INTRODUCTION TO COLLEGE ALGEBRA
Office: Room N201 Office hours: M-F
Phone: 521-5437 E-mail: There is an email system included in
ALEKS. See below
Web Page: http://waukesha.uwc.edu/mat/psundhei/
A. GENERAL INFORMATION
Class: Math 105, Spring
2008, 3 Credits, Section 3; MWF
Course Catalog Description: Emphasizes algebraic techniques
with polynomials, fractional expressions, exponents and radicals, linear and
quadratic equations, and inequalities. Introduction to
functions, their graphs, and analytic geometry. PREREQUISITE: A grade of
C or better in Elementary Algebra and a high school geometry course or one year
of high school algebra and one year of high school geometry, or one year of
high school algebra and concurrent registration in a geometry course or
equivalent. EL
General Information regarding ALEKS in Mat 105:
· Your ALEKS usage (hours working,
topics completed, etc.) will be regularly monitored by the professor.
· There will be regular class meetings
as indicated above. Regular class attendance is an expectation of the course
(see GRADES below).
· ALEKS essentially provides two
modes: “learning” and “assessment.” Learning mode is your chance to practice
problems and convey to ALEKS that you are ready (or not ready) to move on to
another topic. Assessment mode provides feedback to you and me regarding
accumulated knowledge/skills. Assessments are tests provided by ALEKS, other
tests that impact your grade in the course are scheduled separately (see
CALENDAR below).
· There are a total of 125
topics/items in the ALEKS Intermediate Algebra curriculum.
· The text is contained in the ALEKS software package
· There is a calculator included in the software. No other
calculators will be allowed during quizzes and tests.
Class Participation and Attendance: Attendance at each class is an expectation of
the course. As a consideration to the other students
in the class as well as myself, try to arrive at class on time. If you are late, the concentration of the
other students will be broken and time wasted while that concentration is
resumed. Material will be covered each class day that is pertinent to where you
are in the class material. All questions are welcome. Cell phone ringers must be turned off before
entering the classroom. Computer
messaging will not be allowed.
B. PROGRESS AND ASSESMENT
Progress: Your
progress will be tracked by the professor on a weekly basis. The number of topics that you should have
completed by the first class period of each week is listed in the
CALENDAR. Completing topics is roughly
equivalent to homework completion. It is important for you to understand that as the semester
progresses; the number of topics you have mastered may decrease if you do
poorly on the ALEKS assessments or in-class tests. During class the professor will call on individual students to discuss
your progress over the week. (These are the “Meetings” referred to in the
calendar.)
Items
discussed will include
The Pre-Test (or Preliminary
Assessment): This
assessment consists of 59 topics of review material and will determine your
current state of knowledge in Algebra in order to accurately determine where
your new learning should begin. If you decline to answer problems that you can
solve, ALEKS will conclude that you know less than you actually do and will
waste your time with problems that are too easy. Alternatively, if you get help
(from a text or others) ALEKS will conclude that you know more than you
actually do and will give you problems that are too difficult, which can be
frustrating and may actually cost you more time later when the next in-class
assessment sends you back to repeat topics. If you do not complete the
pre-test in class, then you must complete it outside of class time prior the
second class meeting. Once you complete the pre-test, you will begin work on the
course material.
Assessments: As you progress, ALEKS will present you with
assessments. These are meant to check to
see if the topics you have completed have been mastered. They are not included in your class grade,
but they can affect your numbers of topics (both positively and negatively) and
so can impact your progress but do not otherwise directly affect your class
grade. (See the section on Progress above.)
Tests: All ALEKS assessments and tests are comprehensive over the entire
semester. This means it is expected (except for the final) that you will not
answer all of the questions. If ALEKS
presents you with a problem type that you haven’t seen before and you don’t
know how to answer, click on the “I don’t know” button. However, clicking on the “I don’t know
button” when you should know, will cause you to lose all topics that are
dependant upon the question. The following are in-class tests set up by the
professor and are not related to the assessments that ALEKS will occasionally
ask you to complete.
Test 1: Wednesday, Feb. 20; based
on 80 topics
Test 2: Wednesday, Mar. 26; based
on 145 topics
Test 3: Wednesday, Apr. 23; based
on 205 topics
Final
1: Wednesday, May 12; based on 213
topics
Final
2: To be set
C. Grades and Early Class Completion
Early Class Completion: It is possible to finish this
class before the semester ends. If you complete all 213 topics and wish to take
the final exam early, please notify the professor at least one week before. Early
finals must be taken twice. The grade on the final will be based on the average
of the two final exam scores. Early finals must be taken at least two weeks
before the end of the semester.
|
ITEM |
PERCENTAGE |
|
Progress |
10% |
|
Meetings |
10% |
|
Test 1 |
5% |
|
Test 2 |
10% |
|
Test 3 |
15% |
|
Final |
50% |
|
TOTAL |
100% |
|
Total |
Grade |
|
92-100 |
A |
|
90-91 |
A- |
|
88-89 |
B+ |
|
82-87 |
B |
|
80-81 |
B- |
|
78-79 |
C+ |
|
72-77 |
C |
|
70-71 |
C- |
|
68-69 |
D+ |
|
62-67 |
D |
|
60-61 |
D- |
|
0-59 |
F |
All grades will be based on
percentages according to
the following schedule (numbers
represent percentages):
Because there
are new topics in the program, changes may be made to the class syllabus. Any changes will be announced in class before
the changes are made to the syllabus.
CALENDAR
|
Mon |
Tues |
W GOAL |
Thur |
Fri |
|
Jan 28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
Feb 1 |
|
4 |
5 |
6 30 |
7 |
8 |
|
11 Meeting 1 |
12 |
13 55 |
14 |
15 |
|
18 Meeting 2 |
19 |
20 T1
80
|
21 |
22 |
|
25 Meeting 3 |
26 |
27 100 |
28 |
29 |
|
Mar 3 Meeting 4 |
4 |
5 115
|
6 |
7
|
|
10 Meeting
5 |
11 |
12 130 |
13 |
14 |
|
17 SPRING |
18 |
19 BREAK |
20
|
21 |
|
24 Meeting 6 |
25 |
26 T2
145 |
27 |
28 |
|
31 Meeting 7 |
1 |
2 160 |
Apr 3 |
4 |
|
7 Meeting
8 |
8 |
9 175 |
10 |
11 |
|
14 Meeting 9 |
15 |
16 190 |
17 |
18 |
|
21 Meeting 10 |
22 |
23 T3
200 |
24
|
25 |
|
28 Meeting 11 |
29 |
30
205 |
May 1 |
2 |
|
5 Meeting 12 |
6 |
7 210 |
8 |
9 |
|
12 FINAL 1 |
13 |
14 Last
Class Day |
15 |
16 |
|
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
The numbers listed on
Wednesdays in the above calendar represent progress goals (completed topics out
of 125 necessary for course completion) that will be included in your final
class grade.
The tests above as well
as all topic completion numbers do not include prerequisite items. Make sure
when checking your progress to be in “progress mode”. The default mode includes prerequisite items
and may give you an incorrect impression on your progress in completing the
course.