ADDITIONAL SYLLABUS INFORMATION:

StLCC @ Meramec Web Pages URL Acuplacer placement test.
Students must provide appropriate documentation for enrollment to the instructor on or before Friday, Aug 29, 2008.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS: notebook folder cover, graph paper and a scientific calculator with trig and log, ln, and exp keys. A scientific calculator may be used on tests. Instructional videotapes are available for use in the Library Learning Lab.

ADDITIONAL STUDY AIDS: Our mathematics department tutors located in room SW 211 can help you and some library materials are available there. Tutoring is also offered at the South County Education Center and the West County Education Center. To obtain individual peer tutoring contact the College Success Program.

Before the end of the first week take the Skills Test for beginning Elementary Algebra found on pages 3, 4 and 5 in the Web pages of the Mathematics Department's Syllabus for MTH 030 ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA. You should be able to get 32 to 39 questions right. If you get 31 or fewer questions then consider taking Basic Mathematics to master necessary skills for Elementary Algebra. The answers are listed on page five.

Please consider policies and other recommendations in the Web pages of the Mathematics Department's Syllabus for MTH 030 ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA. Such as: "If you find it necessary to drop this class...", HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MATH STUDENT which includes When You Need Help, MATH DEPARTMENT POLICIES about Disruptive Behavior and about Cheating and/or Plagiarism, usng the Access Office, Attendance and Grading, Final Exams (Departmental), Course Repeater Policy, each chapter's Objectives and each chapter's ASSIGNMENTS given by Section and Exercises.

Read HAVING TROUBLE WITH MATHEMATICS ideas and read SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO STUDY MATH for additional suggestions. See http://users.stlcc.edu/departments/mcmath/MathDepartmentMain.htm Web page for details.

Please see me as soon as possible for any personal accommodations you require.

TIME ON COURSE: The three class hours you spend on this course will require about eight plus homework hours per week for high grades to around six homework hours per week for passing grades. It is best to construct a time schedule for each week of the course and mark out the study time you plan that gives you the needed eight to eleven hours indicated above.

TYPICAL CLASS PERIOD: The first part, about twenty minutes, of class is open for answering questions about the previous assignment including exercises, reading material, or classroom notes. Add exercises or questions to the start up list befor class starts. You are encouraged to answer other students assignment exercise questions for extra credit points by presenting your work on the chalk board. For each exercise presented and noted as one point on the attendance sheet, one grade point will be added to your unit test. While presenting exercises is expected, this communication beyond the one point is not graded. Use this time to experiment with your ability to understand an exercise and convey your understanding to others. Don't worry about any mistakes you may make, that's part of learning.

The second part of class is used to introduce new material with examples and discussion and demonstrations. It is generally assumed that prior to the time new material is covered in class, you took notes as you read from the new section(s) and practiced the new vocabulary. You may wish to include the textbook examples in your class discussion of new material as your instructor will cover these questions, ideas and concepts and do additional examples. Use this time to clarify any ideas you may have by asking questions or seek additional help hopefully during that same twenty four hours.

Some class time is spent with all students working at the chalk board.

Individual communication is not permitted in class.

EXPECTATIONS: This syllabus including the Course Schedule (below), Math Department Assignment Sheet(s), Math Department Course Objectives, Department Suggestions On How To Study, Beginning Skills Test, Mathematics Department Policies, combined with the St. Louis Community College student academic Rights and Responsibilities and study guide information, covered in the FACT FINDER, are basic expectations for this course. Please see me as soon as possible for any personal accommodations and please keep in mind that: The quickest way to resolve any difficulty, no matter how small, is to let your instructor know about it as soon as possible.

You are expected to read and take notes from the textbook and from each class. You are expected to finish each assignment on time. A few of the more difficult exercises that you need to ask about about in class should then be finish before the next assignment. Definitely ask for individual help when needed particularly if you can not work large portions of the exercises. Review the processes you used to solve home work exercises each day. Remember that you want to stay on top of your work and be able to adequately prepare for the unit test coming in a few days. This generally means you need to develop a dogged attitude with more than several hours per day spent on solving exercises, keeping good notes from the text and class, practice vocabulary and doing plenty of daily reviewing likely including some daily memorization. You are expected to contribute to your group's positive progress at all times. Use your personal weekly study schedule sheet to keep a record of finished work. Your instructor is located in the math department or you may call the office or home telephone number for extra help. Please call before 9:30 p.m. if you can. This course takes lots of gumption.

SOME GENERAL GOALS: Learning in this course may be enhanced by your frequent willingness to use and thereby improve various attributes related to knowing or learning mathematics.

Print and consider this Web list (http://jug.net/wt/mgoals.htm) while you strive for excellence in understanding mathematical ideas and develop corresponding techniques. It is OK to spend large amounts of time studying just a few ideas, pages, or problems. Give yourself personal permission for making mistakes. Use the criterion of "when time seems to flow" as your gauge for individual development to realize a sense of accomplishment then personal growth may change as well.

SPECIFIC ALGEBRA GOALS: Know and apply the algebra properties found in this course. Some initial specific algebra properties you need for this course are but a click away.

ASSIGNMENTS and NOTES: Your assignments and notes are checked for thoroughness at the end of each unit of material while you take the unit test. Without exception all exercises worked, notes from each section, and notes from lectures are required. Seven extra credit points = 3 for completely worked homework exercises + 2 points for textbook notes + 2 points for class notes are given via a quick review of the thoroughness and spot checked for accuracy of your work. These points may be added to your test grade when it is a C or higher. All material should be in sequential textbook order. The upper right corner of each notebook page needs to give the content type {text notes, class notes, exercises}, the chapter and section number and the date for that page.

Link here to the current ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA COURSE TOPIC SCHEDULE:   ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA, 5th edition by Elayn Martin-Gay