Math 251-01 (Multivariable Calculus)

Fall Semester 2016

Lecture:
MWF 10 10:50am
Lecture Hall 1
Discussions: Section 02 M
11:00 11:50am Sondheim 110
Section 03
Section 04
Section 05

M
M
M

11:00 11:50am
1:00 1:50pm
1:00 1:50pm

Sondheim 111
Sondheim 108
Sondheim 109

Instructor: Dr. Kalman M. Nanes

Office: Math/Psych 439, phone 4104552439
Office hours: F 2 3pm in MP439, F 3 6pm in the CALC (see below), or by appointment.
e-mail: knanes@umbc.edu
Sections 02 and 04:

Juyoung Jeong

Teaching Assistants: Sections 03 and 05: Mingkai Yu

Textbook And Other Resources: James Stewart, Multivariable Calculus, 8th Edition,
Thomas/Brooks Cole, 2015. I will post additional materials on the course Blackboard site that will
assist you in reading the text and/or will supplement the text. You will also use WebAssign, an online
homework system, which you will find in Blackboard under Course Tools. See below for purchasing
information. Note that you will have access to the eBook version of Stewart through WebAssign. If
this is sufficient for your needs, you do not need to purchase a physical book. Note also that students
who obtained their course materials through the Course Materials Initiative when taking MATH 151
should not need to repurchase any materials.

Learning Objectives: Upon completing this course, you should be able to:
Work with vectors and three-dimensional coordinate systems.
Visualize lines, planes, curves, and surfaces in three-space.
Generalize concepts learned in single-variable differential and integral calculus to the setting of
vector functions and space curves.
Use concepts of calculus in these new, generalized settings in various applications.
The following objectives are no less important and are not directly course-content related.
Develop the skills necessary to work productively in a team.
Develop skills necessary for lifelong learning, including the ability to independently learn new
material and apply this knowledge in different contexts.
Develop strong study habits, including how to properly read a textbook and how to manage
your study time.
Develop analytic and problem-solving skills, including the ability to break a complicated task
into reasonable steps.

What to Expect in Class: This courses instructional strategy will be a modified version of
Team-Based Learning (TBL). TBL is used in a host of different disciplines with great success and
involves students working cooperatively in small teams. This teaching strategy is based on research
into education techniques, and is arguably the best way to teach science. The primary objective of
this course is to help you learn how to apply and internalize course concepts, rather than simply
requiring you to recall information. On the first day of classes, I will assign you to a permanent team
containing 45 students. Each member of your team will bring different skills and experiences to the
table, but trust that I will take care to make sure that all teams have (roughly) equivalent sets of skills
and experience. You will learn alone and with your team, using carefully crafted reading materials,
in-class and out-of-class activities, and team/individual quizzes and exams. My job will largely consist
of preparing class material, grading, and facilitating team discussions (for me this will represent far
more work than if I were teaching a typical lecture course). In this course, you will acquire initial
exposure to the content through reading the textbook and other online materials, as opposed to what
might happen in a typical lecture course in which I might spend most or all of our time together
essentially reading the book to you. You will be held accountable for your reading and preparation
using a testing process known as the Readiness Assessment Process (RAP). Following the RAP,
you will practice working with the course concepts using a series of in-class team exercises.

Readings: Prior to the beginning of most class sessions, you will be given a guided reading assignment. This guide will lead you through the textbook and tell you what to focus on. Sometimes (as
with many definitions in the text), you will need to know a concept almost word-for-word. Sometimes,
its better to just understand the major ideas behind the language. Some examples in the text are
more important than others, or often there will be a certain concept that I would like you to get out of
a particular example. Video Reading Guides will be posted to the course Blackboard site under Course
Documents. You will be held accountable for your readings through a RAP. This will ensure that you
understand the core concepts and are ready to work with your team on applying these concepts. It
also ensures that class time is spent working on applications, rather than on learning facts.

Readiness Assessment Process: After the assigned readings, you will complete a RAP. The
RAP has four parts:
Individual Readiness Assessment Test (iRAT): The process begins with a short, multiple
choice test that is taken individually on Blackboard prior to class. This test is used to assess
your comprehension of the assigned readings. These untimed open-book and open-note tests
will be available on Blackboard from a couple days before class until two hours before class.
Your two lowest iRATs will be dropped.
Team Readiness Assessment Test (tRAT): Following the iRAT, you will re-take the same
5- to 10-minute multiple choice test as a team. These tests will use multiple choice forms that
allow partial credit. Although tRATs are closed-book, team members are encouraged to bring
their notes and scratch work from their iRATs to class to foster team discussion on the tRATs.
Your lowest two tRATs will be dropped.
Muddiest Points and Mini-Lecture: At the end of every tRAT, your team will have the
opportunity to tell me the muddiest points of the assigned readings. I will respond to this
with a mini-lecture as necessary. This is your chance to get me to clarify the reading.
Appeals: Once the tRAT is completed, your team will have the opportunity to fill out appeals
forms for questions where you disagree with the question, the answer, or the readings. I will
review the appeals outside of class time and report the outcome of your team appeal at the
next class meeting if possible. If an appeal is accepted, the lost points will be added back into
the appealing teams score. Details of how this process will work can be found on the Appeals
Form available under Course Documents. Note that appeals are only available for tRATs, not
for iRATs.
Your first RAP will cover this syllabus, and will be given in-class on Wednesday, August
31st, the first day of class.

Team Activites: Following the RAP, the bulk of class time will be used to work on guided
activities and example problems that will require you and your team to apply course concepts. This is
the part of class that makes TBL truly valuable - instead of sleeping through a lecture straight from
the book that you could have read on your own, you get to spend your class time actively working
on developing course skills, relying on the varied skills and experiences of your peers. My role as the
instructor is not the traditional sage on the stage, but rather, a guide on the side.
Our classroom activities will include application-type questions that let us apply the skills we have
been learning. We will also use our time to focus on common trouble spots in the course material. We
can also use team discussions to work our way through tricky bits of theory. Following each question
that we do in teams, we will have a quick debrief, in which various students will have a chance to
explain their reasoning and conclusions. Please note: I will often be calling on people randomly to
answer a question. This means that everybody on your team must be prepared to answer each
question that youre working on. More on this, below.

Folders and Cards: On the first day of class, each team will be given a folder. I will use this
folder to pass out daily materials. You can collect your folders at the beginning of each class, and
hand them back at the end. I will also have a deck of cards in which there is a card for each student.
When I want to randomly call on a person, Ill simply draw a card from the deck and call on the
corresponding volunteer.

Peer Evaluation: At the end of the course, you will have the opportunity to anonymously
evaluate your teammates. This Peer Evaluation will consider how well your teammates prepared for
and contributed to the tRATs, team quizzes, and in-class team activities. More on peer evaluations
below.

Attendance and Behavior: Attendance is crucial to success in this class. It is also

a part of professional behavior. I expect everybody to show up to class on time, every day. If you
are late for a tRAT, you will lose 2 points on that tRAT. If you are absent for a tRAT, you will not
receive credit for that tRAT. The same is true of homework assignments, team quizzes and exams.
There will be no make-ups on WebAssign homeworks, iRATs, tRATs, or quizzes. Make-up exams will
be given at my discretion, in general only in situations where there is a conflict with a sanctioned
university activity of which I have been notified at least a week in advance. Such activities
may include things like a course conflict or an athletic event. I will excuse a missed exam due to
illness only if I am notified before the exam, and only if you furnish a signed doctors note at
the earliest available opportunity.
While I will not be officially taking attendance in this class, you can rest assured that if you are
habitually late, absent, or noncontributing, your teammates will punish you accordingly when it comes
time for your peer evaluations.
As we are all adults here, I expect us all to act like adults and treat each other professionally.
This means that everybody should treat each other with respect in this class. Talking on cell phones,
texting, tweeting, SnapChatting, Instagramming, playing Candy Crush, browsing Tumblr or Reddit,
and other disruptive behavior is not appropriate for the classroom. Therefore, there will be a ban
on cell phones, laptops, tablets, earphones, and other mobile devices in class, except in
cases where I have given explicit permission. The same ban will be in effect for discussion
sections. Offenders will be asked to leave, and will not get credit for any work handed in that day.

Grading: The usual 90% 80% 70% 60% grading system will be used in this course. Your
grade will be calculated as follows:
Individual Performance:.......................................................A%
Individual Readiness Assurance Tests (iRATs).............10%
WebAssign (see below)..................................................20%
Exams (3 of equal weight).............................................40%
Final Exam....................................................................30%
Total Individual Performance........................................100%
Team Performance:...............................................................B%
Team Readiness Assurance Tests (tRATs)....................40%
Team Quizzes (see below)..............................................60%
Total team performance................................................100%
I will modify the total team performance using the average peer evaluation that you receive.
Total Score...........................................................................100%
On the first day of class, your team will choose the relative weights of the individual and team
components of your grade from the following 4 options: (A = 70%, B = 30%); (A = 75%, B = 25%);
(A = 80%, B = 20%); or (A = 85%, B = 15%). Your team will have the opportunity to change their
choice at a designated time later in the semester.

Adjustment of Team Performance Grades by Anonymous Peer Evaluation:

Sometimes, individuals do not participate adequately in their team, or are habitually late or absent.
To help prevent this behavior, each student must evaluate his or her teammates anonymously using a
numerical scale at the end of the course. The average of these peer evaluations will be used to modify
your team performance grade. This will result in good students getting their just reward for the extra
work they put in, and laggards getting their just desserts.
In order to conduct peer evaluations in a fair way, we will be using an online system called CatMe,
which can be found at http://www.catme.org. We will use CatMe for a number of things, including
assigning teams at the beginning of the term, conducting periodic practice peer evaluations, detecting
problems within teams, and running the final peer evaluations at the end of the term. Participating
in CatMe is a necessary part of the course, and is not optional. Failure to follow through
on your CatMe responsibilities will result in a 0 for the entire team portion of your overall grade.
When logging into CatMe, you must use your UMBC Student ID email address. This
is the address that has the format XY12345@umbc.edu and can be found on the front of your UMBC
student ID card. If you do not use this email address when logging in, CatMe will not be able to find
this course.

Homework and WebAssign: A list of suggested book problems for each section will be
available on Blackboard. While the book problems themselves will not be collected, each week a
number of these problems will be assigned on WebAssign. WebAssign problems will be due each
Sunday by 11:59pm. There are no make-ups or extensions associated with WebAssign, but 90%
accuracy will be enough to count as full credit. Other scores will be scaled accordingly. (The algorithm
is min[score (10/9), 10].) You get five tries for each WebAssign question. Extra tries will not be
issued under any circumstances. Each WebAssign assignment will be marked out of 10 points and
will cover one section of the text; you will have several assignments due each week, on the sections
that were covered the previous week. The lowest 5 assignments will be dropped, and the rest will
be weighted to be worth 20% of your Individual Performance score. You are still responsible for the
material on any WebAssign problems or assignments that you skip.

WebAssign can be accessed through Blackboard, under Other Bb Tools. You will need to purchase
a WebAssign access code. If you buy a new hard copy of the textbook through the UMBC bookstore,
an access code should come bundled with the text. You may also purchase an access code directly
through WebAssign. Your WebAssign access code will also grant you access to the eBook version of
the text. Access codes from previous terms or from Math 151 or 152 may or may not entitle you to
continue without purchasing another code. I am unable to answer technical questions about
WebAssign. All technical questions about WebAssign must be directed to the WebAssign support
staff.
To be clear: doing only the WebAssign homework each week is not enough to do well in this
course. Students should expect to spend a minimum of 810 hours per week on homework and
study outside of class for this course. I am not kidding. This is an average of around 1.5 hours
per night. This time should include careful reading (with note-taking) of the textbook, completion
of iRATs, as well as working through all of the book examples and suggested homework problems,
at the very least. It is imperative that you be able to complete practice questions without the aid of
your book, your notes, or the Watch It! button on WebAssign. It is better to spread this work out
throughout the week, and not save it all for the weekend; otherwise it may be hard to follow material
that is introduced later in the week. Do not feel limited by the suggested selection of homework
problems. Success in this course has as much or more to do with proper time management and study
habits, as with aptitude or skill in mathematics.
While it is not required, I highly recommend working in study groups to do your homework.
These study groups do not have to be the same as your in-class teams. My office hours in the CALC
(Calculus Active Learning Clinic) on Fridays from 3-6pm in the CASTLE (UC115D) are an excellent
opportunity to do your homework with your classmates, with the added bonus of your teacher being
available to take questions. Waiting to do all of your homework until the day before it is
due is a recipe for disaster. If, after attempting your homework problems, you are lost or do not
understand the concepts involved, do not hesitate to see me. I am happy to help and want to see
you succeed. Just be aware that it is much easier for me to help you on week 3 of the class than it is
on week 14. If you require other resources (or just dont like me that much), other help and tutoring is
available through your TAs office hours, the Learning Resource Center, Student Disability Services,
and for athletes, the Athletic Department.

Team Quizzes: There will be weekly team quizzes throughout the term, given in discussion
sections on all weeks where there is not an exam. Each team will turn in one quiz that will be graded
for the entire team. Each quiz will be graded out of 25 points. Your lowest team quiz score will be
dropped. There are no make-ups on team quizzes. All team quizzes will be closed-notes, closedbooks, no calculators. Team quizzes will collectively be worth 60% of your team performance
grade.

Exams: There will be three exams given in class throughout the term: the first on Monday,
September 26th, the second on Monday, October 24th, and the third on Monday, November
21st. Exams are held in the same room as your usual lecture. All exams will be taken individually,
and will be closed-notes, closed-books, no calculators. Each exam will be graded out of 100
points. The three exams will collectively be worth 40% of your individual performance grade.
If your lowest exam score is at least 25% and it is to your benefit, I will replace this lowest exam
score with your percentage score on the final exam. This policy allows you to have a bad test day,
and also reflects the fact that learning takes place over the course of the semester; what you may not
understand at the beginning of the term may be clearer at the end. Note that this policy will apply
to at most one of your exams. A missed exam will be counted as a zero. See the attendance policy,
above, for the only exceptions to this rule.

Final Exam: The final exam will be a common exam across multiple sections of MATH 251, and
will be held At a date and time which is yet to be determined. Since this is a common exam,
when determining your final exam schedule, you need to look under the section labelled
Common Final Exam on the registrars website. Please be sure that you do not make
end-of-semester travel plans until you know when your final exam is. The final exam will
be taken individually, graded out of 200 points and will be worth 30% of your individual performance
grade. All exams will be closed-notes, closed-books, no calculators.

Academic Integrity: By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities
of an active participant in UMBCs scholarly community in which everyones academic work and
behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include but is not limited to suspension or dismissal. To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy, consult the UMBC Student Handbook, the Faculty Handbook, or the UMBC Policies section of the UMBC Directory.
http://www.umbc.edu/provost/integrity/faculty.html

Accommodations: UMBC is committed to eliminating discriminatory obstacles that disadvantage students based on disability. Student Disability Services (SDS) is the UMBC department
designated to:
receive and maintain confidential files of disabilityrelated documentation,
certify eligibility for services,
determine reasonable accommodations,
develop with each student plans for the provision of such accommodations, and
serve as a liaison between faculty members and students regarding disabilityrelated issues.
If you have a disability and want to request accommodations, contact SDS in the Math/Psych
Bldg., room 213 or at 4104552459. SDS will require you to provide appropriate documentation of
disability. If you require accommodations for this class, make an appointment to meet with me to
discuss your SDS-approved accommodations.

Class website: Course information (including this syllabus, homework assignments, and all other
documents) will be available at the Blackboard website: http://my.umbc.edu/go/blackboard

Some Tips:
Come to class. Its a tough course, and tougher when you dont come to class, particularly
because your team and your grade depend on your presence.
Ask questions in class of your team and of me.
Your team is a resource.
Take an active part in the RAP process. This will ensure that you are ready for activities in
class and to contribute to your team. Your teammates and I will have an easier time helping
you if you have done the reading.
Read actively. Follow the reading guides, take notes, and work through all examples.
Come to my office hours and to the CASTLE hours for help. Im happy to help and I want you
to succeed, but I cant help you if you dont ask me. If my scheduled office hours do not work
for you, let me know. Well find an alternative.
Do the homework problems each week and ask your teammates or me for help if you are having
trouble doing them.
Be proactive about your education. Identify where youre having problems as soon as you can,
and then act to address those problems immediately.
Keep up. Its nearly impossible to cram this course and pull off a good grade. Its best to put
in a consistent effort over the semester and keep up with the material. The RAP process will
encourage this and provide you with quick feedback on your understanding of the material.

Approximate Daily Syllabus: Days which are not specifically mentioned below will consist
of team activities, discussions, and review. We will generally introduce new material on Monday and
Wednesday and spend Friday digesting it, with extra review before exams and near the end of the
course when the material gets particularly complicated.
Week

Day

Date

Sections Covered in RAPs

W
F

8/31
9/2

Syllabus
12.1 Three-Dimensional Coord. Systems
12.2 Vectors

M
W

9/5
9/7

Labor Day, No Class

12.3 The Dot Product
12.4 The Cross Product

9/12

9/14

12.5
12.6
13.1
13.2

Eqns of Lines and Planes

Quiz #1 on 12.1 - 12.4
Cylinders and Quadric Surfaces
Vector Functions and Space Curves
Derivatives and Integrals of Vector Functions

9/19

9/21

13.3
13.4
14.1
14.2

Arc Length and Curvature

Quiz #2 on 12.5 13.2
Motion in Space: Velocity and Acceleration
Functions of Several Variables
Limits and Continuity

M
W

9/26
9/28

Exam #1 on 12.1 14.2

14.3 Partial Derivatives
14.4 Tangent Planes and Linear Approximations

M
W

10/3
10/5

14.5 The Chain Rule

Quiz #3 on 14.3 14.4
14.6 Directional Derivatives and the Gradient Vector
14.7 Maximum and Minimum Values

M
W

10/10
10/12

14.8 Lagrange Multipliers

15.1 Double Integrals over Rectangles
15.2 Iterated Integrals

Quiz #4 on 14.5 14.7

M
W

10/17
10/19

15.3 Double Integrals over General Regions

15.4 Double Integrals in Polar Coordinates
15.5 Applications of Double Integrals

Quiz #5 on 14.8 15.2

M
W

10/24
10/26

Exam #2 on 14.3 15.5

15.7 Triple Integrals

Discussion Section

Week

Day

Date

Sections Covered in RAPs

10/31

11/2

15.8 Triple Integrals in Cyl. Coords. Quiz #6 on 15.7

15.9 Triple Integrals in Sph. Coords.
15.10 Change of Variables in Multiple Integrals
16.1 Vector Fields

11

M
W

11/7
11/9

16.2 Line Integrals

Quiz #7 on 15.8 16.1
16.3 The Fundamental Theorem for Line Integrals
16.4 Greens Theorem

12

11/14

16.5 Curl and Divergence

Quiz #8 on 16.2 16.4
16.6 Parametric Surfaces and Their Areas

13

M
W
F

11/21
11/23
11/25

Exam #3 on 15.7 16.6

16.7 Surface Integrals
Thanksgiving Break, No Class

14

M
W

11/28
11/30

16.7 continued (no RAP)

16.8 Stokes Theorem

Quiz #9 on 16.7

15

12/5

16.9 The Divergence Theorem

16.10 Summary

Quiz #10 on 16.8

16

12/12

Review

Quiz #11 on 16.9

TBA

TBA

Final Exam ?:00 - ?:00 in Some Room, Some Building

10

Discussion Section