Webwork and sporadic assignments involving posts on the openlab (see below or my intro post for the first one) are the only assignments graded. However, there are many components of the course which are not graded but which you should still do conscientiously. Remember a college course at this level of difficulty generally requires 2 hours of FOCUSED work for each hour of class, so you should put in at least 8 hours of work outside of class. This could include a careful reading of text (best done BEFORE the material is covered in class) and review of examples and problems done in previous sessions as well as doing the problems in the course mat1575schedule_v3.

My teaching philosophy is that real learning is equivalent to cognitive grappling, meaning you should be using serious brain energy when you study. Of course, as instructors, we are responsible for scaffolding the material and assignments so that the learning, while challenging, is not too frustrating for the “average” student. You need to adjust the problems you tackle to this reality. So if you struggled with Calculus I, then you probably want to spend more time on the easier problems and examples before attempting the more difficult ones. On the other hand, if you are a math wiz, skip some of the easier problems in the course outline and do some of the challenging problems not assigned. Or better yet, take the problems assigned to you and do interesting exploration and visualization in a computer algebra system like MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple (all three of these are available for FREE to City Tech students) or a free program like SAGE (which is based on Python).

Here are openlab assignments:

First openlab post:

Your first assignment is to add yourself to our OpenLab course and to submit a post introducing yourself to the class. Your post is due by noon Saturday, September 1.

1. Sign up for an OpenLab account using your CityTech email address.
2. After you’ve logged in, add yourself to our MAT 1575 class.
3. From the class OpenLab site you can create a new post by clicking the symbol that looks like a + sign inside a circle at the top of the screen.
4. Title your post “Introducing [your first name] [your last name].” (You may use just initials if you like, as long as there’s enough information for me to locate you on my official roster.)
5. From the categories on the right-hand side of the screen, make sure to select “Introduce yourself” so that the rest of us can locate your post later.
6. Tell us anything you’d like us to know about you! Some suggestions are…
   • Your major
   • How you became interested in your major
   • Which math classes you’ll take after MAT 1575 (if you don’t know, you can check your program requirements in the college catalog here)
   • What you hope to do after you graduate from CityTech; short-term goals, long-term goals, whatever…
   • What you hope to get out of this course (I don’t mean which grade you want!)
   • Other interests/hobbies you have
7. Read and comment on at least one your classmates’ posts. (Note: the administrator will have to approve your comments, so don’t worry if they don’t appear right away.)