MAT 115-001: Mathematics for Liberal Arts

Instructor

• Name: Steven Wilkinson
• Office: MEP 480
• Phone: (859)572-5775
• Email: wilkinson@nku.edu
• Online course information: http://www.nku.edu/~wilkinson and Canvas
• Office hours:
  • MWF 11:55–12:55 p.m. in MEP 480
  • TR 2:00–3:00 p.m. in MEP 480
  • Other times by appointment

Course Information

• Course description

  Appreciation of mathematical ideas applied to problems from the real world; scheduling, voting schemes, apportionment, descriptive statistics, shape and symmetry, fractals, and population growth. For students of the liberal arts.

• Credits

  3 credit hours.

• Prerequisites

  P in MAT 101 or placement.

• Course specific outcomes

  • Regularly engage in problem-solving.
  • Develop mathematical reasoning skills.
  • Develop the ability to communicate mathematics.
  • Encounter mathematics as a growing discipline with connections to other disciplines.
  • Develop a deeper appreciation for mathematics and mathematical thinking.

• General Education

  • The Foundation of Knowledge, NKU's general education program, guides students to become independent learners, innovative thinkers, and responsible citizens. The program provides a foundation of values, knowledge, and skills that will empower them to discover their personal potential, communicate effectively, work in diverse communities, and solve problems in a global society. Courses in the program invite students to expand the life-long practice of asking questions, seek new points of view, apply principles of reason, adjust ideas in relation to new situations, and take reflective action. For more information see http://gened.nku.edu/.
  • Successful completion of MAT 115 fulfills the general education mathematics requirement.

Course Policies

• Attendance

  • Attendance will not be recorded.
  • You are responsible for all material assigned or covered in class.

• Resources

  • Online materials will be provided on Canvas as the course progresses.

• Tentative weekly schedule

  Week	Topics
  Week 1: 8/21 - 8/27	What is mathematics? Art and math Music and math
  Week 2: 8/28 - 9/3	Numeral history Deadline to add or drop with 100% tuition adjustment: Mon, Aug 29
  Week 3: 9/4 - 9/10	Decimal numbers Binary numbers No classes on Labor Day: Mon, Sep 5
  Week 4: 9/11 - 9/17	Prime numbers Clock arithmetic Checksums Deadline to drop with no grade and 50% tuition adjustment: Tue, Sep 13
  Week 5: 9/18 - 9/24	Ciphers Review for exam 1 Exam 1
  Week 6: 9/25 - 10/1	Triangles Pythagorean theorem
  Week 7: 10/2 - 10/8	Rational and irrational numbers Decimal numbers Approximations
  Week 8: 10/9 - 10/15	Polygons and circles Review for exam 2 Exam 2
  Week 9: 10/16 - 10/22	Graph intro Euler graphs Fall Break: Mon/Tue, Oct 17-18
  Week 10: 10/23 - 10/29	Hamilton graphs Networks
  Week 11: 10/30 - 11/5	Weighted networks TSP art Deadline to drop with grade of W: Mon, Oct 31
  Week 12: 11/6 - 11/12	Euler characteristic Review for exam 3 Exam 3
  Week 13: 11/13 - 11/19	Fractals
  Week 14: 11/20 - 11/26	Dynamical systems Thanksgiving break: Wed/Thu/Fri, Nov 23-25
  Week 15: 11/27 - 12/3	Conway’s Game of Life Infinity
  Week 16: 12/4 - 12/10	Cardinality Review for exam 4 Exam 4

• Tutoring

  • Drop-in tutoring:
    • In person, MEP 457, MTWR 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. and F 10:00 a.m. – noon.
    • Virtually, MTWR 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and Sunday 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
  • PLUS tutoring register in advance

• Other resources

  • Fuel NKU: On-campus food security resource
  • Health, Counciling, and Student Wellness: Suppport of the well-being of the community
  • Information Technology: Support for technology issues

Assessment

• Final Project

  • A project worth 20 points to be submitted at the end of the term.
  • You will have some leeway in choosing the nature of your project.

• Midterm Exams

  • There will be 4 exams during the semester, each worth 50 points. These will all be taken in class.
  • You can choose to retake any midterm exam once (a different version than the original). The retake score will replace the original exam score, even if the original score is higher.

• Homework

  • Online homework assignments worth 1 point for each problem.
  • Weekly written assignments worth 5 points each. These can be resubmitted with corrections once for grade improvement by the following week.

• In-class assignments

  • These assignments are worth 1 point for each worksheet and will be given out on nearly every class day. These are group work projects, and you must be present in class to get credit for this grade.

• Grading Scale

  Letter grade	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C-	D+	D	F
  % greater than or equal to	92	90	88	82	80	78	72	70	68	60	--

  I will give a grade of VF to any student who stops attending class before the course assessments are complete.

• Midterm Grades

  Midterm grades will be posted in myNKU by the deadline established in the NKU’s academic calendar.

Course Policies

• Attendance

  • Attendance will not be recorded. However, you must be present to be given credit for a group assignment.
  • You are responsible for all material assigned or covered in class.

• Technology Requirements

  • To submit written assignments you can either scan them or take pictures of them. In the latter case you will need software that converts them to pdf files using something like the free phone app, Microsoft Lens.
  • For use in class and on homework, you may want access to a graphing calculator or an online app like Desmos available at https://www.desmos.com.
  • Daily homework assignments will be done in iMath, a free online homework system. You will need to register for it by going to http://imath.nku.edu. If you have never used Imath, you will need to click the "Register as a new student" link on the right; if you have used it before, login with your previous username and password (which is not necessarily your NKU username and password). Click the “Enroll in a New Class” link and enter “540” for Course ID and “mat115fa2023” for the Enrollment Key.

• Credit Hour Policy

  In accordance with federal policy, NKU defines a credit hour as the amount of work represented in the achievement of student learning outcomes (verified by evidence of student achievement) that reasonably approximates one hour (50 minutes) of classroom instruction and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work. For every course credit hour, a typical student should expect to spend at least three hours per week of concentrated attention on course-related work including, but not limited to, class meeting time, reading, reviewing, organizing notes, studying and completing assignments. At least an equivalent amount of time is expected for other academic activities such as online courses, laboratory work, internships, practica, studio work and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

Student Information

• Department Common Syllabus

  The Department of Mathematics has information relevant for all mathematics and statistics classes. The department syllabus is available online at https://inside.nku.edu/content/dam/math/docs/DepartmentSyllabus.pdf. Additional information concerning Secondary Education Students is available on that Departmental Syllabus.

• NKU Common Syllabus

  Northern Kentucky University has a common syllabus available at https://www.nku.edu/content/dam/academicaffairs/docs/docs/University%20Common%20Syllabus%202020.pdf.

• Academic Honesty

  All students should adhere to the highest degree of ethical integrity in academic conduct. Read Northern Kentucky University’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities for details of your responsibilities. In this class plagiarism, either copying from others or allowing others to copy from you, will result in a grade of 0 for the work in question.

• Accommodations Due to Disability

  Northern Kentucky University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities. The syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students with disabilities: If you are seeking classroom accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, you are required to register with the Office for Student Accessibility (OSA) in SU 303. To receive academic accommodations for this class, please obtain the proper OSA forms and meet with me at the beginning of the semester. More information on OSA can be found at https://inside.nku.edu/osa.html.

• Communication

  Students should check their email and Canvas course sites regularly. Students may expect instructor responses to emails within 2 days.

• Names and Pronouns

  My gender pronouns are he, his, him. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name and/or gender pronouns from what is contained in NKU’s student records. Please advise me of these early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records.

Important Dates

• Monday, August 28: Last day to drop with 100% tuition adjustment. Last day to add a class.
• Monday, September 4: Labor Day, no classes
• Tuesday, September 12: Last day to drop with no grade appearing on transcript; last day to drop with 50% tuition adjustment.
• Monday, October 9: Midterm grades begin to be posted.
• Monday and Tuesday, October 16-17: Fall Break, no classes.
• Wednesday, October 18: Deadline for midterm grade submissions.
• Monday, October 30: Last day to drop a class with a W on your transcript.
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, November 22-24: Thanksgiving break, no classes
• Friday, December 8: Last day of classes.