Precalculus Syllabus

 

  1. •CONTACT:    You can email me, JP, through WebCT, where you can also find your grades and links to this website.  All important announcements will be made through WebCT.  It is your responsibility to check your WebCT email account daily for important announcements.

  2. •OFFICE HOURS:    Office hours can be found on the class calendar and will be held in my office, MS 3.02.49.

  3. •PREREQUISITES:    The most important prerequisite is a good understanding of basic algebra and arithmetic.  The biggest difficulty with most math courses is a lack of understanding of the material leading up to that course.  Most students having passed an Algebra class, even with a good grade, have very poor Algebra skills so it is a good idea to review.  If you do not have algebra down well, then it will be difficult to pass this course.  Fortunately I’ll answer any Algebra questions and/or review the concepts at your request in class.  We can never be too good at Algebra.    Hopefully we can fill in any blanks as the semester progresses.

  4. •FINAL EXAM (25%):    There will be one COMPREHENSIVE Final Exam worth 25% of your total semester average.  Your Final Exam will be in the normal classroom.  The dates for all of your finals can be found on ASAP.

  5. •MIDTERM EXAM (25%):   There will be one COMPREHENSIVE Midterm Exam worth 25% of your total semester average.  It will cover everything covered in class through the week before the exam.

  6. •QUIZZES (50%):    There will be weekly COMPREHENSIVE Quizzes each Monday every week (except during the week of your Midterm Exam) which are worth 50% of your total semester average.  I will drop your two lowest 2 quiz grades to compensate for your missing of a quiz due to illness or other circumstances outside of your control.  There will be no make-up quizzes.  Quizzes will be written and will not use a ParScore (scantron).

  7. •HOMEWORK (0%):    Although homework will not be graded, there will be homework problems posted online for you to do to help you master the material.

  8. •GRADES:  Your grades can be found in WebCT.  They will be posted as soon as I have them.  Graders are limited and so is my time, although I try my best not to leave you waiting.  Graders will post quiz grades as soon as they can and the ParScore office will post exam grades as soon as the ParScores are graded.  You will see your grades posted before I do.  It is your responsibility to verify that they are correct and notify me if you think there may be a discrepancy.

  9. Materials

  10. •TEXTBOOK:    The “official” book for the course is the 8th edition of Sullivan’s “Trigonometry:  A Unit Circle Approach” (ISBN = 10:0-32158453-8).  Although this is the “official” book, I do not require you to have it, but YOU SHOULD HAVE A TEXTBOOK, just not necessarily Sullivan’s book.   Find yourself any Trigonometry or Precalculus book that you like (at a price that you like) that has the material we will be covering in this course (see below for covered material).  Consider using an older version of the same book.  I’ve heard students have found the 6th edition (ISBN = 9780130412249) for 98 cents online.

  11. •PARSCORE:  The Final and Midterm Exam will be multiple choice and we will use Parscore.  You can find out more about ParScores at UTSA’s ParScore Office Website.  ParScores are scantrons that have fields for your student I.D. number so that we can streamline the grading process.  There are several versions of ParScore.  Bring extra ParScores in case you erase a hole through the first one and bring a couple of sharpened #2 pencils.  Non-#2 pencils and mechanical pencils can produce errors - you will not receive compensation for missed points due to not following the directions.

  12. •CALCULATORS:    You are NOT allowed to use calculators or formula sheets during exams or quizzes, although I encourage you to use them to verify your homework solutions and as a learning tool.  Note:  A handheld graphing calculator is useful but not nearly as useful as access to a graphing computer program.  You can download a graphing program for free and have much more functionality and learn much more than using a graphing calculator which isn’t free.  Also, a transformable tablet PC would be a great thing to have during your college career.

  13. •PAPER:    I will provide paper for your quizzes and exams.  You will not be allowed to use your own.

  14. •COMPUTER ACCESS:    All of the relevant material for the course will be available online.  You are required to watch the video tutorials before coming to class so computer access is required.  Fortunately you have already paid for computer access via UTSA’s Student Computing Facilities.

  15. Class Format

  16. •Video Tutorials will be posted online for you to watch before coming to class.  Class time will be devoted to answering questions about the material in the videos and about homework problems.

  17. •Participation is required.  This means be prepared to ask relevant questions and formulate answers to questions of other students.  Math is not a spectator sport and you can not learn it passively.

  18. •Attendance will not be taken but absences can cost you in missed quizzes.

  19. •Before coming to class you should have watched the video tutorials, read any written tutorials, attempted homework problems, utilized online resources and/or referred to alternate textbooks as needed.  During this process create a list of questions about topics you would like to be clarified.

Scholastic Dishonesty - “Don’t Cheat”

  1. From the UTSA Undergraduate Catalog: “The integrity of a university degree depends on the integrity of the work done for that degree by each student. The University expects a student to maintain a high standard of individual honor in his/her scholastic work.”  If I catch you cheating you will fail the course and you may be expelled from the university.

Material Covered

  1. UTSA’s Precalculus Course Description: “Exponential functions, logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions, complex numbers, DeMoivre’s theorem, and polar coordinates.”

  2. The following is what we will cover from Sullivan’s Trigonometry book (Trigonometry:  A Unit Circle Approach, 8th Ed.).  Again, you do NOT need this particular book, any Trigonometry or Precalculus book containing the material below will be comparable to Sullivan’s book.  Notes and/or videos  for any material covered that is not in Sullivan’s book will be available on this website.


Chapter 2

  1. •2.1                Angles and Their Measures

  2. •2.2                Trigonometric Functions: Unit Circle Approach

  3. •2.3                Properties of the Trigonometric Functions

  4. •2.4                Graphs of the Sine and the Cosine Functions

  5. •2.5                Graphing Tangent, Cotangent, Cosecant, and Secant

  6. •2.6                Phase Shift; Sinusoidal Curve Fitting


Chapter 3

  1. •3.1                The Inverse Sine, Cosine, and Tangent Functions

  2. •3.2                The Inverse Trigonometric Functions Continued

  3. •3.3                Trigonometric Identities

  4. •3.4                Sum and Difference Formulas

  5. •3.5                Double - Angle and Half - Angle Formulas

  6. •3.6                Product-to-Sum and Sum-to-Product Formulas

  7. •3.7                Trigonometric Equations I

  8. •3.8                Trigonometric Equations II

                    

Chapter 4

  1. •4.1                Right Triangle Trigonometry; Applications

  2. •4.2                The Law of Sines

  3. •4.3                The Law of Cosines

  4. •4.4                The Area of a Triangle

                    

Chapter 5

  1. •5.1                Polar Coordinates

  2. •5.2                Polar Equations and Graphs

  3. •5.3                The Complex Plane; De Moivre’s Theorem

  4. •5.4                Vectors

  5. •5.5                Dot Products

  6. •5.6                Cross Products


Chapter 6

  1. •6.1                Conics

  2. •6.2                The Parabola

  3. •6.3                The Ellipse

  4. •6.4                The Hyperbola


Chapter 7

  1. •7.1                Exponential Functions

  2. •7.2                Logarithmic Functions

  3. •7.3                Properties of Logarithms

  4. •7.4                Logarithmic and Exponential Equations

  5. •7.5                Compound Interest

  6. •7.6                Exponential Growth and Decay; Newton’s Law

  7. •7.7                Fitting Data to Exponential, Logarithmic, & Logistic Functions


*Due to time constraints, all of the material above may not be covered.