Information on this syllabus is subject to change. Any updates will be posted to this site. In particular, any required changes in course delivery, such as transition to remote delivery only, may necessitate significant modifications to this syllabus.
If you would like to estimate your likely course grade, here is a grade estimation worksheet.
Because Exam 1 was taken during an ice storm, we will drop your Exam 1 if (and only if) doing so improves your grade. We will not drop Exams 2 or 3, and will not drop the final unless there is another major disruptive incident in May.
We will drop your 1 (and probably 2) lowest group project grades; if you would like to increase the chances of dropping your 2 lowest grades, fill out the online course evaluation by April 30.
The grade estimation worksheet includes a 2% curve (that is, lowering of letter grade cutoffs from 90/80/70/60 to 88/78/68/58) based on low midterm exam averages. Further curving may be applied if the final exam also has low averages. (High averages on the final will not, however, result in the cutoffs being moved back up.)
Per this announcement from the Office of the Provost, you may withdraw from the course at any time up until April 29. Furthermore, if you are an undergraduate, and if I give you a grade of “F”, it will be automatically converted to a “NC” and will not count towards your GPA.
Here are some suggested review problems. Approximately half of the final exam will be new material (method of undetermined coefficients, resonance, and Laplace transforms) while the other half will be a cumulative review of the material covered on Exams 1–3.
We will review for the exam in class on Wednesday, April 28, and in drill on Tuesday, April 27 and Thursday, April 29.
The final exam is scheduled for Monday, May 3, at 8:00 a.m. in KIMP 102 (Section 2) or Wednesday, May 5, at 10:15 a.m. in GEAR 102 (Section 3).
If you have three or more final exams scheduled for the same day, then under University policy you are entitled to reschedule one of your finals. If you wish to reschedule the final for our class, please notify me by email as soon as possible.
Somewhat to my surprise, a large auditorium is probably available on Wednesday May 5 at 10:15 a.m. This is the scheduled time for the Section 3 final and the auditorium is large enough to accommodate all students enrolled in the course. Thus, we will not need to schedule make-up finals. You may fill out this form if
Review materials: Here are some suggested review problems: Exam 1, Exam 2, Exam 3. Please look at them by Monday (9:40 section) or Tuesday (8:35 section).
The time and place you are expected to take the exam will be posted to the Blackboard grade center by Monday of exam week.
On the exams, you will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. If you would like to review calculus before the exam, here are some suggested problems.
On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit.
| Section 2 (MWF 8:35) | Section 3 (MWF 9:40) | |
| Monday (February 8; March 8; April 5) | Ordinary lecture at the usual time and place (8:35, KIMP 102) |
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| Tuesday (February 9; March 9; April 6) | Remote review with William Blair (normal drill times, Zoom). Please look at the review problems before all review sessions. | |
| Wednesday (February 10; March 10; April 7) | In person review for the exam with Ariel Barton during our normal class time (8:35, KIMP 102). Please look at the review problems before all review sessions. |
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| Thursday (February 11; March 11; April 8) |
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| Friday (February 12; March 12; April 9) | Exam during our normal class time (8:35, KIMP 102) unless:
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Ordinary lecture at the usual time and place (9:40, GEAR 102 and via Zoom) |
Thursday 9:30: The normal classroom for Section 2 seats 43 and 48 students are enrolled. The exam classroom for Section D16 seats 23 and 29 students are enrolled. Thus, I need a certain number of students who would normally take the exam Thursday at 11:00 or Friday at 8:35 to take it Thursday at 9:30 instead.
If you volunteered to take Exam 1 at 9:30 on Thursday, or if you are in the 9:40 section and you volunteered to take Exam 1 on Friday, I will assume that you are willing to do the same for Exams 2 and 3 unless you inform me otherwise.
If you are enrolled in the 8:35 section (or the 11:00 drill section) and you prefer to take the exam Thursday at 9:30, you may do so if you let me know by the Monday before the exam.
Remote exams: If Student Services has told me that you must be allowed to take exams remotely, if you have active COVID symptoms, if you have been told to quarantine by a doctor or contact tracer, or if you have my advance permission for a remote exam, you will take your exam remotely.
CEA: If you have a documented disability and have been granted extra time, a distraction-reduced environment, or other exam-related accommodations by the CEA, please schedule your exams with the CEA. If you are enrolled in Section 3 (9:40 MWF), please schedule exams on Thursday, February 11, Thursday, March 11, and Thursday, April 8. If you are enrolled in Section 2 (8:35 MWF), please schedule exams on Friday, February 12, Friday, March 12, and Friday, April 9.
Exam week inclement weather/University closure policy:
If the University is closed for inclement weather or other reasons on Monday or Wednesday, we will do a review session via Zoom at the time of our scheduled in person review session.
If the University is closed on Thursday or Friday for inclement weather or other temporary reasons, I will attempt to schedule in person make-up exams at an appropriate time. If that fails, we will do an online exam. Instructions for online exams will be distributed by email as soon as possible. (The procedures for the entire class doing online exams are not the same as the procedures listed below for a few exceptional students doing remote exams.)
If the University is closed on a long-term basis (for COVID or other reasons), or it is otherwise immediately obvious that in-person exams the following week are not viable, we will have an online exam . Instructions will be distributed by email as soon as possible.
I will hold virtual office hours Tuesdays starting at 2:00, and on Thursdays starting at 12:30. If you want to attend office hours but expect to be late, please let me know; otherwise, if no one attends in the first 15 minutes I will assume that no one intends to attend that day. In Blackboard, on the left-hand sidebar (below the “My Grades” link), there is a link to Zoom; following that link will get you to my office hours. These office hours are on a drop in basis; you do not need an appointment to attend these office hours.
If the above times do not work for you or if you wish to speak to me privately, please email me and we will schedule a private one-on-one Zoom meeting just for you.
The online homework for this class will be found at Webassign and comes primarily from the text Differential Equations with Boundary-Value Problems, 9th Edition, by Dennis G. Zill, Cengage Learning. All students registered for this class should automatically be charged for and provided with WebAssign access as part of the University's Inclusive Access program. This includes access to an electronic version of the textbook.
The course key for this course will be posted to Blackboard as an announcement. You should be able to register for the course; see this link if you have trouble. Please use your @uark.edu email address; this makes it much easier for me to coordinate grades across WebAssign and Blackboard.
Online homework will be assigned based on each day's lecture and is normally due at 11:59 p.m. six days later. Certain assignments may be given extra time to allow study time for the midterm exams. No online homework scores are dropped. WebAssign has been configured to give you extensions for two weeks after the assignment is due; extensions carry a 30% late penalty. WebAssign is an automatic grading system, and thus deadlines are very rigid (that is, an assignment turned in at 12:00 is still penalized as late). Do your homework well in advance of the deadline!
Drills will be held remotely. Drill sessions are led by William Blair, a graduate teaching assistant, and meet once per week, including the first week. Participation in drill section is required, and you must participate in the section in which you are enrolled. In drill sessions you will normally group projects or prepare for exams.
The 12 group project assignments will be held in drill sections every week (except exam weeks). There will be no makeup group project assignments. Students will collaborate on group labs using the Breakout Rooms feature. Your lowest lab score will be dropped. If at least 80% of the class completes the course evaluation, your two lowest lab scores will be dropped. You will be graded on only one of Lab #6 and Lab #9, as you are not expected to attend drill during Spring Break.
Here is how to get to your drill session:
There will be three midterms tests (covering material learned since the previous midterm) and a (comprehensive) final exam. I plan to hold midterm exams during class time on the dates indicated in the calendar below. The final exam will occur at the time indicated on the registrar's website.
We will hold exams in person. You will be expected to attend unless you have specific permission from Student Services to participate remotely, have active symptoms of illness, or have been told to quarantine by a doctor or contact tracer. Please contact me if you think you need to take the exam remotely.
If you are taking the exam remotely, you will be expected to log into Zoom and keep your video running throughout the exam. Thus, to take exams remotely, you will need a webcam. The webcam can be the type that's built into your computer or one that plugs in with a USB cable.
In the event that some students take exams in person and some students take exams remotely, I reserve the right to put different questions on the two forms of the exams.
Accommodations: All accommodations requested by the Center for Educational Access will be fulfilled to the best of the instructor's ability. It is the student's responsibility to discuss the implementation of the accommodations with the instructor, either in person or via email. In particular, accommodations to testing must be discussed at least one week before the date of the exam (two weeks before the final).
Certain accommodations (such as extra time on exams) will be granted only at the CEA's request. Other accommodations (such as large print exams or permission to write answers on lined paper) are available to any student who makes the request in a timely fashion. Please consult with your instructor in all such cases.
As homework for this course is assigned through WebAssign, exam grading will stress clarity of exposition and other stylistic issues that cannot be assessed by a computer.
Make-up exams: Make-up exam requests also require written documentation or other evidence as to your conflict. Except in the case of medical or other unforeseen emergencies, make-up exam requests must be made at least one week before the exam is to be held. Make-up exams are at the instructor's discretion; if you do not provide a documented reason why you cannot take the exam at the usual time, if your reason is considered inadequate, or if your request for a make-up exam is not made in a timely fashion, I reserve the right to refuse a make-up exam or to assess a late penalty (deduction from your score).
If you have three or more final exams scheduled for the same day, then under University policy you are entitled to reschedule one of your finals. If you wish to reschedule the final for our class, please notify me by email at least two weeks before the final, and I will arrange for you to take a make-up final on another day.
Illness during in person exams: If you experience potential COVID symptoms the day of an in-person exam and feel the need to self-isolate, please let me know by email as soon as possible. If you are self-isolating but still well enough to take an exam on the scheduled day, you will be expected to take an online exam during your class's exam period. As noted above, if you need to schedule a make-up exam for a later date, you will need written documentation (that is, a doctor's note).
At the beginning of the semester, to the extent possible, lectures will be delivered in person. Certain circumstances may force us to switch to remote instruction on either a temporary or permanent basis.
In person instruction: I will deliver lectures at the time and place specified by UAConnect. I will probably not be able to allow real time interactive remote participation. That is, if you want me to answer your questions during lecture, you will need to attend in person.
As of this writing, lectures are scheduled for:
Recordings of lectures will be made available via Blackboard. (If a lecture fails to be recorded because of techical issues, I will make a replacement video.)
Recording of Class Lectures: By attending this class, the student understands the course is being recorded and consents to being recorded for official university educational purposes. Be aware that incidental recording may also occur before and after official class times. Recordings may include personally-identifiable comments submitted to the chat stream during class.
COVID lecture policy: University policy requires the wearing of face coverings in all campus buildings unless you have a health exemption. Please do not come to class without a face covering. This also means you cannot consume food and drink in the classroom. Do not congregate outside the door before class. Do not share pencils, paper, or other items.
Attend virtually if you have any COVID symptoms, have been exposed, or otherwise feel that you need to self-isolate. Please notify me in this event.
Remote instruction: All students will be expected to attend a Zoom meeting during their regularly scheduled class time. I will deliver a lecture via webcam and screen sharing. Students will have a chance to ask questions during lecture in real time.
Zoom recordings will be posted to Blackboard in the event that you cannot attend in real time or simply wish to review the lecture. (If a lecture fails to be recorded because of techical issues, I will make a replacement video.) Note that Zoom will record the screen of the active speaker; if you want to ask a question and do not want your face recorded, you must turn off your video, and if you want to ask a question without your voice being recorded, you must ask it via the chat message feature. Your participation constitutes acceptance of this policy and it is your responsibility to disable your video or audio as needed.
I currently plan to switch to remote instruction on a temporary basis if any of the following things happen:
I plan to switch to permanent remote instruction if any of the following things happen:
Attendance: Attendance will be taken in person only for contact tracing and course planning purposes only. Attendance will not affect your grade directly. (You will do better on the exams and homework if you attend regularly, and that will certainly affect your grade!)
| Date | Event |
| Monday, Jan. 11 | First day of class |
| Friday, Jan. 15 | Last day to add a course |
| Monday, Jan. 18 | Martin Luther King holiday (all classes canceled) |
| Monday, Jan. 25 | Last day to drop a course |
| Thursday, Feb. 11 (section 3) and Friday, Feb. 12 (section 2) | First midterm exam–good luck! You will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. Some suggested review problems may be found here. If you would like to review calculus before the exam, here are some suggested problems.
On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit.
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| Monday, Feb. 22 | Spring break (no lecture) |
| Tuesday, Feb. 23 | Spring break (no drill) |
| Thursday, Mar. 11 (section 3) and Friday, Mar. 12 (section 2) | Second midterm exam–good luck! You will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. If you would like to review calculus before the exam, here are some suggested problems.
On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit. |
| Thursday, Mar. 25 | Spring break (no drill) |
| Friday, Mar. 26 | Spring break (no lecture) |
| Friday, Apr. 2 | Spring break (no lecture) |
| Thursday, Apr. 8 (section 3) and Friday, Apr. 9 (section 2) | Third midterm exam–good luck! You will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. If you would like to review calculus before the exam, here are some suggested problems.
On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit. |
| Friday, Apr. 16 | Last day to withdraw from a course. If you would like to estimate your likely course grade, here is a grade estimation worksheet.
If you have three final exams scheduled on the same day, then under university policy you are entitled to an alternative exam date; if you wish to reschedule my exam, please inform me by email (aeb019@uark.edu) that you need a make-up exam on or before April 16. |
| Wednesday, Apr. 28 | Last day of class |
| Apr. 20–30 (or dates set by university policy) | Complete the online course evaluation. If at least 80% of the class completes the course evaluation before the deadline, I will drop your 2 lowest lab scores; otherwise, I will drop your 1 lowest lab score. |
| Monday, May 3 | Final exam for Section 2 (8:35 meeting time), 8:00–10:00 a.m. or time indicated on the registrar's website.
Good luck! You will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit. |
| Wednesday, May 5 | Final exam for Section 3 (9:40 meeting time). We will probably need to schedule some alternate times, because you will not all fit in our classroom at the scheduled final exam time for our section. Please fill out this form to tell me at what times on Wednesday you can take the final. (The form includes information for Wednesday finals from the registrar's website.)
Good luck! You will be allowed a non-graphing calculator. On exams, you are expected to explain your answers carefully; a correct answer with no supporting computation or arguments will receive no credit. |
(Academic dates from the Academic Calendar in the undergraduate catalog.)
Course Description: First and second order ordinary differential equations, the Laplace transform, and matrix systems of ordinary differential equations.
Prerequisites: MATH 2564 or 2564C (Calculus II) with a grade of C or better. Knowledge of the mathematical concepts learned in Calculus I and II, especially differentiation and integration techniques as applied to polynomial, rational, exponential, and trigonometric functions. MATH 2574 (Calculus III) and MATH 3083 (Linear Algebra) are helpful but not required.
Goals: Students will learn how to formulate differential equations as models of physical processes in science and engineering, find and analyze their solutions, and employ the Laplace transform as an additional tool for finding solutions.
Course grade: I will compute your course percentage based on both columns of the following table, then base your course letter grade on whichever is higher.2
| Group projects | 1% per undropped project (probably 9%) | |
| Homework | 35% minus group lab percentage (probably 26%) | |
| Midterm Exam 1 | 13% | 0% |
| Midterm Exam 2 | 13% | 16% |
| Midterm Exam 3 | 13% | 16% |
| Final | 26% | 33% |
Grade Disputes: All grade disputes must be brought to the attention of the instructor and resolved within one week of the day that the graded test paper is returned. The instructor is committed to keeping students informed of their standing in the class. Scores on all graded items will be posted in a timely manner. Students are expected to bring any possible errors to the attention of the instructor within one week of posting. This maintains an accurate grade record throughout the semester. All scores posted before Dead Day will be deemed accurate unless a possible error is brought to the attention of the instructor before Wednesday of finals week.
Cell phones: Cell phones, tablets, laptops, and other electronic devices may be used in class even when attending in person. The expectation is that these devices will be used for taking notes, routine calculations (i.e., calculator apps), accessing course materials, and other course-related uses only. Please do not text or play games in class!
Incompletes: Only given in extreme circumstances, and only when the student has satisfactorily completed all but a small portion of the work in the course. Students must make prior arrangements with the professor well before the end of the semester.
Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty on any exam, quiz, or other graded item will result in a score of zero that cannot be dropped or replaced. Suspected cases of academic dishonesty are referred to the All-University Academic Integrity Board. The following passage is quoted from honesty.uark.edu and is the policy in this course:
As a core part of its mission, the University of Arkansas provides students with the opportunity to further their educational goals through programs of study and research in an environment that promotes freedom of inquiry and academic responsibility. Accomplishing this mission is only possible when intellectual honesty and individual integrity prevail.
Each University of Arkansas student is required to be familiar with and abide by the University’s ‘Academic Integrity Policy’ which may be found at http://provost.uark.edu/. Students with questions about how these policies apply to a particular course or assignment should immediately contact their instructor.
Unauthorized Use of Class Recordings: These recordings may be used by students only for the purposes of the class. Students may not download, store, copy, alter, post, share, or distribute in any manner all or any portion of the class recording, (e.g. a 5-second clip of a class recording sent as a private message to one person is a violation of this provision). This provision may protect the following interests (as well as other interests not listed): faculty and university copyright; FERPA rights; and other privacy interests protected under state and/or federal law. Unauthorized recording, or transmission of a recording, of all or any portion of a class is prohibited unless the recording is necessary for educational accommodation as expressly authorized and documented through the Center for Educational Access with proper advance notice to the instructor. Unauthorized recordings may violate federal law, state law, and university policies. Student-made recordings are subject to the same restrictions as instructor-made recordings. Failure to comply with this provision will result in a referral to the Office of Student Standards and Conduct for potential charges under the Code of Student Life. In situations where the recordings are used to gain an academic advantage, it may also be considered a violation of the University of Arkansas' academic integrity policy.
Unauthorized Websites or Internet Resources: There are many websites claiming to offer study aids to students, but in using such websites, students could find themselves in violation of our University’s Academic Integrity and Code of Student Life policies. The U of A does not endorse the use of these products in an unethical manner. These websites may encourage students to upload course materials, such as test questions, individual assignments, and examples of graded material. Such materials are the intellectual property of instructors, the university, or publishers and may not be distributed without prior authorization. Furthermore, paying for academic work to be completed on your behalf and submitting it for academic credit is considered ‘contract cheating’ per the Academic Integrity Policy. Students found responsible for this type of violation face a grading penalty of ‘XF’ and a minimum one-semester academic suspension per the University of Arkansas Sanction Rubric. Please let us know if you are uncertain about the use of a website.
Classroom Etiquette: Students and instructors each have an important role in maintaining a classroom environment optimal for learning, and are expected to treat each other with respect during class, using thoughtful dialogue, and keeping disruptive behaviors to a minimum. Both students and faculty perceive abusive language directed towards others as the most disruptive behavior. Other behaviors that can be disruptive of in person classes are chatting and whispering during class, the use of smartphones or laptops for texting or in other ways unrelated to the course, preparing to leave before class is over, and consistently arriving late to class. Inappropriate behavior in the classroom may result in a request to leave the class and/or a referral to the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct.