- Welcome! Thanks for signing up! I'm glad that you're here.
- This session will be captured on Zoom, if
I remember to turn it on, and record it. Please help me to remember.
Here's the link to the Zoom recording of today's session.
- Today we'll handle basic logistics, then we'll undertake a
classroom exercise to get us thinking about units, and rates of
change -- which is one of the fundamental issues we'll study
this semester (under the name of "the derivative").
- You have a reading -- and work -- assignment for
next time (prior to class on Monday):
please read Section 1.1 in our text, and carry out Preview Activity 1.1.1 (bring your work to class).
- I am hearing-impaired (wear hearing aids): teaching has become
even trickier, given the masking. But if I don't understand
your question, please be patient with me; or, if I
misunderstand what you've said, just let me know that I'm off
track!
- This just in from the Dean of Arts and Sciences: "Beginning today
[Tuesday, 1/18] and continuing for the next few weeks, Gravity
Diagnostics will once again be providing COVID testing on
campus. Testing is located in the University Center, Room 204 and is
available Monday through Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m."
- Roll and 3x5 cards: Please fill out the card, indicating
- Name (that you want me to call you)
- Hometown
- What is your calling? ("a calling has to do with one's larger purpose, personhood, deepest values, and the gift one wishes to give the world.... A calling is about the use one makes of a career." David Orr, Earth in Mind)
- What is your dream job?
- What is something special about you?
- The course website will be useful:
http://www.nku.edu/~longa/classes/mat128
I won't be doing much with Canvas. Our course materials will be here. I will try to keep assignments cross-listed to Canvas, however, as I realize that many of you use that to keep yourselves organized in terms of when things are due.
You should have received an announcement with a link to this website on Canvas; hence you can always get here quickly via Canvas. Just keep that announcement around....
- Syllabus (logistics, etc.)
- The plan of attack: we'll get through (much of) chapters one
through three in our text (and a smidge of four).
Assignments will be updated on the website. (If you notice any conflict with what's on Canvas, please let me know.)
- We'll be using
- a free, on-line textbook, called Active Calculus;
- a free, on-line homework system, called IMath;
- Free materials (activities) created by colleagues here at NKU (Drs. Dan McGee and Steve Wilkinson).
But there's a second operative word: active (and activities). You will be active in this class. Come expecting to work in class, on your own and with others in class.
- You'll probably want access to a tablet or laptop in class, but
it's not required. A phone is a substitute for either of
those. A graphing calculator is also useful as well.
These really reduce the tedium associated with some aspects of advanced mathematics, and allow you to check your work. That being said, you'll have access to only a graphing calculator for the exams, so you want use these other tools as aids, but not as crutches.
- Tutoring
lab (MEP 457) may prove helpful. Run by the Mathematics Department
out of MEP457 and staffed by our upper level students, it provides free
tutoring to Calculus students in our department. Their service will be
offered in person and remotely this semester. More to come.
- You should do the reading in advance of our discussion of
each section in class. That's why I assign some "preview"
questions (which are graded as either having been done, or
not -- and count 5% toward your final grade).
-
Rachel Maddow was interviewing Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown
University's School for Public Health, about a spike in Covid
that they've seen in Boston's "Wastewater" (sewage, as reported
here):
Her question to Dr. Jha, however, inspires our course:
In epidemiological terms, and tell me if this is the kind of thing that's too complicated to explain to somebody without a degree:... is the sharpness of that drop explained by the same factors that created the sharpness of the rise? Meaning, is a curve that rises that steeply always also going to come down that steeply or could we be looking at something where it went up really fast and the decline ultimately is going to be slower?
His response matched my own: "It's a fabulous question."
(He goes on from there, but let's stop there and think about her question: what is she asking about? Hint: it's the key concept on which (differential) calculus relies...;)
Let's talk about it!
- What are the units in the graph?
- Here's a comparison of Massachusetts Covid Case Numbers versus the wastewater data:
What do you think of using the wastewater data, by comparison with the case count data?
- Then it's on to our first handout.
Before we jump in, however, a little background on the structure of the handouts -- the motivation for Dr. McGee, in particular, as he inspired the creation of these materials.
- The wastewater data is publically available, from this page explaining the project.
- More background on the creation of this Covid in wastewater function....