At Southwestern, we are always striving to improve our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and that includes promoting the most inclusive learning environmennt possible. I view diversity as a resource and a strength of our community, and I want to make this course work for studeents of all identities. It is my intent to teach in a way that is as respectful and inclusive as possible with regard to: race, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, cultural background, as well as any other identities that I have unintentionally missed. I am always open to your suggestions, comments, concerns, and constructive criticism on how I carry out this ethos.
At Southwestern we have stringent community standards for the treatment of others. I will not tolerate any hate speech, bullying, or harassment of any kind, and I will report any violations of our code of conduct to the Title IX office.
Please feel free to let me know what name and pronouns you prefer to go by, and/or how you want your name to be pronounced, and I will make sure to address you how you want to be addressed.
Southwestern University recognizes that it has students from a variety of religious and cultural traditions that have special days of observance or celebration that may take students out of their regular activities on certain days during the school year. Since the academic calendar does not always coincide with these days, the following policy is to be followed in order to facilitate student absences due to cultural and religious observances: As far in advance as possible, the student is expected to notify the professor(s) or instructor(s) of the class(es) to be missed. The student is expected to learn what assignments or exams are due or will be assigned on those dates and negotiate with the professor(s) or instructor(s) alternate times for fulfilling those requirements. Students should be prepared to fulfill the requirements prior to the class(es) to be missed.
The Center for Academic Success coordinates reasonable, individualized accommodations for students with documented disabilities (medical, learning and/or psychological). To receive formal accommodations, students must be registered with the Assistant Director of Academic Success, Prothro Suite 120, (512) 863-1536. If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, the CAS will verify your disability and determine what reasonable accommodation(s) for this course are warranted, and then you should notify me of any required accommodations as soon as possible. Accommodations cannot be applied retroactively. It is the responsibility of any student seeking accommodation(s) for this course to present any necessary documentation to the instructor as early as possible.
Courses in the curriculum of the University are expressed in terms of credits. For courses that have a minimum class time of 150 minutes per week, students should expect to work outside of class a minimum of 2 and 1/2 hours per credit per week. For courses that have a minimum class time of 200 minutes per week, students should expect to work outside of class a minimum of 2 hours per credit per week. Class time and out-of-class work for courses yielding fewer than four credits will be expressed as some proportion of a four-credit course.
You are expected to have completed MAT 52-164 (Modern Calculus I), CSC 54-184 (Computer Science I), and one of either MAT 52-264 (Modern Calculus II) or CSC 54-284 (Computer Science II).
We will be using the following textbooks in this course:
We will be using the following software in this course.
At Southwestern our learning management system is Moodle. At the start of every lecture I will take attendance using Moodle. You will complete several pre-class reading quizzes on Moodle. I will use Moodle to keep track of grades, and you can use Moodle to see your current grade in the course. Finally, I will be using Moodle to make announcements. It is your responsibility to check your Southwestern email frequently and pay attention to announcements.
Discord is an instant-messaging platform that we will be using for communication. I have created a Discord server dedicated to this class. You can use Discord to communicate and collaborate with your fellow classmates. If you ask a question on Discord, you may well get a response from one of your classmates faster than you would get a response if you were to email me. You can also message me privately on Discord if you like using Discord better than email. The Discord server can also serve as a space for informal communication and simply getting to know your classmates better. Note that there are some guidelines about asking for help through Discord - please review the academic integrity section carefully.
You will access the DMOI textbook through Runestone Academy. To access the textbook, you should create an account on Runestone Academy. You should sign up for the course using the code SU-Discrete-Math-FA2023. See this page for instructions on creating an account and adding a course. Many of the questions on reading quizzes, participation questions, and homework questions will be taken from this textbook. For some problems, you will be able to submit and check answers on Runestone Academy (although you will have to eventually submit these problems in-person).
This will not be a traditional class in which you show up to listen to a lecture. Instead, this will be a flipped classroom. You will be expected to study the material for class beforehand, so that we can use class time more efficiently. Each lecture will have a corresponding textbook section (or sections) which you should read the textbook section before you come to class. Additionally, for each reading assignment you will complete a Moodle quiz that checks your conceptual understanding of the material, and asks you which aspects of the material you would like to review more in class. You should finish the reading by 11:59 pm the night before the lecture. This allows me time to read your responses and plan the lecture accordingly. When you come to class, I will spend time going over the material that you found the most challenging. After this, we will devote the majority of class time towards problem-solving in small groups. This puts the onus on you to prepare, engage, and participate. The upside is that this will result in a more active form of learning; you will learn by teaching yourself through reading and problem-solving, rather than passivaly absorbing the information that I lecture.
By default I will use the following standard scale:
You will be graded based on showing up to class. Because this class is interactive and collaborative, it is imperative to have as many people as possible show up as often as possible. I will use Moodle to track lecture attendance. At the start of every class, I will write an attendance code on the whiteboard. You will then to the attendance tab on Moodle, enter the code, and mark yourself present. If you show up to no later than five minutes afer the start of class, you will one (1) attendance point for that day. If you come to class five or more minutes late, you will receive 0.5 points. Othwerwise, you will receive 0 points. I also reserve the right to give you 0 points if you leave class unexcused. You are allowed to miss up to three classes without any penalty to your attendance grade. Other than that, I do not excuse missed attendance points for any reason (even extenuating circumstances).
Each assigned reading section will have a corresponding Moodle quiz that you should complete at 11:59 pm the night before class. This is meant to ensure that you are actively engaging with the material as you read it. Additionally, each quiz will have a question that allows you to state what questions you have after doing the reading; thus by completing the reading quiz you will also be giving me extra information to shape the class to best suit your needs.
Additionally, there is a Moodle quiz on the very syllabus that you are reading (as well as other administrative aspects of the course). Please complete this by the end of the first week - this will help you better retain and understand the course policies.
The majority of class time will be dedicated to solving problems related to the material being covered. These problems will contribute to the participation component of your grade; this is meant to incentivize you to use class time productively. These problems are meant to be completed by the end of class; however, if you are not able to finish them during class you may turn in at the start of the following class. You may even work on them prior to class in conjuction with your pre-class reading (in fact I highly encourage this). You may work on these problems alone or a group (which I high encourage); however each of you must submit your own writeup. Each problem will be graded as follows: you wil receive one (1) point if you are correct or mostly correct (i.e. correct approach but a small procedural error), and 0 points otherwise. All participation assignments should be handed in on paper.
Homework assignments will be consist of problems follow up on the material from class. Typically a homework assignment will build on the material covered in the two participation assignments for a given week. You are allowed (and encouraged) to collaborate on homework problems, but you must submit your own writeup that represents your own work. All homework assignments should handed in on paper at the started of class on the day they are due.
Each homework problem will be graded as follows:
As intimidating as exams are, we need some way to evaluate how well you yourself understand the course material without the aid of others. There will be a midterm exam that takes place during week 7, and a final exam that takes place during finals week. These two exams are worth 10% each. The midterm exam will contain an in-class portion (which will essentially be a no-collaboration participation assignment) and a take-home portion (which will essentially be a no-collaboration homework assignment). The final exam will will take place on Wednesday, 12/13/2023 from 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm in Olin 323 (the same room where lectures take place). It will only be an in-person exam that takes place in one proctored 3-hour siitting; there won't be a take-home portion.
In addition to problem-solving assignments, you will complete a project that makes connections between the material in this course, and connections with the material that you are learning in all of your other classes and extracurricular activities at Southwestern. This is a chance for you to flex your creative muscles, and make this class more fun and tailored to your personal interests. During week 10 you will submit a short proposal, and I will give feedback on whether your proposed connections make sense. In week 13 you will submit a first draft of your project, and I will give you feedback on what needs to be improved for the final submission. Your final submission will be due on the last day of class.
I always ask my students to give me feedback around halfway through my courses, and I will give you an extra credit boost if you fill out the feedback survey. The survey is always completely anonymous to incentivize the most candid feedback possible
Additionally, as you may know, Southwestern administers teaching evaluation surveys at the end of the semester so that the department can evaluate the professors. If it is possible, I will try to give extra credit to all students who take the time to fill out teaching evaluations.
If anything else comes up that merits extra credit (including math/CS-related talks) then I will potentially offer more. No matter what, the extra credit will add up to 1% of the grade.
We want you to succeed in this course, but we also want you to succeed with integrity. We want to make sure that you actually learn the material, so that the impact of the course doesn't disappear once the semester ends. We also want to make sure that every student has a fair chance to succeed, and isn't being taken advantage of by his or her peers. You worked very hard to get into a prestigious school like Southwestern, and without enforcing academic integrity that very prestige would quickly crumble.
In this course we expect students to adhere to Southwestern University's honor code. This means that you will complete your work honestly, with integrity, and support and environment of integrity within the class. While you may collaborate on homework, all work that you submit should reflect your own effort and understanding. The following actions represent acceptable forms of collaboration:
I will will accept late work for participation assignments and homework assignments, however I will impose a 10% penalty for each day late. However, I understand that circumstances come up - family or medical situations, tough work in other classes, extracurricular commitments, your social life, etc. For this class, you have three (3) late tokens. A late token grants you the ability to turn in a participation assignment or a homework assignment 24 hours late without incurring any penalties. For homework assignments, late tokens may only be used to extend your initial deadline - you may not use it to extend the re-work deadline. You may not use late tokens on pre-class reading assignments, exams, or the paideia project. You may use multiple tokens on the same assignment. Late tokens are cannot be transferred from one student to another. Late tokens cannot be split into fractional tokens. When you want to use a late token, please send me an email - not a submission comment or a discord message; this helps me keep all of the late token requests in one place. In your email, tell me which assignment you want to use a late token on (and how many tokens you want to use). All late token requests must be made before the assignment deadline - they cannot be applied retroactively. Note that I may not email you back, but you can verify that your late token request was accepted by going to Moodle and confirming that your due date for the assignment has been modified.
In addition to policies above, I do not accept late work if the solutions have already been posted. Even if you are submitting less than 10 days late, if the solutions to the assignment have been posted then I can't accept late work. Typically, I will release homework assignments one week after the due date, along with the solutions to the participation assignments that go with that particular homework assignment.
If you ever accidentally submit the wrong document(s), and you don't realize this until well after the deadline has passed, you can get a one-time "mulligan" to resubmit the assignment without penalty. However, you must use a late tokens to get a mulligan. Furthermore, you may only get one mulligan per semester. Please be careful and make sure you bring the right document when you submit an assignment! Some additional notes:
If you have a family or a medical emergency (including a mental health emergency), or if we encounter the literal apocalypse, I can grant you an extension without using a late token. In most circumstances, however, I will probably ask you to simply use a late token or take the late penalty. I reserve the right to request some sort of doctors or parent's note should you make such a request.
Grades can be appealed up to two weeks after they have been posted; no appeals will be considered after that time. Please note that the entire assignment will be regraded upon appeal.
To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student's own private use.
All material provided through course websites is subject to copyright. This applies to class/recitation notes, slides, assignments, solutions, project descriptions, etc. You are allowed (and expected!) to use all of the provided material for personal use. However, you are strictly prohibited from sharing the material with others in general and from posting the material on the web or other file sharing venues in particular.
Southwestern has adopted a proactive advising approach, and in order to support this faculty and staff submit concerns about students to our retention management system. This alerts the student’s advisor who then reaches out to the student to offer support and resources. I will submit a concern for you if you fail to submit more than one assignment or have more than two unexcused absences. This safety net is in place because our community prioritizes student welfare and wants to do everything possible to support students when they are having difficulty.
At Southwestern, we are committed to providing instruction in the safest and most responsible manner possible. Beginning July 22, 2022, we will no longer require the use of face coverings in indoor spaces on campus, with the following exceptions: