Math 217 Differential Equations - Fall 2021
Welcome to Math 217!
I can be reached at benw@wustl.edu for non-mathematical questions regarding the course, and in office hours (timings below) to talk about math. Your first go-to for math questions should be the class Piazza found on Canvas.
Timings
Lecture: 9am-10am MWF, Crow 204
Office hours: 4-5:30pm M + 11:15am-12:45pm F over Zoom.
Textbook
We'll follow the fifth edition of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems by Edwards, Penney and Calvis in this course. It's available from the campus bookstore or for rental elsewhere (Chegg, Amazon). We will use exercises for homework and lectures will generally follow the same path through the subject. Note that they recently updated the book - the new version of the fifth edition has 'Tech Update' in the name - and its ISBN is 9780134837390, but the older fifth edition is also fine.
Other section
There are two sections of Math 217 in Fall 2021. The other is taught by Mladen Victor Wickerhauser. The two sections will share a Canvas site and have all assessment in common, so feel free to discuss or work with students in the other section.
Assessment
Attendance to discussion section (5%)
Homework - every two weeks (generally) due at 10pm CT on Sundays (15%)
Midterms - three one hour exams on 9/21, 10/19, 11/16; see resurrection final below (60%)
Final - two hour exam from 10:30-12:30 on 12/17; see resurrection final below (20%)
Piazza bonus points: Each time you post a (mathematical!) question or answer on Piazza, you will receive 1 bonus point. These count as 1 point towards your overall homework score up to a maximum of 10 points. For example, if you dropped 15 points on homework throughout the semester and asked 5 questions on Piazza, your score for homework would be as if you only dropped 10 points.
Dropped scores: We will drop the lowest homework score, and the attendance score for three discussion sections. Because of this we don't allow for makeups under any circumstances.
Resurrection final: We will use a resurrection final in this course. This means that we will calculate two grades: G1 = grade calculated as above, and G2 = grade calculated with lowest scoring midterm counting 0% and final exam counting 40%. Your final grade will be max(G1, G2). Because of this we don't allow for makeups under any circumstances.
Integrity
Attempting to cheat in this course is unacceptable and will be strongly penalised. A first offense will be penalised with a zero grade on the relevant piece of assessment. A second offense will be penalised with an immediate fail grade. We will review every flagged case and will send anything that is remotely questionable to the Academic Integrity Office.
Collaboration is permitted (actually encouraged!) on homework assignments, however each student must write up solutions in their own words. Please write the names of any other students you have collaborated with at the top of each assignment. Significant similarities between submissions from different students that fail to mention any collaboration counts as an act of cheating and will be penalised as such.
Syllabus
