Math 3680.003: Spring 2012
Meets: TR 8:00-9:20 in Discovery Park, Room B185.
Instructor: Professor John Quintanilla
Office: GAB, Room 418-D
Office Phone: x4043
E-mail: jquintanilla@unt.edu
Web page: http://www.math.unt.edu/~johnq/Courses/2012spring/3680/
Office Hours: T 10-12, W 10:15-12:15, 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: Statistics for the Sciences, by M. Buntinas and G. M. Funk.
Strongly Recommended: Lecture notes for the semester are available at the UNT Copy Center for approximately $18.
Technology: You will be expected to bring to class --- including exams --- either a laptop computer with a spreadsheet program (such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc) or else a calculator that can perform multiple statistical functions. In class, I will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Excel and a TI-83 Plus to perform various statistical functions. If you have some other kind of calculator, you are welcome to ask me before or after class about how to use its statistical functions.
Course Description: Descriptive statistics, elements of probability, random variables, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, regression, contingency tables.
Prerequisite: Math 1710 and Math 1720 (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.
- Students will be
expected to read the chapters carefully, including the examples in the
book.
- 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.
- 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
You may find the advice of former Math 3680 students helpful.
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.
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
- Unless announced
otherwise, calculators will not be permitted for use on exams.
- I expect to give exams
during the weeks above. However, these are tentative dates. I will
announce the exact date of each exam in class.
- 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.
- I will not drop the
lowest exam score; all will count toward the final grade.
- No make
up exams will be given. For those students who miss an exam due to
an Authorized Absence (see the Student Handbook), the final
grade will be computed based only on those exams taken, together with
homework/quiz scores and the final exam. Such students will be required to
provide official written verification of such an absence.
- Students missing an exam
for unauthorized reasons will receive 0 (zero) points on the exam.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Policies
- Homework will be
assigned every Thursday and will be due the following Thursday.
- 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.
- Entire homework
assignments will not be graded. Instead, only two or three
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.
- 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.
- Because of this policy,
I will not give extensions on homework assignments, nor will I
accept late assignments.
Note to TNT Students
- 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.
- The specific indicators
in the portfolio related to knowledge of mathematical content are as
follows:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Just to be clear: the
above is a suggestion for TNT students. This is NOT a course requirement
for Math 3680.
Final Note
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, I mention the following: It is the responsibility of students with certified disabilities to provide the instructor with appropriate documentation from the Dean of Students Office.