CS 240 - Introduction to Discrete Mathematics, Summer 2007
Course Organization - Table of Contents
General Information
Purpose and Focus of Course
Grading and Assignments
Office Hours and Review Sessions
learn@UW
Academic Misconduct
General Information
Lecture: MTWR 10:20-11:35, in 1263 CS
First class: Monday June 18
Last class: Thursday August 9
Required text:
Discrete Mathematics and its Applications, 6th edition, by Kenneth H. Rosen.
A copy of the textbook is on reserve at both the Engineering Library and Math Library.
Each can be checked out to be used 2 hours at a time at the library.
Purpose and Focus of Course
The focus of this course comes from two different perspectives.
The first is that this course is required for the Computer Science major and
is taken as part of certain Engineering majors. As such, a variety
of concepts and techniques are introduced that are useful for computer
scientists and engineers.
For the second perspective, consider the title - Introduction to Discrete
Mathematics. As a course in discrete math, we focus on objects and structures
that are either finite or countable. Examples of countable and finite objects
include: graphs, circuits, computer programs, and the integers.
As a math course, we reason about these
structures and come up with interesting things to say about them.
The "correct perspective" of the course is a marriage of the
above. It turns out that discrete objects are useful in modeling many
aspects of the real world, so it is natural to study these objects from a
mathematical perspective.
For a detailed list of topics that we will cover, see
Course Content.
Grading and Assignments
The students of this course have the following responsibilities:
read assigned pages of the book,
attend lecture, complete online quizzes (one per lecture), complete weekly
homeworks, and
take 2 non-cumulative exams. The final grade consists of:
- 2 exams: 40% total, so 20% each. The exams will be given
during the regular lecture hour. The last exam will take place on the
last day of class. The first exam will be scheduled when we get
closer to it. The final exam will be non-cummulative.
- Weekly Homeworks: 45% total. There will be 7 weekly homeworks,
with the lowest score dropped. Each of the 6 highest homework scores are
thus worth 7.5%. Homeworks are due at the beginning of class
each Thursday (except the first week),
and homeworks are given out at the end of class each Thursday.
LATE HOMEWORKS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
- Daily Online Quizzes: 15% total. There will be 29 quizzes
(one for each lecture except for exam days), and the lowest 2 scores are
dropped. Each of the 27 highest quiz scores are thus worth 0.56%.
The quizzes are taken on the course's
learn@UW site. The quiz associated with a
given lecture will be made accessible immediately after that lecture
finishes, and must be submitted before the next day's lecture (Thursday's
quiz is due before class on Monday). LATE QUIZZES WILL NOT BE
ACCEPTED.
The daily online quizzes are designed to ensure that you are following
along with the basic concepts.
The weekly homework assignments are designed to test your ability to
put together the basic concepts in more complicated situations, and will
be more challenging. The TA will hold a homework review session for one hour
each week to discuss the more difficult problems from the previous week's
homework. The time of this review session will be determined during the
first day of class.
If you want additional help with the homework, please come to office hours.
The exams will be taken in-class, and will be of difficulty in between that
of the online quizzes and the homeworks. We will release a sample exam and
list of topics a week or so before each exam, and the TA will hold an
exam review session within the last few days before each exam. There will
be more details on these exam review sessions when they get closer.
Grade cutoffs
As listed
on Office of the Registrar - grades, the letter grades
are intended to have the following meaning:
A - Excellent, AB - Intermediate good/excellent, B - Good, BC - Intermediate
fair/good, C - Fair, D - Poor, F - Failure. Each of the assignments
(quizzes, homeworks, and exams) will be graded to this standard. Each homework
and exam will receive both a number and a letter grade. You can keep track
of how you are doing in the course with the learn@UW
site. The learn@UW site will contain all of your grades, and it will be
updated after each homework with "what your grade would be if the semester
ended today".
Office Hours and Review Sessions
There are a number of opportunities for additional help from the TA and/or
instructor outside of the lecture hour. These include:
- Office Hours: Both the instructor and TA will hold four office
hours per week. You are welcome to come to office hours to discuss any
topic. If the office hours listed on the course website do not work, contact
the TA or instructor to set up an appointment.
- Homework Review Sessions: The TA will hold homework review sessions
for one hour each week after the homework has been turned in. Solutions to
the more challenging exercises will likely be discussed, but those who show
up can decide how to use the time.
- Exam Review Sessions: The TA will hold exam review sessions before
each exam. Those who show up can ask questions of the TA. A sample exam
will be provided in advance, so it is fine to ask the TA to solve some (or all)
of these problems.
Please take advantage of as many or as few of these opportunities as you need
to learn the material effectively.
learn@UW
The course has a learn@UW site. Click
here to go to learn@UW. You should see
CS/Math 240 listed under your courses for the Summer 2007 term. The learn@UW
site is used only for taking the daily quizzes and for viewing your grades.
All course content, schedule, etc. is kept on the instructor's webpage
(which you are currently viewing).
Academic Misconduct
Please follow these guidelines to avoid problems with academic misconduct
in this course:
- Daily Online Quizzes: Do not use any human or Internet source to assist
you with the quizzes. You may use your book, notes, etc.
- Weekly Homeworks: You may discuss the homework problems with classmates,
the instructor, and TA. However, you should write up the solutions yourself.
You should not search the Internet for solutions to the problems. If you
are having problems with the homework, contact the TA or instructor for help.
- Exams: This should be clear - no cheating during exams. The exams will
be closed-book, closed-notes, and no calculator.
We point out that if cheating is observed, in most circumstances the
University's
Policies on Academic Misconduct require the instructor to
file a written report with the Offices of the Dean of Students and
the Academic Dean's Office. An Investigating Office from the Dean's office
may then recommend additional penalties beyond what the instructor has
chosen. We point out that these can be very serious consequences, so please
refrain from cheating.
Please ask the instructor or TA if you have doubts about what is considered
academic misconduct in this course.
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