# Noah White

University of Califonia,
Los Angeles

# Math 3B: Calculus for life sciences students

This is the course website for Math 3B: Calculus for Life Scinces Students running in Winter 2017. All information about homework, quizes and exams will be posted here.

The syllabus contains information on the official policies for collaboration on homework, late homework, grading and changing grades.

We will be using Piazza for this class. See below for more information.

# Instructor, TAs and office hours

 Instructor: Noah White (noah@math.ucla.edu) Office hours: MS 6304, 10:30am-12pm Wednesday*, 9:30-11am Thursday TA: Max Zhou (maxzhou94@gmail.com) Office hours: MS 3955, 3-5pm Friday Yuejiao Sun (sunyj@math.ucla.edu) MS 3915B, 2-10am Thursday Mengyuan (Jeanine) Ding (mengyuanding@ucla.edu) MS 2961, 10-11am Tuesday, 1-2pm Thursday

*I am teaching two courses this quarter. To accommodate this I will be prioritising Math 3B questions in my Wednesday office hours (and Math 32B on Fridays). Please check back here as office hours and locations may change.

# Communication

Due to the fact that this is such a large class I would appreciate your help managing communication for the class.

Mathematical questions should be asked on Piazza (see below). In addition you should make use of my, and the TA’s, office hours. Administrative questions should in the first instance be directed to your TA. If your TA cannot resolve your query then you should contact me.

If you need to email me, the subject line must include the string math3b-w17. If not, then there is a good chance your email will slip through the cracks and remain unanswered.

# Textbook

S. J. Schreiber, Calculus for the Life Sciences, Wiley

Owning a copy of the textbook will be very helpful and is recommended however you might not find it necessary. I will post links to other sources here as time goes on. We will not be using WileyPlus so feel free to buy an old or used copy of the textbook - any edition is fine.

# Problem sets, homework and quizzes

There will be a problem set assigned every week. Most of these will not be collected however it is strongly recommended that you complete it.

Every second week (as indicated in the class schedule below) a small number questions from the problem set will be assigned as homework and collected and graded.

In weeks where no homework is collected a short quiz will be conducted in the discussion sessions. Questions on the quiz will be drawn from the problem set (or will be very similar to one of these questions). The lowest 2 scores out of all homeworks and quizzes will be dropped. The homework and quizzes will count for a total of 10% of your grade.

# Lecture notes

Here I will indicate which sections of the textbook will be covered in each lecture and the relevant problems in each problem set. It is recommended that you read the textbook and think about some of the problems before the lecture.

You will find links to the lecture notes and slides as they become available. They represent more or less what we covered in lectures but not exactly, depending on how many questions I got and if we ran out of time.

• Lecture 1: Review and limits and differentiation. Questions 1-6 in PS1.
• Lecture 2: Read section 4.1. Questions 7-11 in PS1.
• Lecture 3: Read section 4.2. Questions 1-2 in PS2.
• Lecture 4: Read sections 4.2. Questions 1-3 in PS2.
• Lecture 5: Read section 4.3. Questions 4-10 in PS2.
• Lecture 6: Read section 5.1. Questions 4-7 in PS3.
• Lecture 7: Read section 5.3. Question 13 in PS3.
• Lecture 8: Review.
• Lecture 9: Read sections 5.4 and 5.5. Questions 3-6 on PS4.
• Lecture 10: Read section 5.6 and review polynomial long division. Questions 1-3 on PS5.
• Lecture 11: Read additional notes on partial fractions. Questions 4-7 on PS5.
• Lecture 12: Read section 5.8. Questions … on PS6.
• Lecture 13: Questions … on PS6.
• Lecture 14: Read section 6.1.
• Lecture 15: Read section 6.2.
• Lecture 16: Read section 6.3 up to example 4
• Lecture 17: Read rest of section 6.3.
• Lecture 18: Review
• Lecture 19: Read start of 6.4 up to example 4
• Lecture 20: Questions 1,2,4,5 on PS9 and read rest of 6.4.
• Lecture 21: Read section 6.5 up to example 2.
• Lecture 22: Read rest of section 6.5.
• Lecture 23: Examples
• Lecture 24: Read section 6.6.
• Lecture 25: Review
• Lecture 26: Review

# Exams

There will be two midterms and a final exam.

• Midterm 1: 8-8:50am Monday, 30 January, 2017
• Midterm 2: 8-8:50am Monday, 27 February, 2017
• Final Exam: 8am-11am Monday, 20 March, 2017

Cheatsheets: For each exam, students may bring a cheat sheet. Each student must prepare their own handwritten cheat sheet. For the midterms, the cheat sheet may consist of one side of half a standard (A4 or letter) sheet of paper (i.e. A5 or letter folded in half lengthways). For the final, the cheat sheet may consist of one side of a standard sheet of paper. Cheatsheets that do not meet these requirements will be confiscated at the beginning of the exam.

Calculators: You may use a non-programmable, non-graphing calculator in exams. Calculators not meeting this specification will be confiscated.

Study: Here I will post some rough study guides and practice exams which might aid your study.

Your final grade will be calculated using the maximum of the following two grading schemes. Your letter grade will then be determined by your rank in the class. Unless something very out of the ordinary occurs I expect to give approximately 25-35% A’s and 55-65% A’s and B’s combined.

Option 1:

10% (8 best homework/quiz scores) +
40% (combined midterm scores) +
50% (final exam score)


Option 2:

10% (8 best homework/quiz scores) +
30% (best midterm score) +
60% (final exam score)


Effectively, this will mean that unless you score worse in the final than both midterms, your lowest midterm score will be dropped. This also means missing one midterm probably will not impact your grade in any serious way.

# Schedule

This is a tentative schedule. Apart from the dates of exams, it may change. Numbers refer to sections of the textbook.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
1. 1/91
4.1
1/10
Quiz 1
1/112
4.1
1/12
Quiz 1
1/133
4.2
2. MLK Day
(no class)
1/17
1/184
4.3-4
1/19
1/205
4.5 HW 1
3. 1/236
5.1
1/24
Quiz 2
1/257
5.2
1/26
Quiz 2
1/278
Review
4. 1/30
Midterm 1
1/31
2/19
5.3
2/2
2/310
5.4 HW 2
5. 2/6 11
5.5
2/7
Quiz 3
2/8 12
5.6
2/9
Quiz 3
2/1013
5.6
6. 2/1314
5.8
2/14
2/1515
6.1
2/16
2/1716
6.2 HW 3
7. Pres day
(no class)
2/21
Quiz 4
2/2217
6.2
2/23
Quiz 4
2/2418
Review
8. 2/27
Midterm 2
2/28
3/1 19
6.3
3/2
3/3 20
6.4 HW 4
9. 3/6 21
6.5
3/7
Quiz 5
3/8 22
6.5
3/9
Quiz 5
3/1023
6.6
10. 3/1324
6.6
3/14
Quiz 6
3/1525
Review
3/16
Quiz 6
3/1726
Review

# Piazza

Piazza is a question and answer style forum which we will be using for this class. If you visit CCLE you will find a link which will allow you to register for a piazza account.

You can ask questions, either as yourself or anonymously. I highly encourage you to also try answering others’ questions. Teaching others is by far the most effective way to learn and solidify what you already know. The TAs and I will monitor the discussion and answer questions occasionally.

Obviously homework questions and solutions should not be posted on Piazza. Offences will be treated as academic dishonesty/cheating.