Math 2110Q – Multivariable Calculus (Fall 2021)

Course Coordinator (Storrs): Katie Hall, Additional Storrs Instructors: Sougata Dhar, Özgür Esentepe

Description


Two- and three-dimensional vector algebra, calculus of functions of several variables, vector differential calculus, line and surface integrals.


Prerequisites


MATH 1132Q or a score of 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Calculus BC exam. Recommended preparation: a grade of C- or better in MATH1132Q. Not open for credit to students who have passed MATH 2130Q or 2143Q.


Text


The textbook for the course is Multivariable Calculusby James Stewart (8th Edition), which is bundled with a WebAssign code for doing online homework. This book consists of Chapters 10-17 of Calculus: Early Transcendentals (8th Edition), so if you already have that version from Math 1131Q and/or 1132Q, then you are all set (specifically you will need Chapters 12-16). Please see the link below for textbook purchasing options and prices, especially if you are also taking or considering taking Math 2410Q (Elementary Differential Equations).

Link Coming Soon!


Lecture


You have two options for lectures. They are:

  • Anthony Rizzie’s Lecture Videos developed through eCampus
  • Katie Hall’s Lecture Videos offered synchronously MoWe 10:00-11:15. These will also be recorded and posted.

You can find information and links to both of these on the lecture section of HuskyCT.


WebAssign Homework, Discussion Quizzes and Weekly Check-ins


WebAssign Homework

To access the homework you will have to go through Husky CT. In your account you will find a link to do your homework using WebAssign. There will be homework assignments for each section of the text. Each assignment will be made available on WebAssign at the beginning of the semester. WebAssign homework is due on Tuesdays at 11:59pm.

You will get five attempts for each question that is not multiple choice and fewer than five attempts for each multiple-choice question; the exact number of attempts will depend on the number of choices. After each attempt, you will be told whether your answer is correct or not. If you are not able to get the correct answer after your initial attempts, we recommend that you seek help from your instructor, the Q-Center, a tutor, or another student before attempting to answer the problem again.

Life happens. If you have a day where you forgot about an assignment on WebAssign being due, you have exactly one week from the deadline to request an automatic extension. These extensions are automatically granted and will allow you two more days (48 hours) to complete the assignment at a penalty of 20% off anything completed past the deadline.

Questions on WebAssign will not necessarily be covered in lecture or discussion. This is a 2000-level math course, and you are expected to use resources like your instructor’s office hours and the textbook to help discover answers to new, more involved questions. This will be particularly true of questions on the worksheets.

Warning: When accessing your online homework, use Firefox or Chrome as your browser; there are problems that can occur if you use Internet Explorer or Safari. Useful tips on using WebAssign can be found here.

Discussion Worksheets and Quizzes

There are synchronous discussion sections every Tuesday and Thursday. During these discussion sections, your TAs will answer any questions you have on course material and you will have time to work through the weekly worksheet.  The worksheet does not need to be turned in.

There is a weekly quiz on the topics covered in the worksheet.  Quizzes occur during Tuesday discussion section each week there is not an exam.  You must attend the discussion section in person to take the quizzes.

Additional Practice Worksheets

Additional Practice Worksheets are provided under the Outline tab above and in HuskyCT.   These are intended to help you practice and master both the concepts and calculations for this course. Additional Practice Worksheets are not graded, but, problems from worksheets may show up on  exams. You may work on the worksheets by yourself or with other students in the course. If you have a good understanding of the worksheet questions and can explain them to a friend (try it, it’s harder than you think), then you are likely doing well in the class.

Weekly Check-ins

 Each week, there will be a multiple choice quiz with one or two questions on new material and two questions on randomly topics from all the material we’ve learned previously. Students can take each weekly check-in quiz multiple times (up to 10 times). Each time there will be different randomly selected questions.  We will only count the best grade each week.  These must be completed by 11:59pm on Tuesday of the next week. (Note: these weekly check-ins replace the previous multiple choice portions of the exam.  The benefit is that you now have multiple tries on each one!)


Midterm Exams


There will be three midterm exams (dates below). Each exam is mostly free response. You have 50 minutes to complete it. These must be completed in person during your assigned discussion section time.


Final Portfolio


The final portfolio assignment is in lieu of a final exam.  You will be asked to explain several different concepts in your own terms as well as solve a variety of problems.  This should be worked on individually.  The work you submit should reflect your individual understanding. The assignment will be given before Thanksgiving Break and is due Monday of final exam week.  Most of the work should be typed but can include several images of handwritten work.  These images should be clear and easy to read.  More details will be provided later in the course. 


Late Work Policy


Late work is generally not accepted but exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis for things like University-approved absences. Please notify your instructor of any planned absences well in advance if at all possible. Do not wait until the last week of the course to discuss grade issues!

If you are sick, please make every effort possible to tell your instructor BEFORE an exam or due date. If this is not possible, make contact as soon as possible, even just to say you are sick and will get in touch as soon as you feel better.

In the event that you need to make-up a quiz or exam, you are likely to be required to complete it using Lockdown Browser with Respondos monitor.  This decision will be made by your instructor. This requires a working Webcam and good internet connection as well as a quiet working space.

Extra Credit: There is NO extra credit for the overall course.  There will be a few opportunities to earn bonus points on individual assignments.  All bonus point opportunities will be given to all students in the class.


Grading

Homework WebAssign   10%
Weekly Discussion Quizzes Tuesdays during Discussion Section (in person)   25%
Weekly Check-ins HuskyCT   5%
Exam 1: (Tuesday, September 28) During Discussion Section (in person)   10-20%*
Exam 2: (Tuesday, October 26) During Discussion Section (in person)   10-20%*
Exam 3: (Thursday November 18) During Discussion Section (in person)   10-20%*
Final Portfolio: (due December 13, 11:59pm) submitted to HuskyCT   10%

*Note on Exam Weighting: Your lowest exam score will count as 10% of your overall score.  The other two exams will count at 20%.  This will be done automatically for all students.

Honors Section

If you are in the Honors discussion section, then your grading  for the course works slightly differently. You will complete Honors Engagement Activities as part of discussion section. More details will be provided in HuskyCT. However, if you do not complete at least 70% of the activities at an acceptable level,  your final grade for the class will be at most a 79.99% (letter grade of C), which means you will fail to earn Honors credit for the course.

 

Grade Letter Grade GPA
93-100 A 4.0
90-92.99 A- 3.7
87-89.99 B+ 3.3
83-86.99 B 3.0
80-82.99 B- 2.7
77-79.99 C+ 2.3
73-76.99 C 2.0
70-72.99 C- 1.7
67-69.99 D+ 1.3
63-66.99 D 1.0
60-62.99 D- 0.7
<60 F 0.0

Mask and Social Distancing Policy


Until further notice, to ensure a safe learning environment for everyone, masks/face coverings must be worn at all times when inside buildings, including in the classroom, regardless of vaccination status. If a student is not wearing a mask/face covering, they will be asked by the instructor to put one on immediately or leave the classroom. Failing to follow this expectation will result in a referral to Community Standards. Activities that involve temporarily removing the mask, such as eating or drinking are not allowed.  Please leave the classroom for such activities. If an instructor is not wearing a mask/face covering, students should feel comfortable asking the instructor to put one on immediately.  More information about proper usage of masks is available from UConn Environmental Health and Safety at this link.

Although social distancing will not be required inside classrooms for vaccinated individuals, please be respectful of the wishes of others who prefer to maintain social distancing. For their own protection, unvaccinated individuals are requested to maintain 6 feet social distancing from others.


How to Study for This Course:


  1. Attend synchronous lecture or watch the pre-recorded videos on a set schedule.  Be actively engaged.
  2. Attend your TAs discussion sessions.
  3. Read the explanations and examples in the textbook.
  4. Do the online homework in a timely manner. Don’t start it late and rush through it; you may not finish it, and you won’t learn much this way.
  5. Ask questions. Attend office hours. Reach out if you need help, early and as often as needed!
  6. Watch supplementary videos on the material to see and work with more examples. These can be found on the Learning Activities tab.
  7. Use technology as an interactive tool to learn and explore the properties of surfaces and vector fields. A few helpful links can be found on the Learning Activities tab.
  8. Do problems that you have not previously done and/or do problems without knowing what section they came from. For example, if you do a problem from Section 15.8, then you already know that it would be a good idea to use spherical coordinates. If you are instead given a triple integral to set up or evaluate without any knowledge of the section it came from, you have to decide if you should use Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates, which is significantly better for your studying and mastery of the topics.

Calculator Policy:


Calculators are NOT allowed during exams.  You are welcome to use calculators while working on worksheets or WebAssign assignments. Using a calculator on a quiz or exam will result in a warning or a penalty, which could include a score of zero on that quiz or exam and being reported to Community Standards for academic misconduct.


Academic Integrity


“A fundamental tenet of all educational institutions is academic honesty. Academic work depends upon respect for and acknowledgement of the research and ideas of others. Misrepresenting someone else’s work as one’s own is a serious offense in any academic setting and it will not be condoned.” A student who knowingly assists another student in committing an act of academic misconduct shall be equally accountable for the violation, and both shall be subject to the sanctions and other remedies. See the Uconn Student Code, Appendix A.

All students shall act in accordance with the Student Code at the University of Connecticut, which states that: “Academic misconduct is dishonest or unethical academic behavior that includes, but is not limited to, misrepresenting mastery in an academic area (e.g., cheating), failing to properly credit information, research, or ideas to their rightful originators or representing such information, research, or ideas as your own (e.g., plagiarism).” In particular, this means that any work you submit in this course should be your own.

It is expected that you will struggle with various aspects of this course, and you are encouraged to seek help from me, your peers, the Q Center, and other sources in understanding the concepts and computations. However, you are expected to turn in work that reflects your own understanding of the topics and ideas. Therefore, your work should not bear resemblance to that of any other student in the course or to any other sources used, and any ideas used for which any other party had a share in developing should be cited as such.

For example, it is a good idea to look at examples in the text, notes, or online for problems similar to the one you are stuck on, and looking for ways to adapt the ideas and methods to your current problem. In the interest of both your learning and academic honesty, I do not recommend searching for solutions to the specific problem you are stuck on. Be sure to follow the specific guideline on each assignment. If an assignment says you can’t search the web for those problems, then searching for those problems will be considered an academic integrity violation.

While you may look online for help, as clearly stated on the final portfolio assignment, you may not view solutions to specific  problems (or small variations to these problems) on paid sites like Chegg or Bartleby. You may still use Campuswire, Problem Sessions, Office Hours, and other free outside resources like Khan Academy and YouTube. This means that if you use these allowed resources, even just for a push in the right direction, you should mention that you used them and then still write the solution in our own words to reflect your own understanding.

On proctored assessments like discussion quizzes and exams, it is expected that all work submitted it your own and is done during in the proctored assignment. These answers should reflect your current understanding. In particular, you should be able to explain your reasoning on any problem, if asked. Memorizing solutions and then reproducing them without understanding is not an acceptable procedure.  Additionally, you may not access any unauthorized resources during proctored quizzes or exams. You may not relay exam information to other students in the class prior to them completing the quiz or exam.

Consequences of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to, a zero on the assignment or exam and/or a grade of F in the course. If you are unsure that what you are doing to complete the work of this course is acceptable, contact the instructor for helpful tips and advice on how to protect your work and ensure that you are not violating the academic integrity policies of the instructor, the course, or the university.


Student Support Services


  • Dean of Students 486-3426 The office serves as an advocate for students and as a centralized resource for connectingstudents with appropriate university and community programs, offices and individuals. The office supports students in resolving educational, personal and other university concerns that affect the quality of their academic or community life and personal goals.
  • Center for Students with Disabilities486-2020 (voice),  486-2077 (TDD) The Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) at UConn provides accommodations andservices for qualified students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability for which you wish to request academic accommodations and have not contacted the CSD, please do so as soon as possible.

Additional Course and Course Support Information


Feedback and Grades

We will make every effort to provide feedback and grades within a week of your submissions. To keep track of your performance in the course, refer to My Grades in HuskyCT and WebAssign. Most grades will be kept in your discussion section HuskyCT page. 


Weekly Time Commitment

You should expect to dedicate 12 to 14 hours a week to this course. This expectation is based on the various course activities, assignments, and assessments and the University of Connecticut’s policy regarding credit hours. (More information related to hours per week per credit can be accessed at the Online Student website).


Student Authentication and Verification

The University of Connecticut is required to verify the identity of students who participate in online courses and to establish that students who register in an online course are the same students who participate in and complete the course activities and assessments and receive academic credit. Verification and authentication of student identity in this course will include:

  1. Secure access to the learning management system using your unique UConn NetID and password.
  2. Midterm Exams and Quizzes proctored in person during discussion section (with makeups proctored either in person or using Lockdown Browser with Monitor, at the discretion of the instructor). 

Husky Study Groups 

Are you interested in forming a study group with other students in the class?  There is a study group application in Nexus that can help you get started. Check out this video and go here (https://nexus.uconn.edu/secure_per/studygroups/index.php) for more information.


Resources for Students Experiencing Distress

The University of Connecticut is committed to supporting students in their mental health, their psychological and social well-being, and their connection to their academic experience and overall wellness. The university believes that academic, personal, and professional development can flourish only when each member of our community is assured equitable access to mental health services. The university aims to make access to mental health attainable while fostering a community reflecting equity and diversity and understands that good mental health may lead to personal and professional growth, greater self-awareness, increased social engagement, enhanced academic success, and campus and community involvement.  Students who feel they may benefit from speaking with a mental health professional can find support and resources through the Student Health and Wellness-Mental Health (SHaW-MH) office. Through SHaW-MH, students can make an appointment with a mental health professional and engage in confidential conversations or seek recommendations or referrals for any mental health or psychological concern.  Mental health services are included as part of the university’s student health insurance plan and also partially funded through university fees. If you do not have UConn’s student health insurance plan, most major insurance plans are also accepted. Students can visit the Student Health and Wellness-Mental Health located in Storrs on the main campus in the Arjona Building, 4th Floor, or contact the office at (860) 486-4705, or https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/ for services or questions.


Accommodations for Illness or Extended Absences 

Please stay home if you are feeling ill and please go home if you are in class and start to feel ill.   If illness prevents you from attending class, it is your responsibility to notify your instructor as soon as possible. You do not need to disclose the nature of your illness, however, you will need to work with your instructor to determine how you will complete coursework during your absence. If life circumstances are affecting your ability to focus on courses and your UConn experience, students can email the Dean of Students at dos@uconn.edu to request support.  Regional campus students should email the Student Services staff at their home campus to request support and faculty notification.  COVID-19 Specific Information: People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. These symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus and can include:

  • Fever, 
  • Cough,
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Chills
  • Repeated shaking with chills
  • Muscle pain
  • Headache
  • Sore throat
  • New loss of taste or smell

Additional information including what to do if you test positive or you are informed through contract tracing that you were in contact with someone who tested positive, and answers to other important questions can be found here: https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/updates-events/coronavirus/


Students with Disabilities and Special accommodations

The University of Connecticut is committed to protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities and assuring that the learning environment is accessible.  If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability or pregnancy, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. Students who require accommodations should contact the Center for Students with Disabilities, Wilbur Cross Building Room 204, (860) 486-2020 or http://csd.uconn.edu/. Student Athletes and Students with Disabilities should inform your instructor of your commitments as an athlete, any special needs that you have, etc. within the first three weeks of the semester. You will be expected to bring in a letter from the Athletics Department or the Center for Students with Disabilities. The University Senate passed a motion on about religious observances which stipulated that Students anticipating such a conflict should inform their instructor in writing within the first three weeks of the semester, and prior to the anticipated absence, and should take the initiative to work out with the instructor a schedule for making up missed work. For conflicts with final examinations, students should, as usual, contact the Dean of Students. Note: We know that this transition to online classes has the chance to increase the number of students who need accommodations and the form those accommodations will take. We will work with all students to the best of our ability to ensure their specific needs are met the best we can. Please contact your instructor to discuss any needs to you.


Student Responsibilities and Resources 

As a member of the University of Connecticut student community, you are held to certain standards and academic policies. In addition, there are numerous resources available to help you succeed in your academic work. Review these important standards, policies and resources, which include:

  • The Student Code
    • Academic Integrity
    • Resources on Avoiding Cheating and Plagiarism
  • Copyrighted Materials
  • Credit Hours and Workload
  • Netiquette and Communication
  • Adding or Dropping a Course
  • Academic Calendar
  • Policy Against Discrimination, Harassment and Inappropriate Romantic Relationships
  • Sexual Assault Reporting Policy

Software/Technical Requirements (with Accessibility and Privacy Information)

The software/technical requirements for this course include:

For information on managing your privacy at the University of Connecticut, visit the University’s Privacy page. NOTE: This course has NOT been designed for use with mobile devices.


Help

Technical and Academic Help provides a guide to technical and academic assistance. This course uses the learning management platform, HuskyCT. If you have difficulty accessing HuskyCT, you have access to the in person/live person support options available during regular business hours through the Help Center.  You also have 24×7 Course Support including access to live chat, phone, and support documents.


Student Technology Training

Student technology training is now available in a new HuskyCT short course created by students for students. It will prepare you to use the IT systems and services that you will use throughout your time at UConn, whether learning online or on-campus.  It is available at https://lms.uconn.edu/ultra/courses/_80016_1/cl/outline .


Minimum Technical Skills

To be successful in this course, you will need the following technical skills:

  • Use electronic mail with attachments.
  • Save files in commonly used word processing program formats.
  • Scan handwritten work to PDFs.
  • Copy and paste text, graphics or hyperlinks.
  • Work within two or more browser windows simultaneously.
  • Open and access PDF files.

University students are expected to demonstrate competency in Computer Technology. Explore the Computer Technology Competencies page for more information..


Evaluation of Course Experience

Students will be given an opportunity to provide feedback on their course experience and instruction using the University’s standard procedures, which are administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (OIRE). The University of Connecticut is dedicated to supporting and enhancing teaching effectiveness and student learning using a variety of methods. The Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is just one tool used to help faculty enhance their teaching. The SET is used for both formative (self-improvement) and summative (evaluation) purposes. Additional informal formative surveys and other feedback instruments may be administered within the course.


Contact

The course coordinator:  Professor Katherine Hall(katie.hall@uconn.edu). Or your instructor.