Basic Information

• Date/time/room: MWF 12:00 pm - 12:50 pm, 243 Altgeld Hall.
• Instructor: A.J. Hildebrand, phone 244-7721, email ajh@illinois.edu. When sending email, include the string "Math 347" in the subject line. My office is in 241 Illini Hall. You are welcome to stop by any time (I am in most of the time when I am not teaching or in meetings) or email me to make an appointment. However, I intend the weekly "Open House" (see below) to be primary point of contact for my students.
• Open House/Study Sessions:Tentatively scheduled for Tuesdays, 5 pm - 6:30 pm 159 Altgeld Hall, beginning the second week of class, and Sundays, 3 pm - 5 pm. I'll stay as long as needed, usually at least an hour, and sometimes much longer that. The Open House is intended as an informal office hour and get-together for students in this class. Take advantage of this opportunity! Check the course webpage for any announcements or changes in the Open House schedule.
• Final Exam date: Wednesday, May 9, 8:00 am - 11:00 am.

Course Information

• About this section: This section is an honors section of Math 347. Enrollment in the honors section requires approval by the Mathematics Department and an A in calculus. Students typically get into the honors section following a nomination by their calculus instructor and a special invitation by the Mathematics Department. You should certainly not choose this honors section simply because it happens to best fit into your schedule. If you feel overwhelmed by the demands of this section, consider switching to one of the standard 347 sections. Since all 347 sections use the same text and (at least initially) follow the same syllabus, the transition to another section should be smooth.
• Differences to regular Math 347 sections. We will use the same text and cover roughly the same material as the regular sections, but in greater depth and at a more demanding level. Also, in addition to regular homework assignments there will be periodic honors assignments consisting of more challenging problems.
• Text and syllabus: "Mathematical Thinking" by D'Angelo and West (2nd edition) is the main text for this course. We will cover Chapters 1-4, 13-14, and selected topics from the other chapters as time permits.
• Goals of this course: This course provides an introduction to rigorous mathematical reasoning and writing and serves as a gateway course and prerequisite for many upper level undergraduate math courses such as Math 417 or Math 444. You will learn the fundamental concepts in mathematics such as sets, functions, relations, etc.; how to form a rigorous mathematical argument (a "proof"); and how to write up the argument in a clear and logically correct manner. Along the way you will encounter many interesting, "cool" problems; see pp. xvii--xx in the preface to the text for a sampler of such problems.
• This course versus other math courses. This course is quite different from lower level math courses such as calculus or differential equations. It emphasizes mathematical reasoning and general problem-solving skills rather than mechanical applications of recipes and memorizations of formulas. To learn and practice such skills, the text offers a wide range of problems from different areas of mathematics. In contrast to lower level classes where problems typically are patterned after examples in the text and can be solved by routine manipulations, in this course you'll encounter many problems that, at first glance, appear unlike anything else in the corresponding chapter. This is by design, as such problems force you to engage in some serious, independent, mathematical thinking.

  The course is very labor-intensive, probably more so than any other math course at the beginning undergraduate level, and you have to be prepared to invest a substantial amount of time into it. This course is hard - for most students it is the hardest course they have taken - but it offers many rewards. Finding a solution to a tough problem can be personally very satisfying. The analytical skills you acquire in this course not only prepare you for advanced math courses, but are useful in life in general.

Grading

• Course grade: The course grade will be determined by the accumulated points total from homework, midterm exams, and the final exam. An approximate breakdown of points is as follows:
  • Regular Homework: 150 points
  • Honors Homework: 100 points
  • Midterm Exams: 300 points (100 points per exam)
  • Final Exam: 200 points
• Regular Homework: There will be 10-12 weekly graded HW assignments. Late assignments will not be accepted, but if you have a legitimate, documented, excuse for missing an assignment (e.g., illness), I will mark the assignment as excused (see the section "Missed/late homework" below). At the end of the semester, the lowest HW score will be dropped; the remaining HW scores will determine your the HW total.
  Group work policy: Group work on the regular (non-honors) homework problems is fine and, indeed, encouraged, provided you write up solutions yourself, using your own words. Group work should not be a one-sided affair, and it also should not be a division of labor, with each group member doing only a subset of the problems and passing out solutions to the rest of the group. Everybody should contribute, and the goal should be for everyone in the group to end up understanding all of the problems.
• Honors Homework: In addition to the regular homework assignments, there will be periodic Honors Homework assignments consisting of more challenging problems. There will be a total of 4 - 6 such assignments, accounting for approximately 100 points. There will be no drop scores among the honors assignments, but the assignments will have generous deadlines and liberal turn-in policies. In contrast to the regular homework, group work on the honors assignments is not allowed; you must do these assignments on your own, without any help from fellow students or friends, and without consulting books and online resources.
• Midterm exams: There will be three in-class midterm exams, spread out evenly over the semester. Tentative dates are 2/15, 3/7, and 4/18 (all of these dates fall on a Wednesday).
• Final Exam: The Final Exam will be cumulative and will be about twice as long as a midterm. It will be given at the officially scheduled exam slot for classes meeting MWF 12:00-12:50: Wednesday, May 9, 8:00 am - 11:00 am.
  Note: University rules require that you take the Final Exam at the assigned slot for the class, unless you are in a ``three consecutive finals'' situation (in which case you are entitled to a conflict exam by one of the classes involved). In particular, you cannot take the Final at a different date/time simply to accommodate travel plans. Please keep the above Final date in mind when making your travel plans.

Policies

• Missed exams: There will be no make-up exams. Instead, if you miss an exam and have a valid excuse, I will mark the exam as "excused". An "excused" exam means that this exam will not be taken into account in the computation of your grade, and the score total will be adjusted accordingly. Valid excuses include illness, an out-of-town job interview, etc., and must be documented by an "absence letter" issued by the Dean; call the Dean's office at 217-333-0050 or come to the office at 300 Turner Student Services Building, 610 East John Street, Champaign. For more information on this, see the Emergency Dean's website.
• Missed/late homework: Late homework will not be accepted. Since the lowest homework score will be dropped, you can afford to miss one homework assignment and still end up with a perfect homework average. If you cannot turn in an assignment due to illness or some other valid excuse, the same policy as for missed exams applies: With a Dean's letter ("absence letter") as documentation, I will mark the assignment as excused; that is, it will not count towards the homework average (and will also not affect your drop score).

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