Course Guidelines Math 210
Dr. R. Beezer Spring 2013

Text We will be using Applied Discrete Structures, by Al Doerr and Ken Levasseur, as our textbook. This is an open source textbook, see the course page for links. We will cover material from the eleven chapters indicated on the tentative schedule.

Home Page Start at http://buzzard.ups.edu/courses.html to locate the page for this course.

Office Hours My office is in Thompson 303; the telephone number is 879–3564. Making appointments or simple, non-mathematical questions can be handled via electronic mail — my address is beezer@ups.edu. Office Hours are 1:30–3:00 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You may make an appointment for other times, or just drop by my office. Office hours are your opportunity to receive extra help or clarification on material from class, or to discuss any other aspect of the course.

Homework Homework will be conducted in WeBWorK. I expect to have a set of ten problems for each chapter. Procedures and due dates will be announced in class, there is a link on the course page. This work will be entirely your own, so I will expect that you will not be consulting with your classmates or with me.

Exams There will be five one-hour exams — each will cover two chapters (or three, in one case). See the attached schedule for tentative dates. The lowest of your exam scores will be dropped. The comprehensive final exam will be given at 8 AM on Wednesday, May 15. The final exam cannot be given at any other time, so be certain that you do not make any travel plans that conflict, and also be aware that I will allow you to work longer on the final exam than just the two-hour scheduled block of time.

Grades Grades will be based on the following breakdown: Exams — 55%; Homework — 20%; Final Exam— 25%. Improvement will be considered for borderline grades. Scores will be posted anonymously on the World Wide Web at http://buzzard.ups.edu/courses.html.

Reminders Three reminders about university policies contained in the Academic Handbook. These are described thoroughly online, or a printed copy may be requested from the Registrar’s Office (basement of Jones Hall).

“Regular class attendance is expected of all students. When non-attendance is in the instructors judgment excessive, the instructor may levy a grade penalty or may direct the Registrar to drop the student from the course.”
See http://www.pugetsound.edu/student-life/student-resources/student-handbook/
academic-handbook/registration-for-courses-of-in/#Attendance.

Withdrawal grades are often misunderstood. A Withdrawal grade (W) can only be given during the third through sixth weeks of the semester, after that time (barring unusual circumstances), the appropriate grade is a Withdrawal Failing (WF), even if your work has been of passing quality. See the attached schedule for the last day to drop with an automatic ‘W’.
See http://www.pugetsound.edu/student-life/student-resources/student-handbook/
academic-handbook/grade-information-and-policy/#withdrawal.

All of your graded work is expected to be entirely your own work, this includes homework. Anything to the contrary is a violation of the university’s comprehensive policy on Academic Integrity (cheating and plagiarism). Discovered incidents will be handled strictly, in accordance with this policy. Penalties can include failing the course and range up to being expelled from the university.
See http://www.pugetsound.edu/student-life/student-resources/student-handbook/
academic-handbook/academic-integrity/.

Attendance Daily attendance is required, expected, and overall a pretty good idea. If attendance or tardiness becomes a problem, I may levy a grade penalty as described in the policy above.

Purpose A solid background in discrete mathematics can be a great advantage for a programmer, systems analyst, or other careers within computer science. Often a more efficient algorithm can provide a speed increase, or storage savings, far beyond incremental improvements in hardware. It can be a distinction that sets you apart from mere coders.

Throughout history, computing has always been the domain of mathematicians, and our modern ideas of a general-purpose machine with stored programs was initially developed by mathematicians. There is much that their work can teach you.