I hope that those of you who were able to are feeling more settled after CUNY’s recalibration week. Our class meets as usual next Monday as well as on Tuesday (which follows a Wednesday schedule). Spring break is technically next Wednesday to Friday and after that, we’ll resume classes on Monday, April 13. Hopefully after that, we won’t have more disruptions to our schedule.

Due dates

Just a reminder, the following are all due Sunday night:

• Test #1 Solutions OpenLab post
• Test #2 Review OpenLab post
• Webwork
  • Partial Fractions (reopened)
  • Improper Integrals
  • Taylor Polynomials

Tutoring

The Atrium Learning Center’s online tutoring program will start on Monday. You can schedule a 30-minute one-on-one appointment with your favorite tutor.  I strongly encourage you to make an appointment as soon as you can (Monday after class would be perfect, if there are available appointments, since you have a test on Tuesday); having a tutor’s undivided attention for 30 minutes is hard to beat. Here are the instructions.

You can also drop in to the Math Department’s tutoring on Zoom without an appointment.

Test #2

Test #2 still covers the yellow topics on the schedule (which still needs to be updated). Just like your Practice Quiz and Quiz #5, there is a Webwork component and and a written work/email component. The instructions are similar.

Webwork component: Test #2 will be available from 8:00am on Tuesday, April 7 to 9:40am on Wednesday, April 8. Once you start the test, you will have 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete it (even if you log out and back in again) so make sure you find a quiet spot where you won’t be bothered. Webwork will cut you off at 9:40am on Wednesday, so make sure you start by 8:00am on Wednesday at the latest.

You do not have to log into our Webex meeting to take the test, but I will be available on Webex at the usual meeting link on Tuesday from 8:00am to 9:40am, so you can log in if you want to ask me a question (one person at a time). I will not be available after that, so I suggest you start your test when it open on Tuesday at 8:00am if you can.

Once you’ve logged into Webwork, scroll to Test 2 (it will say take Test 2 test). All of the questions will appear on one screen. You will submit all your answer for all test questions all at once (compared to usual Webwork sets where you submit your answers one question at a time). You will have only two chances to submit your test.

Written/email component: As usual, your written work is what really matters. After you finish the Webwork component, you will have 10 minutes to email me your written work at kpoirier@citytech.cuny.edu. Use the email subject line “MAT 1575 Test #2” so I can locate it later.

• You may write your test on a iPad/tablet if you have one.
  1. Please send me your written work as one PDF document.
  2. Answer the questions in order.
  3. Label each question by its number clearly.
  4. Write your name at the top of each page.
• You may write your solutions on paper.
  1. Please write each solution on a separate piece of paper.
  2. Label each question by its number clearly.
  3. Write your name at the top of each page.
  4. Take a photo of each page. Make sure the photo is clear and not blurry.
  5. Preferred version: If you have access to a scanner, scan your work and arrange it into one PDF document so that the questions are in order before you send it to me.
     • If you have an iPhone or an iPad, your phone camera works as a scanner. Here are some instructions.
     • You might have another way of creating a single PDF document to send to me.
  6. If you do not have access to a scanner, iPhone or iPad, and you don’t have another way to turn your work into a single PDF, you can attach individual photos to your email to me.
     • Sometimes there is a limit to the number of photos you can attach to an email (if they are very large). If you need to, send me two separate emails with subject lines MAT 1575 Test #2 Questions 1-5 and MAT 1575 Test #2 Questions 6-10.

After you send your solutions to me, double-check make sure the email appears in your sent folder and that your email hasn’t been bounced back to you for some reason.

Academic integrity: This is an open-book test. Your work must be your own. This means that you can use your own notes or the online textbook, but you may not work with your classmates or with anyone else, and you may not use any automated problem solvers or websites. You need to be prepared to defend your work orally in case I ask you to (I plan to do this randomly throughout the semester).

While I know most of you have been working hard, we have already had some instances of academic dishonesty in this class, which has been incredibly disappointing. It will obviously be harder for me to supervise you on this test, so I must ask you to be fair to your classmates who are following the rules. Anyone found in violation of the rules will be reported to the college’s Academic Integrity Committee.

Practice Test and group discussion

You may take a practice test before Test #2. Completing the Webwork and written/email component will earn one participation point, whether your answers are correct or not. This is a good time to practice arranging your work into a single PDF document.

Just like for the real test, you will have 1 hour and 40 minutes to finish the Webwork component. Scroll to Take Practice Test test (it might be near the bottom of your screen). Email me your written work within 10 minutes of finishing the practice test.

You have until Tuesday at 7:50am to complete the practice test.

Group discussion: I recommend you and your study group agree to take the practice test at the same time, if you can. Then you can all talk about it after to see what you were all able to answer and what you weren’t able to answer.

Here are some recommended times (but you and your group members can settle on a different time):

1. Sunday 6:00pm to 7:40pm
2. Monday 10:00am to 11:40am (unless you want to stop by my office hours on Webex)
3. Monday 600pm to 7:40pm

I hope everyone is managing to stay strong during this terrible time. I saw a model recently that predicted that NYC would hit its inflection point as soon as April 6 (one week away). This means that, in the big picture at least, things will get keep getting worse until then, but then they’ll start getting better. Other models predict other dates, but I’m finding small comfort that, even though it will still be some time before we can get back to normal, there’s a math reason that things will actually stop getting worse and start getting better. I know that inflection points won’t help those of you who are directly and personally impacted by this crisis; you guys are in my thoughts and I’m sending you all the good vibes I can.

New due dates

I know due dates have been jumping around a lot lately and they’re hard to keep track of. I’m sorry for that; hopefully things will settle back down soon. I’ve just changed a few more dates. Everything below is now due on Sunday, April 5:

• Test #1 Solutions OpenLab post
• Test #2 Review OpenLab post
• Webwork
  • Partial Fractions (reopened)
  • Improper Integrals
  • Taylor Polynomials

These are the three topics that will appear on Test #2, which will be given on Tuesday, April 7 (which follows a Wednesday schedule).  Monday’s class will cover sequences; this topic will not be on Test #2 but you should review the pre-class prep lesson before Monday’s class. The dates on our new schedule are already old because they don’t account for the recalibration period but I plan to make a new new schedule soon.

Review sessions

This week during the recalibration period, I’m holding review sessions on Monday and Wednesday from 9am to 11am using the regular class Webex link.

Here are the notes from today’s session: Review Session Mar 30, 2020.

Here is the video: Review Session Mar 30, 2020  (password: yFj2M2Rz)

I’ll post the notes and video from Wednesday’s session here once they’re available.

Grants

I sent you all an email about this last night; I’ll copy-paste the information here:

CityTech is trying to offer small grants for students who are experiencing unexpected economic hardship. I don’t know a lot about this program, but you can find instructions and the application here: 

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/bzmaterials/docs/Petrie_Application.pdf

Voter registration

If you’re eligible to vote in local and federal elections, you absolutely should. The registration deadline for the New York State primary is April 3. Here‘s a video about how elections impact CUNY directly and how to register.

I’m really happy that so many of you were able to attend class this morning! This is such a tricky situation and I think it says a lot about you that you keep showing up.

I’m sorry the technology failed us for the breathing exercise; I really thought that would be a helpful thing for us to try together. Oh well! If you haven’t tried breathing exercises or meditation before and you’re feeling stressed right now (who isn’t?) this might be a good time to try something. Personally, I suffer from anxiety even during normal times and I’ve found that if I can keep up a regular meditation and physical exercise routine, it helps me to feel like I can get through anything. There are lots of free breathing/meditation exercises on YouTube and other places; here’s a mini exercise from the company I subscribe to, if you want to try it on your own.

I hope you are finding ways of trying to stay grounded during this turbulent time. Some people might find comfort in religion or in connecting with friends and family members. Some people are able to meet with their therapists over FaceTime or other apps. Some people are volunteering to help out on the front lines, but even if you’re just playing video games, if it helps you feel less stressed, that’s a good thing. Things look pretty bad right now and they’re probably going to get worse, but then they will get better.

Schedule changes

CUNY is taking another week off from official classes from this Friday, March 27 to Wednesday, April 1. Online classes resume Thursday, April 2. For us, that means that we won’t meet again until April 6.

• Test #2 will be given on Monday, April 6 (unless CUNY changes the schedule again!). I’ll give details and instructions in a separate post.
• I’ll hold review sessions during usual class/office hour time next Monday, March 30 and Wednesday, April 1. (If nobody is online at 8am, I might hit snooze again until 9am!)

Spring break has been shortened and is now from April 8-10. If you need to observe religious holidays that no longer fall during spring break, just let me know and we’ll work around it.

Laptops/tablets for students

Next week is called the Recalibration Period for Educational Equity. From what I can tell, the main reason for the pause is so that CUNY can distribute computers for students who need them for their online classes. If you need to borrow one of these devices:

1. please send me an email so I can put you on one list,
2. fill out the application here: https://bit.ly/NYCCT24 as well,
3. fill out the application here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXUALqOA_hJ7mjFjc28tJ-f-XnhCDD1pLBj_EgNrN4EuySMg/viewform as well.

Last week I posted about different ways to get internet access here.

If you don’t need a computer or internet access yourself but you know a CUNY student who does, please let them know about these resources.

Today’s lesson

It takes Webex a while to generate videos, but as soon as today’s video is ready I’ll post it here. The PDF of my lecture notes and the notes I made during office hours is already posted there. We went over a few more examples showing how to find Taylor polynomials during office hours.

In the future, I’m planning to post the “pre-class prep lessons” the week before the in-class lessons. Then after the in-class lessons I’ll add links to the class videos and my own class notes to the same post. You can see just these posts, organized according to date, by clicking on Pre-class prep lessons in the menu at the top of the OpenLab site.

Credit/no-credit grades

CUNY’s working on a policy that will allow you to select a “credit/no-credit” (sometimes called “pass/fail”) option instead of a letter grade. From the looks of it, you might even be able to make this decision to take the class credit/no credit within 20 days of receiving a letter grade. The university will let students know the details of the new policy and help you understand how this impacts your academic progress and financial aid.

More information is here https://www.cuny.edu/cuny-continuity/cuny-continuity-for-students/#grade-policy