Math 217 Differential Equations - Spring 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 on Zoom (link on Canvas)
Office hours: 1-2pm M, 11:30am-12:30pm F on Zoom (link on Canvas)
Textbook
The fifth edition of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems by Edwards, Penney and Calvis is required for 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 Spring 2021. The other is taught by Shuhao Cao. 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 problem sessions (5%)
Biweekly self-reflections on Gradescope (5%) - due at 10pm every other Sunday starting 1/31
Biweekly homework on Gradescope (20%) - due at 10pm every other Sunday starting 2/7
Biweekly exams on Gradescope (30%) - 60 minute exams to be taken between 5-11pm every other Friday starting 2/12
Midterm (20%) - Tuesday 3/16, 6:30-8:30pm
Final exam (20%) - Monday 5/10, 10:30am-12:30pm
Piazza bonus points (up to one quiz)
Lecture attendance (up to one homework)
Self-reflections - A significant part of doing mathematics or honestly any academic discipline is thinking critically about your personal learning process and learning practices (i.e. how you learn and what you're doing about it) and making improvements to the latter in order to support the former. I would like each of you to reflect on your engagement with this class; what's working for you, what's not working, what's difficult right now, different ideas for how to structure your notes,... Every two weeks there I'll provide a few prompts that I'd like you to respond to however suits you best. Feel free to be creative in your responses, like using mindmaps, illustrations, cartoons, stories, music, or anything else that helps you reflect on your growth.
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 a quiz, up to a maximum of 10 points. For example, if you dropped 15 points on quizzes throughout the semester and asked 5 questions on Piazza, your score for quizzes would be as if you only dropped 10 points.
Lecture attendance - Each week I will total the amount of lecture time attended on Zoom and, if it meets a certain threshold, it will be counted as one point that can go towards homework. For example, if you dropped 12 points on homework throughout the semester and met the attendance threshold for 11 weeks your score for homework would be as if you only dropped 1 point.
Resurrection final - We will use a 'resurrection final' where at the end of semester I will calculate two grades: G1 = grade calculated as above, and G2 = grade calculated with midterm counting 0% and final exam counting 60%. Your final grade will be max(G1, G2).
Dropped scores - We will drop the lowest quiz score and the lowest homework score, and allow three missed problem sessions.
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
