Calculus II: What to Expect
Here is some additional, more informal info about the class that
should give you a better idea what to expect from this class, how to
enjoy it and do well, and help you decide whether or not this class is
for you.
- This class is a lot of work, but I think it's less work than
Calculus II.
- Falling behind in this course is not a good idea. If you're
confused about something, it's very important that you seek help
sooner rather than later. There are many people around who can offer
help. However, we can't offer assistance if we don't know who needs
it when. You need to take responsibility to seek help if you need
it. On a related note ...
- I do not expect all of the homework assignments to be easy; I don't
expect you to be able to sit down and do them easily the first time.
Don't let yourself get frustrated -- I strongly suggest working with
others and seeking help if you need it.
- In Calc II I plan to emphasize the use of Maple more. I'm
assuming that most of the students taking this class are going to need
to use math in some way in their future lives. Knowing how to use a
computer algebra system is important and, at times, essential, if
you're going to do "real-world" and not text-book math. This may be
frustrating for some, but I'm convinced it's worth it.
- In many more traditional math classes the textbook has a ton of
examples in them. The book we'll be using doesn't. The result is
that students sometimes find the homework to be challenging,
frustrating, and occasionally even annoying. However, I'm convinced
that this style of homework -- where there's not an example just like
the problem you're trying to do -- is much better pedagogically.
You'll learn a lot more this way.
- This course does covers pretty standard Calc II material. The
text book we're using is used at many other colleges and universities
in the U.S.
- Many of you haven't taken Calc I here last term, and might not
have taken and Calculus at all for a while. Don't worry. We'll do
some review at the beginning of the term. In the past, people who
have taken calculus elsewhere have done very well in this course.
- This class is a lot of work. However, the workload is steady;
you'll be doing approximately the same amount of work each week.
We'll hit the ground running and try to get lots of stuff done the
next few weeks. The workload will taper off some toward the end of
the term.
[Dave]
[Calc II]
[COA]
Web page maintained by dave@hornacek.coa.edu.