Essential Additional Information for

Introduction to Mathematics for Computer Science (06-20415)

(Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014)



Lecture Slides

There will usually be two lectures per week, normally during the Thursday sessions.

Lecture slides will be available here.

As the year proceeds, the slides will be incrementally added. Don't expect new ones to be available before mid-afternoon or evening on the Wednesday of each week.



In-Class Exercises, Homework, and Class Tests

Usually, each Friday session will consist of your doing IN-CLASS EXERCISES (unassessed) or a CLASS TEST (assessed). We plan to have three class tests per term. Such exercises and tests will be available here. They will be added to this site at some point after the session.

Exercises you don't complete in class can be completed as (unassessed) homework.

We may also assign additional exercises specifcially as (unassessed) homework.



Lecturers

The lecturing over the year is planned to be shared in some way between Dr Vickers and Prof Barnden. However, Dr Vickers is away because of illness, and it is not clear when he will be able to take over.

It is likely that Prof Barnden will be the lecturer throughout Term 1 and much of Term 2.



Getting Help



Feedback You'll Get in This Module

As the module proceeds, you'll get the following sorts of feedback on your work and development:



Spirit of the Module

The Spirit of the Module is not a sinister ghost. Nor a new type of hard liquor. Rather ...

We take very seriously the point made in the Syllabus Page for the module that a main function of the module is to build up your confidence in tackling mathematical tasks and undertaking additional learning of mathematics later on. The point of the module is not just, and not even primarily, to teach you a load of concepts and methods. We're sympathetic about and feel we have insight into the sorts of difficulties people can have in mathematical areas. These difficulties often arise from confidence being unnecessarily damaged in earlier periods of life. Although we ourselves have some claim to be good at maths, we ourselves have also encountered difficulties, including failing to understand things, finding things horribly daunting at first, etc.

Thus, it is important that you exploit the opportunities the module gives you not just to listen in amazed admiration to our lectures and enthusiastically tackle the work we set, but also to ask questions (in class or in private). We EXPECT people to have difficulties and will gain satisfaction from helping people to overcome them. Indeed, we will feel bored, lonely and under-appreciated if not exploited to the max.



More on Nature of Class Sessions, etc.


Overall Scheme

The Class Tests will be assessed (the marks will count towards your mark for the module) and will be roughly equally weighted. However, the first one in semester 1 will probably have a weight of only about half the weights of the others.

Altogether the six Class Tests will account for 50% of the module mark, with the Examination occupying the other 50%.

On the other hand, the work you do in the In-Class Exercise Sessions or as homework will be "formative", i.e. unassessed.

Tackling the formative exercises, whether the in-class ones or the homework ones, will help you enormously with the Class Tests and the Examination. We would not expect someone to be able to get a good mark on, or even pass, the the Class Tests or Examination if they have not tried to do the formative exercises.


General Points about Lectures

Some lecture material, including material to be used in the Class Tests and Examination, will be tailor-made and difficult to replicate readily by looking at textbooks, etc. Attendance at lectures is therefore irreplaceable as well as obligatory.

Much of the detailed information about how to do particular mathematical tasks will be in the textbook, etc., NOT presented in lectures. The lectures are for

The SLIDES that we will be presenting in lectures will be available via this webpage (see above for link). However, in lectures we may say or write on (say) a whiteboard things that won't be available electronically.

You are encouraged to ask questions and instigate discussion during lectures. Because of this, we make no guarantees about what topics we're going to cover in any particular lecture.



Textbook, Additional Notes and Other Reading Material

We expect that you will back up your lecture attendance with reading. As mentioned above, much of the detailed information about how to do particular mathematical tasks will be in the textbook, our exercise answer notes, etc., not in the lecture material.

You will need to do readings in three main sources:

  1. THE MODULE TEXTBOOK: K.A. Stroud, Engineering Mathematics, 7th edition, 2013 (or 7th Edition, 2007). Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan.

    • Copies have been ordered for the university bookshop. There are several copies of the 6th edition on one-week loan in the Main Library, and one for reference use in the School Library. I have ordered copies of the 7th edition.

    • The module will draw mainly from Part I (all sections) and a few sections of Part II. The necessary parts will be specified in lecture slides, usually at the beginning of a batch.

    • But the rest of the book also provides an excellent resource for additional learning of your own throughout your degree programme and beyond. Although the book is expensive it is a good investment, and buying a copy will save you a lot of trouble in terms of borrowing copies from other students or from a library.

    • We will make heavy use of the exercises in the textbook.

    • You may get hold of a previous edition. Earlier editions than the 6th, even the 5th (published in 2001), will have many detailed differences from the 6th and 7th, and you may have to hunt around in the book to find bits corresponding to those we refer to in the 6th or 7th. Also, some exercises may be different or missing.

    • The book contains a useful CD and specifies a a companion website with free additional resources. (That's for the 6th Ed. - a link to the 7th Ed version will be added later.) These resources include a Personal Tutor that takes you through problems interactively, and a set of additional problems.


  2. ANSWER NOTES for CLASS TESTS and FORMATIVE EXERCISES (to be made available as the module progresses, via this webpage).


  3. ADDITIONAL NOTES (HANDOUTS) (distributed occasionally, generally via this webpage).


The formative exercises, Class Tests and Examination may draw from compulsory reading material lying within the above items (or others if we specify any), even when the specific topics in the material are not covered in lectures.



Broad Nature of the Examination

The examination will largely involve tasks similar to those in the Class Tests and formative exercises. There may ALSO be other sorts of question, e.g. questions asking for explanations of concepts and issues, and questions asking you to integrate material in creative ways.



Previous Examination Papers

These are available via a University site. However, do not go back before 2012/13. In 2012/13 the coverage of material and style of questions changed substantially from before.



Collaboration

The ASSESSED exercises will all be within Class Tests, and during these tests you will not be allowed to talk to each other or collaborate in any way. Attempts to collaborate will constitute CHEATING and may possibly cause misconduct procedures to be invoked.

In the In-Class Exercise Sessions you will still work individually, but with some help on request from us. You will also be allowed to ask the occasional question of other students sitting nearby, but we need to limit such interchanges in order to keep the noise level down so people can concentrate.

There is no formal restriction on collaboration on Homework exercises, and such collaboration can, when responsibly conducted, be helpful for your learning. But please bear in mind the main principle behind the exercises, both assessed and unassessed: namely that it's important for YOUR sake that YOU PERSONALLY get the practice of DOING the work and THINKING about the module material.



Syllabus Page for the module

Click here



Last mod 3oct13, 10:25a