Diversity statement

At Southwestern, we are always striving to improve our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and that includes promoting the most inclusive learning environmennt possible. I view diversity as a resource and a strength of our community, and I want to make this course work for studeents of all identities. It is my intent to teach in a way that is as respectful and inclusive as possible with regard to: race, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, cultural background, as well as any other identities that I have unintentionally missed. I am always open to your suggestions, comments, concerns, and constructive criticism on how I carry out this ethos.

At Southwestern we have stringent community standards for the treatment of others. I will not tolerate any hate speech, bullying, or harassment of any kind, and I will report any violations of our code of conduct to the Title IX office.

Please feel free to let me know what name and pronouns you prefer to go by, and/or how you want your name to be pronounced, and I will make sure to address you how you want to be addressed.

Religious Observances

Southwestern University recognizes that it has students from a variety of religious and cultural traditions that have special days of observance or celebration that may take students out of their regular activities on certain days during the school year. Since the academic calendar does not always coincide with these days, the following policy is to be followed in order to facilitate student absences due to cultural and religious observances: As far in advance as possible, the student is expected to notify the professor(s) or instructor(s) of the class(es) to be missed. The student is expected to learn what assignments or exams are due or will be assigned on those dates and negotiate with the professor(s) or instructor(s) alternate times for fulfilling those requirements. Students should be prepared to fulfill the requirements prior to the class(es) to be missed.

Students with Disabilities

The Center for Academic Success coordinates reasonable, individualized accommodations for students with documented disabilities (medical, learning and/or psychological). To receive formal accommodations, students must be registered with the Assistant Director of Academic Success, Prothro Suite 120, (512) 863-1536. If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, the CAS will verify your disability and determine what reasonable accommodation(s) for this course are warranted, and then you should notify me of any required accommodations as soon as possible. Accommodations cannot be applied retroactively. It is the responsibility of any student seeking accommodation(s) for this course to present any necessary documentation to the instructor as early as possible.

Courses credit statement

Courses in the curriculum of the University are expressed in terms of credits. For courses that have a minimum class time of 150 minutes per week, students should expect to work outside of class a minimum of 2 and 1/2 hours per credit per week. For courses that have a minimum class time of 200 minutes per week, students should expect to work outside of class a minimum of 2 hours per credit per week. Class time and out-of-class work for courses yielding fewer than four credits will be expressed as some proportion of a four-credit course.

Prerequisites

You are expected to have completed MAT 52-164 (Modern Calculus I), CSC 54-184 (Computer Science I), and one of either MAT 52-264 (Modern Calculus II) or CSC 54-284 (Computer Science II).

We will be using the following textbooks in this course:

Technology

We will be using the following software in this course.

Moodle

At Southwestern our learning management system is Moodle. At the start of every lecture I will take attendance using Moodle. You will complete several pre-class reading quizzes on Moodle. I will use Moodle to keep track of grades, and you can use Moodle to see your current grade in the course. Finally, I will be using Moodle to make announcements. It is your responsibility to check your Southwestern email frequently and pay attention to announcements.

Discord

Discord is an instant-messaging platform that we will be using for communication. I have created a Discord server dedicated to this class. You can use Discord to communicate and collaborate with your fellow classmates. If you ask a question on Discord, you may well get a response from one of your classmates faster than you would get a response if you were to email me. You can also message me privately on Discord if you like using Discord better than email. The Discord server can also serve as a space for informal communication and simply getting to know your classmates better. Note that there are some guidelines about asking for help through Discord - please review the academic integrity section carefully.

Runestone Academy

You will access the DMOI textbook through Runestone Academy. To access the textbook, you should create an account on Runestone Academy. You should sign up for the course using the code SU-Discrete-Math-FA2025. See this page for instructions on creating an account and adding a course. Many of the questions on reading quizzes, participation questions, and homework questions will be taken from this textbook. For some problems, you will be able to submit and check answers on Runestone Academy (although you will have to eventually submit these problems in-person).

Class structure

This will not be a traditional class in which you show up to listen to a lecture. Instead, this will be a flipped classroom. You will be expected to study the material for class beforehand, so that we can use class time more efficiently. Each lecture will have a corresponding textbook section (or sections) which you should read the textbook section before you come to class. Additionally, for each reading assignment you will complete a Moodle quiz that checks your conceptual understanding of the material, and asks you which aspects of the material you would like to review more in class. You should finish the reading by 11:59 pm the night before the lecture. This allows me time to read your responses and plan the lecture accordingly. When you come to class, I will spend time going over the material that you found the most challenging. After this, we will devote the majority of class time towards problem-solving in small groups. This puts the onus on you to prepare, engage, and participate. The upside is that this will result in a more active form of learning; you will learn by teaching yourself through reading and problem-solving, rather than passivaly absorbing the information that I lecture.

Grading Scheme

My grading scheme is designed to grade you based on what/how much you learned. It is not designed to grade you based on...

As a result of this, the grade is mostly based on summative assessments (i.e., exams) rather than formative assessmens (i.e., in-class worksheets and homework). These are designed to accurately assess how much of the material that you learned, without overemphasizing when or how you learned it.

There are some gradebook components that count for very little in in the grade calculation. That does not mean that these activities don't matter - they are actually very important! These activities are what will help you prepare for things that you are evaluated on. You should think of these course components as opportunities to learn at your own pace, and to make and learn from mistakes. I will still include these items in the gradebook so that you (and I) are able to track your effort and engagement. You will be able to see the correlation between what you put into the class and what you get out of it; but you will be graded primarily on being able to demonstrate what/how much you have learned from these activities (rather than the activities themselves).

By default I will use the following standard scale:

These cutoffs may be lowered if need be, but they will never be raised.

Below I will describe all of the components that I will use to calculate your score. You may notice that the percentages add up to 105%, which is more than 100%. This is because different people learn in different ways, and different people succeed at different forms of evaluation. By structuring the class like this, you will have some leeway, and with enough effort you can earn a high grade without having to be perfect on every component of the course.

Attendance (1%)

Part of your grade will be based on simply showing up to class. Not only is attendance important for your own learning; because this class is interactive and collaborative, it is valuable for everyone to have as many people as possible show up as often as possible. That said, I understand that circumstances arise which may make attending class harder for some individuals than others, which is why it only counts for a small portion of your grade.

Since attendance is only 1%, you can theoretically get a high grade without high attendance. However, do so at your own risk. Every class you miss is a missed opportunity to fill in the gaps in your understanding of the material. If you can learn the material on your own time, then godspeed. However, if you struggle on homework or exams, you may well wish you had come to class more often.

I will use Moodle to track lecture attendance. At the start of every class, I will write an attendance code on the whiteboard. You will then to the attendance tab on Moodle, enter the code, and mark yourself present. If you show up to no later than one minute afer the start of class, you will one (1) attendance point for that day. If you come to class more than one minute late, you will receive 0.5 points. Othwerwise, you will receive 0 points. I also reserve the right to give you 0 points if you leave class unexcused.

Reading quizzes (4%)

Each assigned reading section will have a corresponding Moodle quiz that you should complete at 11:59 pm the night before class. This is meant to ensure that you are actively engaging with the material as you read it. Additionally, each quiz will have a question that allows you to state what questions you have after doing the reading; thus by completing the reading quiz you will also be giving me extra information to shape the class to best suit your needs.

Additionally, there is a Moodle quiz on the very syllabus that you are reading (as well as other administrative aspects of the course). Please complete this by the end of the first week - this will help you better retain and understand the course policies.

In-class worksheets (0%)

The majority of class time will be dedicated to solving problems related to the material being covered. These problems are designed to build off of the reading, and serve as a stepping stone towards solving homework problems. These problems are not graded; however, the more effort you put into these problems, the better prepared you will be to succeed on homework on exams. If you do not put full effort into completing in-class worksheets, you will struggle in the rest of the class.

Homework (30%)

Homework assignments will be consist of problems follow up on the material from class. Typically a homework assignment will build on the material covered in the two worksheets for a given week. You are allowed (and encouraged) to collaborate on homework problems, but you must submit your own writeup that represents your own work. All homework assignments should handed in on paper at the started of class on the day they are due.

Each homework problem will be graded as follows:

Homeworks will be due on Tuesdays. They will be graded and returned on Thursday of that week (i.e. two days later). You will then have until the following Tuesday (i.e., one week after the original due date) to re-work the assignment for a higher grade. Whenever you re-work a problem, you can re-work a 0% grade to a 50% grade, and you can re-work a 50% grade to a 100% grade; however, you may not re-work a 0% grade to a 100% grade. In order to earn the chance to re-work your way to 100%, you must put adequate effort into your original submission. While initial submissions must be submitted in-class, re-works may be handed to me outside of class, or slipped under my office door, or (if necessary, such as on weekends) emailed to me.

You may write your solutions on paper. However, you are strongly encouraged to typeset your assignments for several reasons, including making it easier for me to read your work, grade it accurately, and give precise feedback. In order to incentivize you to typeset your assignments, I will give one (1) extra credit for submitting typed work. To do this, you can use Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or Google Docs (along with their built-in equation editors) to type your work. However, the best way to typeset mathematical documents is to use LaTeX, a markup language specifically designed for typing mathematical symbols. In my opionion, the easiest way to create documents in LaTeX is through Overleaf, which is basically "Google Docs for LaTeX". In addition to making it easy to write LaTeX code and compile it into a document, Overleaf provides tools such as real-time collaboration, track-changes/commenting, and a chat-box, that will make it easy for me to help you prepare/fix your document. You can look at this tutorial to learn more about what LaTeX is and how to create LaTeX documents on Overleaf. Initially you may experience some growing pains with LaTeX, but eventually you will see that it allows you to write complicated equations much more quickly than other typesetting software; furthermore, because this is not the last mathematically-oriented course you will have to take, learning LaTeX now will serve as an investment that will pay dividends in the future.

Exams (50%)

As intimidating as exams are, we need some way to evaluate how well you yourself understand the course material without the aid of others. There will be two in-class exams worth 15% each, and a final exam worth 20%. You will be allowed to have an 8.5x11 "cheat sheet" for each exam, and you will be allowed to re-work the two in-class exams to get back a portion of the points that you missed.

Paideia Project (15%)

In addition to problem-solving assignments, you will complete a project that makes connections between the material in this course and the rest of your life Southwestern. This is a chance for you to flex your creative muscles, and make this class more fun and tailored to your personal interests. In order to help you avoid procrastinating, you must submit the paideia project in stages. First you will submit a short proposal, and I will give feedback on whether your proposed connections make sense to explore further. In week 13 you will submit a first draft of your project, and I will give you feedback on what needs to be improved for the final submission. Your final submission will be due on the last day of class. The use of AI is explicitly prohibited for the paideia project.

Extra Engagement (1%)

Throughout the semester you will have opportunities to receive extra credit for active engagement that goes beyond coming to class and completing assignments. You can receive extra engagement points for the following activities: You may receive up to 25 "engagement points", 20 of which may come from activities other than the syllabus quiz.

Pass-fail grading policy

If you are taking the course for pass/fail credit instead of a grade, then you must meet the following criteria to earn a passing grade:

Student Hours

This is a challenging course! The worksheets and homework assignments are designed to challenge you (if they didn't, then you wouldn't learn anything). I fully expect you to run into situations in which you need some help to solve a problem. This does NOT mean you are struggling or bad at the material; it simply means that you are engaging with the course fully, and that you are embracing the productive struggle that is necessary to learn the material deeply.

For those times when you get stuck, student hours are your best resource for getting help. These are times that I dedicate towards helping students with coursework.

Rather than setting aside specific student hours, I will be scheduling student hours by appointment. When you need help, you can request a time to meet with me. This way, I can offer student hours to the students who most need it at the times that work the best. Here are some more details:

Academic Integrity

We want you to succeed in this course, but we also want you to succeed with integrity. We want to make sure that you actually learn the material, so that the impact of the course doesn't disappear once the semester ends. We also want to make sure that every student has a fair chance to succeed, and isn't being taken advantage of by their peers. You worked very hard to get into a prestigious school like Southwestern, and without enforcing academic integrity that very prestige would quickly crumble.

In this course we expect students to adhere to Southwestern University's honor code. This means that you will complete your work honestly, with integrity, and support and environment of integrity within the class. While you may collaborate on homework, all work that you submit should reflect your own effort and understanding. The following actions represent acceptable forms of collaboration:

The following actions represent unacceptable forms of collaboration: I cannot emphasize enough that I want you all to collaborate as much as possible. I want you to teach each other how to solve problems, because these exchanges are mutually beneficial. What I don't want is for you to exchange information in ways that substitutes for actual learning. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to reproduce the solutions that you turn in without needing to refer to your writeup. If I suspect that you have not followed the honor code, I reserve the right to ask you to explain the solutions that you submitted, and I will be significantly more inclined to press charges if you cannot reproduce your own work. Additionally, when you are solving participation or homework problems, you should not consult with students who are not in this class, nor should you consult any online resources other than the textbook or posted class materials.

All honor code violations will be handled according to university guidelines. If it is your first violation, you and I will have the opportunity to come to a joint resolution. Otherwise, you will be referred to honor code hearing board for a hearing.

Note: When you are asking for help on Discord, you may ask general questions, and you can post partial solutions in order to get help finishing the problem. Just try not to post anything that fully gives away the answer to a problem. Posting a discord message that gives away too much info is not an honor code violation as long as it was an honest mistake and a good faith effort to give or get help, as opposed to a blatant attempt to help the rest of the class cheat; regardless, but I will delete messages that I judge to be too revealing.

AI Policy

There are no restrictions on how you may use the AI for worksheets and homework problems. You read that right. Use AI freely. However...do so at your own risk. If you become dependent on AI to the point that you cannot solve problems without it, you will struggle mightily on the exams. AI is not a substitute for learning, and this is reflected in the grading scheme.

The same principle described in the collaboration policy applies to the AI policy: you should be able to reproduce the solution to worksheet and homework problems without needing to look at your writeup. It is OK to use AI as long as you use it to to the point where you can explain the solution correctly in your words, without any assistance. However, if you use AI generate a solution without actually learning how the solution works, then you will struggle to solve new problems on the exam. The bottom line is that while you will not be penalized for using AI, your grade will suffer if you do not use it carefully and/or strategically.

You may not use AI for the paideia project. Your writing must be your own.

Late Policy

In general I will not be accepting late submissions this semester. The deadlines are ironclad. The only way I may make exceptions is if you have a truly extenuating circumstance (such as a family or medical emergency), but I will need a note from a parent or doctor.

Grade Appeals

Grades can be appealed up to two weeks after they have been posted; no appeals will be considered after that time. Please note that the entire assignment will be regraded upon appeal.

Audio/Video Recordings

To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student's own private use.

Copyrighted Materials

All material provided through course websites is subject to copyright. This applies to class/recitation notes, slides, assignments, solutions, project descriptions, etc. You are allowed (and expected!) to use all of the provided material for personal use. However, you are strictly prohibited from sharing the material with others in general and from posting the material on the web or other file sharing venues in particular.

Retention Statement

Southwestern has adopted a proactive advising approach, and in order to support this faculty and staff submit concerns about students to our retention management system. This alerts the student’s advisor who then reaches out to the student to offer support and resources. I will submit a concern for you if you fail to submit more than one assignment or have more than two unexcused absences. This safety net is in place because our community prioritizes student welfare and wants to do everything possible to support students when they are having difficulty.