Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus Spring 2013 MTH 163 Precalculus I 002W Mon,Wed : 3:30 pm to 4;45pm

Instructor: Susan Sunny Office location: Room 208 E Office Phone: (703) 878-4522 Office hours: Walk in: Mon wed(9:30 to 11:30, 2 to 3:30) Tue, Th(10:45 to 12:15)

By appointment: Tue, Th(8am to 10:45am, 2pm to 4:15pm)

e-mail: ssunny@nvcc.edu Text Book :Blitzer Precalculus 4e. Rationale: This course prepares students for Applied or Business Calculus (Math 271). It may also be used in conjunction with Math 164 to prepare students for a course in calculus with analytic geometry (Math 173). It should provide the student with the necessary competencies in algebra, functions (polynomial, rational, exponential, and logarithmic), analytic geometry, and matrices. Text: Precalculus, Fourth Edition with My Math Lab (MML) Student Access Code, Robert Blitzer, Pearson 2010. Text and code new $231.45 in book store. To save money, you can purchase My Math Lab access code only ($114.30) in bookstore. This code allows you to view the textbook as an eBook. If you are not comfortable using an eBook, then you should buy the textbook packaged with the MML code. You can sell back the textbook at the end of the semester. If you need MTH 164, you will use the same textbook. Graphing Calculators: A graphing calculator is required for this course. The TI-84 Plus will be used in class. The instructor is not familiar with the operation of other brands of graphing calculators and would be unable to help you learn to use them without reading your manual. Be prepared to bring our graphing calculator to every class. Course Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the placement test and have completed either Algebra II (MTH 004 or MTH 060) or Unit 9 in MTT 4. To be successful in MTH 163 you should have taken Algebra II or completed Unit 9 of MTT 4 within the year. Students who have not had either of these courses I within the last two semesters find this course very difficult if not impossible to pass with a grade of C or higher. Course Objectives: As a result of the learning experiences in this course, the student should be able to: Solve problems involving exponents, equations, inequalities, and/or systems of linear equations. Operate on functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide, composition), find inverses. Graph linear, quadratic, exponential and logarithmic functions. Factor polynomials and find their zeros. Perform elementary row operations with matrices Solve systems of equations using algebraic and graphing methods Solve systems of equations using matrices. Required topics Exponents, Radicals, Inequalities and absolute values, Complex Numbers, graphs, functions, Polynomial functions, Rational functions, Matrices, solving system of equations. Extra Topics: Determinants, Solving system of Equations. Class Requirements: Three (3) hours of class per week. Three (3) credits earned.

Class participation: All students are responsible for all material covered in class whether they are present during the lectures or not. Students who join class late, take vacation during the semester or otherwise miss classes are responsible for catching up on all missed work. The instructor will be available during scheduled office time to answer questions. Individual lecture or tutor sessions will not be held to cover missed material. Students that miss class should contact the instructor or another student in the class to find out what handouts or take home work was assigned. Students are expected to attend all classes, arrive on time and stay until the end of class. Attendance will be taken each class and records of attendance must be retained for 4 years in accordance with NVCC policy. Students are required to sign the attendance sheet which will be hanging on the door. All students need a notebook and are expected to take notes in class. Taking detailed, comprehensive notes is necessary. Be sure to include the date when taking notes during lectures. Material not covered in the text will be covered during the lectures. Similarly, there may be text material that is not covered in lectures. As a minimum you should take down everything I write on the board. What you may think is obvious during a lecture may not be so obvious when you do homework or study for exams. The course curriculum is extensive. Class time is not available to repeat lecture material. In doing homework, students will be expected to apply the principles that they have learned to complex problem solving. The textbook should be used as a resource. MML has guided examples and help me solve this options for each homework example. There is no excuse for not being able to do the homework. You are expected to do all homework assigned. Be sure to use the on line help for difficult problems. It is the student's responsibility to drop a course on their own. However, if a student has not attended any classes during the first three weeks of the semester, he/she will be withdrawn from the course by the instructor. Students may be withdrawn by the instructor for non-attendance other times during the semester. If you do not attend a course and/or perform course work, you will fail the course (i.e., receive an "F") unless the course is dropped during the drop period in accordance with the requirements of the Northern Virginia Community College. Students must properly drop courses in order to receive a "W" for Withdrawn. The instructor will note your last day of attending classes and turn this in with your final grade (this affects Department of Veterans Affairs benefits). The last day you may drop courses with tuition refund or change to audit during the Spring 2013 semester is February 1, 2013. The last day to withdraw without grade penalty is March 25, 2013. A grade of withdrawal ("W") cannot be given after March 25, 2013 without extenuating circumstances and documentation. Do not ask the instructor to make exceptions to the foregoing. An incomplete grade (I) will be given only during the last week of the semester for verifiable, unavoidable circumstances. If a student is given an incomplete, he/she must finish the course by the end of the next semester.

Classroom behavior and disruptions: The amount of lecture time available and the amount of material that is expected to be covered in this course does not permit time for disruptive behavior or discipline. Misbehavior and disruption will not be tolerated and will be handled in accordance with the requirements of Northern Virginia Community College, Woodbridge Campus. The following devices cannot be used during class: cell phones, blue tooth, beepers, pagers, I Pods, blackberries or other personal music devices. Cell phones must not be visible or used during class. Conversation among students disrupts class and therefore will not be allowed. You will be told to leave class if you are talking. Students with Disabilities: If you have a disability which has been diagnosed and documented and which may cause you to have problems with any part of this course, please see me as soon as possible so that suitable alternate arrangements may be made.

Tutoring/Extra help: Your instructor is available for help during office hours. In the PIER (Tutoring Center Room 328) you may receive individual help from a math instructor or peer tutors. This tutoring is free to NVCC students. Check schedule for days and hours of operation.

My Math Lab has resources to help you understand the course material presented during lecture. For most homework problems assigned, you can use Help me solve this or watch a video/ power point to get step by step instructions on how to complete the problem. If you use Show me an example, it will give you all the steps for a similar problem and then you must do the steps for the given problem. Help Me Solve This prompts you with questions for each step. When you have completed all the steps, you do not get credit for the problem. You must ask for a similar problem and do the work without help to receive credit for a correct answer. Be sure when you have used MML that you can do a similar problem on your own.

Instructor not present for class or college is closed/delayed opening In the event your instructor does not show up for a class, you must wait 15 minutes before leaving. If a notice has not been posted in the classroom, please check with the division office (Room 208) before leaving to see if instructor has left a message for students. Students should do the next assignment from the syllabus. If the college is closed due to inclement weather, students should do the next assignment. If there is a delayed opening, class will be held if 45 minutes of class remains. Closing announcements appear on the NVCC web site. Cheating Academic dishonesty cannot be condoned. When such misconduct is established as having occurred, it subjects you to possible disciplinary actions ranging from admonition to dismissal, along with a zero score for the test, test corrections, quiz, or take-home graded work. Academic dishonesty includes: 1. Cheating on an exam or quiz, including the giving, receiving or soliciting of information and the unauthorized use of notes or other materials during the exam or quiz. 2. Collusion with another person on tests, test corrections, quizzes or take-home assignments submitted for credit unless such collaboration has been approved by the instructor. This means you may not ask the math center tutors to do test/quiz problems for you. You may ask for help with a similar type problem. A = 90% - 100% (minimum of 540 points) B = 80% - 89% (480-539 points) C = 70% - 79% (420-479 points) D = 60% - 69% (360-419 points) F = less than 60% (less than 360 points ) I = Incomplete W = Withdrawn (The last day to withdraw without grade penalty is March 25, 2013) Assignments: Go through http://pearsonmylabandmastering.comto register as a student. Use sunny20127 as ID to be in my class. Final Exam

May 13 from 3 pm to 4:50pm.