’s a bit more time, so our standards are a bit higher.
We expect all your work to be written clearly, in enough detail that anyone in
the class would be able to understand how you got your answer and agree that
it’s correct. You should use words or sentences, as needed, to explain what’s
going on.
Two homework assignments will be somewhat longer and include a project.
You can submit the project part of these assignments as a group. Writing clear,
high quality explanations will be an important part of these projects.

Collaboration
Collaboration is a fundemental part of this class. For homework assignments,
you may:

• talk to other students in the class and share ideas,

• talk to me, TAs, or tutors,
• look at our textbook or other textbooks, video lectures, etc,
• talk to students in other classes about the general ideas oin the course.

Do not, however:
• look for answers to these specific problems on the internet,
• look at complete solutions written by current or previous students,

• talk to students not currently in the class about the specific problems.
All your work must be handwritten or typed by you. You are personally
responsible for understanding all solutions you submit.

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Grades
We will compute your numerical grades as follows: pre-class work 10.83%, in-
class quizzes 30%, final exam 20%, homework 30%, class participation 9.17%.
I expect to follow the conventional American scheme, in which numeric
grades are translated into letter grades by:
[93, 100]: A
[90, 93): A−
[87, 90): B+
[83, 87): B
[80, 83): B−
[77, 80): C+
[73, 77): C
[70, 73): C−
[67, 70): D+
[63, 67): D
[0, 63): F
As is common at Penn, an A+ grade is only given in exceptional cases.
Once in a while, a quiz or exam question turns out to be much harder than
I intended, in which case I reserve the right to adjust some grade thresholds
downwards. Grade thresholds will not be adjusted upwards. (In other words:
if the final is harder than I intend, an 89.8 might get an A-, but don’t count on
it. No matter what, a 90.1 will definitely be an A-.)

Regrades
Sometimes we make mistakes when grading. If you think a piece of work was
graded incorrectly, give me an explanation describing specifically what you think
was graded incorrectly, and why. For anything other than a quiz, submit this
on Gradescope. For quizzes, give me the quiz together with a note which has
your explanation. Regrade requests should be submitted within two weeks of
receiving the graded assignment back.

Accommodations
Students requiring academic accommodations should register their needs with
the office of Student Disabilities Services (SDS). Instructors and TAs can not
provide any academic accommodations without prior instruction from SDS. In
addition, if you plan to register a disability with that office which will require
any action, you should email me, even if your accommodations have not yet
been registered or approved. You do not need to disclose of the nature of your
accommodations or disability, but knowing that you are registered makes it
easier to work with SDS to get your the accommodations you need.

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Doing the Pre-Class Reading
One aspect of this course that students find challenging is the expectation that
you read the textbook before class and come to class having already begun to
think about the material.
We do not expect you to learn the material on your own from the textbook.
Learning new ideas requires thinking about and revisiting them several times.
We expect you to come to class with questions and confusions so that we can
use class time to start answering those questions.
I recommend that you plan to read the textbook chapter twice before coming
to class. The first time, read it quickly to get the gist of what’s happening—
what are the main ideas, how are things early in the chapter going to be used
later, what kinds of questions are being asked.
The second time through, read it more slowly. Try to understand each step,
even if you don’t see the big picture yet. Answer the self-check questions.
Here are some signs you should feel comfortable with what you’ve learned
from book before class:
• you can recognize the new terms and names that are introduced in this
section; you probably don’t remember what they all mean, but you can
look them up quickly,
• you have a good idea how to approach the problem in the pre-class quiz
(but might not be completely confident in your answer),
• you could imitate the calculations used in examples from the book (at
least if you had the book or your notes as a reference),
• you have answers to all the self-check problems, and feel confident about
many (but maybe not all) of them.
On the other hand, here are some warning signs that you’re not learning
enough from the book:

• when terms, definitions, or formulas that were introduced in the chapter

come up (later in the chapter or in class), you don’t recognize them or
can’t figure out where they came from,
• you have no idea how to start the pre-class quiz or many self-check prob-
lems.

If you’re struggling with a chapter (or with lots of chapters) get help. Your
TA and I will have office hours every week.

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Eleven Things to Do to Get an A in this Course
1. Come to class prepared having read the material and starting thinking
about it. You’ll learn more in class if you come prepared.
2. Be present in class. Attend every day and avoid distractions. Every
minute with the professor and TA is meant to help you. Use every minute
to your advantage.
3. Ask questions in class. Since you have read the book, you will have ques-
tions ready, and more will come to mind during class. Your classmates
will be grateful for your questions, even ones you think are “dumb” (which
never are).
4. Do problems. There are sample problems for every chapter on the website.
The more of these you do, the better you will do in class. You can and
should do some of these with classmates in study groups, but you should
to the bulk of these by yourself.
5. Re-read and re-visit material. No one learns topics in one gulp: keep
returning to old topics and rethinking them in light of new things you’ve
learned.

6. Work with your classmates. Working together allows you to learn from
each other, challenge each other, and check that you really know what
you think you know. Discuss and debate the material. Figure out what
you don’t know and what to re-read, or ask the TAs or instructors in
recitation, lecture, or office hours.

7. Think for yourself. When working with your classmates, it is easy to

end up piggybacking on what they know. After working together, make
sure that your homework and other problems you have tried are YOUR
OWN work, and that you can reason through every step of the problems
independently. If you do not do this, you will fail the midterms.

8. Come to any of the office hours if you are stuck, be it on HW, on something
discussed in class, or on the extra problems you are solving from the text.
Ask well-prepared questions, not just about specific problems, but also
about the concepts you are learning.
9. Start all HW assignments early, and aim to complete them assignments
ahead of time. Do not leave your homework until the night before.
10. Follow up. Check problems you didn’t get the first time. If you still don’t
know how to solve them, ask your classmates, your groupmates, your TA,
or me in class, recitation, or office hours. If you’re not happy with your
score on a homework or quiz, see me or your TAs to discuss it to find out
what’s going wrong.
11. Relate what you are learning to the world around you. We will try to help
you do this, but don’t stop thinking about the material after you leave
the classroom. Think about how it applies to the world around you and
to topics you’re encountering in other classes, and discuss this with your
classmates, your TAs, and the instructors.