Course:Multivariable Calculus

Multivariable Calculus or Math 241: Calculus III is a dual-credit course taken through the University of Illinois' online NetMath high school math course system. The class is taken after AP Calculus BC and before Differential Equations.

The course is composed of 13 8-12 assignment lessons with a quiz per lesson, 2 midterms on lessons 1-5 and 6-10, and a final on all lessons.

Multivariable Calculus despite it's name is not harder than AP Calculus BC. In fact, it is easier. You use and expand on the concepts about differentials, vectors, integrals, matrices, and more that you learned in AP Calculus BC. Furthermore, only about 5% of class time is spent on notes usually during the first and second days of the lesson and the remaining 95% is time delegated so that you can work on Try It assignments. As long as you put in quality work during class, ask questions, and complete all review materials you should end up getting an A to an A+ in this class.

Syllabus

Course notes
A half-inch binded printed book with all of the course notes for every lesson is provided at the beginning of the year. This kind of acts as a textbook with explainations for concepts, demonstrated problems, and proofs. It also contains practice problems at the end of each lesson. These practice problems are what you use for Problem presentations. They also act as problems you should go through yourself so that you are prepared for the quiz. These problems can show up directly on the quiz itself. Proofs can as well. Straka will typically notify you of what proofs and sometimes problems you should know before a quiz.

Try Its
At the beginning of the year you are introduced to given an account to the online homework portal CAS-ILE/Courseware.

CAS-ILE provides a list of assignments called "Try Its" that are interactive notebooks that can run Mathematica computer code. Having an online environment to learn the course's content and complete work through is essential as many complicated multi-dimensional graphs and computations are part of the course's content. You will learn to use and modify mathematical computer code provided to you through tutorials to complete these complicated problems. There are usually about 8-12 Try Its per unit and you are given 2-4 days to complete sets of usually 2-3 of them. They are due at midnight of the day CAS-ILE indicates. Try Its can have extremely variable length. This means that it is critical that you review all of the Try Its that are due and delegate your time appropriately. Try Its are electronically submitted and graded. If you did not receive full points the first time, you have to opportunity to resubmit with corrections once. Resubmissions are due before the quiz starts.

Literacy sheet
In addition to completing online assignments, you will need to complete a paper literacy sheet at the end of each of each lesson before the quiz. You are given the literacy sheet at the beginning of the lesson. The entire class period the day after the last Try Its in the lesson are due is given to work on the literacy sheet. It is due at the end of the class period and graded for accuracy. It cannot be resubmitted and the late penalty is 10%. Literacy sheets almost always take more time than the class period you are given to work on them. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you work on it throughout the lesson as you learn the concepts or the day(s) before so that you can be ready to turn it in by the end of the period and not receive the harsh 10% penalty (the literacy sheet accounts for 10% of your grade).

Review
The following day the literacy sheet is due is a review day in which you can ask questions, complete the non-graded additional review packet, work on Try It resubmissions, present problems, or anything else you might need to do. The review packet is typically smaller than the literacy sheet and serves as extra practice. It is typically handed out during the literacy sheet completion day.

Problem presentations
You must do 3 problem presentations each semester. Problem presentations are problems that come from the ends of lessons in the course notes. Problems can be presented on any work day where there is free time. Once a problem has done by someone in your class, you cannot do it. You also cannot complete problems from lessons ahead of the lesson you are currently in. Problem presentations are very easy. They only take about 5-20 minutes initially to solve on your own. It is expected that you are presenting the correct solution to a problem. If you are not confident with your solution, you are free to ask Straka or another classmate to review your work.

To present one, you fill in your name on the in the cell corresponding to the problem you will do on problem presentation tracking Google Sheet and highlight the cell yellow. This lets others know that you have claimed the problem and have it ready. Then, you notify Straka in-class that you would like to present a problem and he will dedicate a time during the period to present it. Presenting involves going up to the whiteboard and simply writing and explaining your work for the problem while the class pays attention. If you have not verified your work with Straka beforehand, he may comment if you do not have the correct answer and usually together you will work through fixing the problem. Additionally, Straka may offer additional insight to the class such as a different way to interpret or solve the problem after you complete it.

Google drive folder
A link to a Google drive folder will be provided that will contain files for the literacy and review sheets, keys for review sheets, the syllabus, the course notes, and the problem presentation tracking sheet.

Environment
As Straka puts it in his syllabus, this class is very different than any math class you will ever take.