Math 217
Differential Equations, Spring 2017
Basic Information
Instructor: Ari Stern
Email: stern@wustl.edu
Office: Cupples I, 211B
Teaching Assistant: Aleesha Moran
Email: avmoran@wustl.edu
Lectures
Lectures will be held MWF 9-10am (Section 1) and 10-11am (Section 2), in Hillman Hall, Room 60. Please attend the lectures for the section in which you are enrolled.
The first class will be held on Wednesday, January 18, and the last will be on Friday, April 28. Class will not be held during Spring Break (week of March 13-17), but there are no other university holidays during the Spring 2017 term.
Office Hours and Help Sessions
The instructor will hold regular office hours at the times listed on the main course page. The TA will also hold office hours in the Calculus Help Room. Students from both sections are welcome to stop by during these times to ask questions related to the course.
Additionally, the TA will hold regular “help sessions,” which are more structured than office hours, but slightly less formal than the mandatory “discussion sections” you may have attended in previous courses. Weekly attendance is optional but strongly recommended, and students from either section may attend either help session.
Textbook
The text for this course is Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling, fifth edition, by Edwards, Penney, and Calvis. (Note: There are other differential equations texts, by these same authors, with very similar titles, so be sure to get the right one.)
Homework
Mandatory weekly problem sets will be done online using WeBWorK. You are responsible for checking WeBWorK regularly and ensuring that each assignment is completed by its due date.
In addition, the textbook contains an enormous number of homework exercises at the end of each section. I will recommend a subset of these problems for you to do. These are optional (and will not be collected or graded) but strongly recommended, and you will get the most out of the course if you do all of them. The list of recommended problems is probably too long to expect you to do every last one — but you should do as many as possible, and at least look at the others to get a sense of the types of problems I think you should be able to do. Recommended problems will be posted to the homework page.
Resources for Help
In addition to office hours and help sessions, there are many available resources for supplemental help listed on the WUSTL Calculus Help Page. These include:
- Calculus Help Room: TAs available Mon-Fri from 10am-5pm
- Cornerstone: walk-in help desks, residential peer mentors, and mentoring by appointment
- Engineering Student Services (only available to EN students)
The Department of Mathematics also maintains a list of tutors. This list is available in the department's main administrative office (Cupples I, 100).
Calculators
While you are free to use any calculator for your homework, the use of calculators is not permitted (nor necessary) on exams.
Exams
There will be three midterms and a final exam. These will consist primarily of multiple-choice questions, as well as a small number of free-response questions. You will not be allowed any calculators, notes, or other outside materials at the exams.
- Midterm 1: Wed, February 8, 6:30-8:30pm
- Midterm 2: Wed, March 8, 6:30-8:30pm
- Midterm 3: Wed, April 5, 6:30-8:30pm
- Final Exam (cumulative): Fri, May 5, 10:30am-12:30pm
Do not miss an exam: there will be no make-ups. If something happens, you must contact the instructor as soon as possible.
You are responsible for checking the Exam Seating Page for your assigned room and seat before each exam. You can look up your multiple choice score beginning the day after each exam. All grades will be made available through Blackboard (although Blackboard will not be used for course announcements, or for any purposes other than grading).
You may find the Math Exam Archives page helpful for studying.
Grading
Your final score will be computed as the greater of the following two weighted averages:
- WeBWorK and all 4 exams (20% each)
- WeBWorK and best 2 midterm exams (20% each), final exam (40%)
The corresponding letter grade (without plus/minus divisions) will be assigned using the following scale:
| A | B | C | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ≥85% | ≥70% | ≥60% | ≥50% | <50% |
(The scale may be adjusted upward based on the class' cumulative averages. However, it will not be adjusted downward, so your letter grade is guaranteed to be at least that corresponding to your score on this scale.)
Pass/Fail policy: You must earn at least a letter grade of C- to get a P.
Disability Resources
Special accommodations for exams are offered to students who have registered in a timely manner at Disability Resources (DR). Students who wish to take advantage of this service should go to DR early in the semester, well before the first exam. Once approved for accommodations, students in Math 217 should work with DR for these exams.