COURSE SYLLABUS – Math 0320 Fall 2011 - Reese Center COURSE TITLE: Intermediate Algebra Math 0320.207TTH11:00am - 12:450pm RC 321 Math 0320.209TTH 1:00 pm –2:45pm RC321 INSTRUCTOR: Donna Scarborough Office: 316-B Reese Phone: 806-716-4886 or 806-885-3048 x 4886 EMAIL: [email protected] or on Blackboard OFFICE HOURS: ANY CHANGES WILL BE POSTED ON OFFICE 316-B MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY 10:00 am - 12:15 pm 2:45 pm – 3:30 pm 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm 10:00 am – 12:15 pm 2:45 pm – 3:30 pm 2:45 pm – 3:45 pm 9:20 am – 10:00 am Or by appointment for other times COURSE DESCRIPTION: MATH 0320 (3:3:2) Intermediate Algebra. This course is designed for those students who need MATH 1314 or MATH 1324. It includes graphing linear equations, write linear equations, solve systems of equations in two unknowns by graphing, linear combination, or substitution, solve word problems using systems, graph systems of inequalities, solve a quadratic equation by factoring, quadratic formula, square root, or completing the square, simplify rational expressions and solve rational equations, simplify radical expressions and solve radical equations, and perform operations with complex numbers. TEXT: “Elementary and Intermediate Algebra”, Edition 2. By Michael Sullivan, III, Katherine R. Struve, Janet Mazzarella, (2010), Pearson Education, Inc.: Upper Saddle River, NJ: My Math Lab supplement packet. CALCULATORS: Calculators will be allowed. TI – 83 graphing calculators will be allowed except when covering graphing or a simple calculator with a square root key. If you do not have a graphing calculator, I will furnish one for use in class only. If a calculator disappears from class, then the class will not be allowed to use graphing calculators until it is returned. If in-appropriate drawings or sayings appear on the calculator after class, then that class will not be allowed to use the calculator until the person who did it admits to it. Calculators on cell phones or other electronic devices will not be allowed. COURSE ATTENDANCE: Attendance and effort are the most important activities for success in this course. Your lack of attendance will put you at risk of failing this course. Class attendance may be taken at any time during the class period. If you are absent more than 5 times during the semester, you will receive an F for the course at the end of the semester even if your average is passing. If the 5 absences occur during the semester up to a week before last day to drop, an early alert will be sent to inform you that you have a week to drop the course if you do not want a grade of F on your transcript before I initiate an administratively drop. Two (2) tardies equal one absence. Tardies will be assigned to those students arriving to class up to 15 minutes late or leaving up to 15 minutes early. Coming to class any later or leaving class any earlier will be considered an absence. The policies of the current SPC catalog will be followed for attendance requirements as well as for both student-initiated and administrative withdrawal procedures. If you are tardy, it is your responsibility to see me after class ON THE SAME DAY that the tardy occurs to be sure that I did not mark you absence. Refer to the South Plains College General Catalog under Class Attendance and Withdrawals for withdrawal procedures on page 21. An absence is anytime you are not present. All absences are unexcused. Be mindful that while this course does not affect your GPA, it does count for Financial Aid Eligibility and can affect transferring to a four-year institution as it is recorded on your transcript. Students that sleep during class or do not participate in class activities will be counted as absent. In addition, talking or whispering between students, side comments, offensive remarks, excessive shifting of backpacks and/or other materials, side comments, working on any assignment or activity other than which directly relates to the class, sleeping wearing of headphones or audio ear „buds‟, and excessive leaving and returning to the classroom during the course of the class period will not be allowed. Students might be asked to leave class and will be counted as absent. Sunglasses are not to be worn in the classroom. GRADING POLICY: The final grade for this course will be determined in the following way: Final average = (4 major exams + daily average + final exam)/6 Final grades will be as assigned by the following scale: 100 - 90 = A 89 – 80 = B 79 – 70 = C 69 – 60 = D Below 60 = F Your TSI score is used for placement only and will not be used to determine your final grade.Page 2 MAJOR EXAMS: Tentative test dates are noted in the class calendar. There will be 4 major exam grades and a final exam. The final will be a comprehensive. The final exam grade (if it is higher) will be used to replace the lowest major exam grade. If the final exam is lower than any of the 4 major exam grades, it will only count once in the course average. Students who have no more than two (2) absences may choose not to take the final exam if they are satisfied with their course average. If a student is exempt from the final exam due to attendance, the student‟s class average excluding the exam will be used as the final exam grade. A MAJOR EXAM, QUIZ, OR HOMEWORK GRADE, MISSED, FOR ANY REASON WILL COUNT AS A ZERO (see Make-Up Policy below). On test days, students are only to bring pencils, calculators, and an eraser. The instructor will provide scratch paper. Papers must be returned to the instructor with the test. MAKE-UP POLICY: If a student is absent, FOR ANY REASON, when a major exam is given, the student will receive a grade of zero for that exam. At the end of the semester, the final exam grade (if it is higher) will be used to replace the lowest major exam grade. A second missed exam will be averaged as a zero. There is NO make-up for a missed quiz or homework grade. If you miss a lab assignment (warm-up) that is graded, you may come into my office to replace this zero with a grade. EXEMPTION POLICY: Students with no more than two (2) absences may choose not to take the final exam Example: two (2) absences and one (1) tardy will be required to