Syllabus
Course: Math 163 (Course Catalog)
Title: History of Mathematics
Credit Hours: 4
Prerequisites: Math 20B
Catalog Description: Topics will vary from year to year in areas of mathematics and their development. Topics may include the evolution of mathematics from the Babylonian period to the eighteenth century using original sources, a history of the foundations of mathematics and the development of modern mathematics.
Text: Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham. Penguin Books; 1st edition (August 1, 1991).
Grading: Your Math 163 grade will be calculated according to the following table:
| Component | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Quizzes | 20% |
| Projects | 10% |
| History Paper | 25% |
| Midterm Exam 1 | 15% |
| Midterm Exam 1 | 15% |
| Final Exam | 15% |
After your weighted average is calculated, letter grades will be assigned based on the standard grading scale given below.
| A+ | A | A- | B+ | B | B- | C+ | C | C- | D | F |
| [97,100] | [93,99) | [90,93) | [87,90) | [83,87) | [80,83) | [77,80) | [73,77) | [70,73) | [60,70) | [0,60) |
Please notice that outside factors, including the need for a certain grade for admission/retention in any academic program, scholarship or transfer credit, graduation requirements or personal desire for a specific grade DO NOT appear in the above calculations, and thus are not considered in any way in the determination of your course grade. Effort, improvement, class attendance and participation will all dramatically improve your grade in the course in that they will allow you to do well on homework, exams, and the final exam. They will NOT, however, actively participate in the calculation of your course grade.
Grade Recording Errors: Keep all of your returned homework and exams. If there is any mistake in the recording of your scores, you will need the original assignment/exam in order for us to make a change.
Homework: There will be regular homework assignments posted in Canvas. Each assignment will correspond to a chapter of the book. (Homework 1 for Chapter 1, Homework 2 for Chapter 2, etc.) This quarter, it will not be possible to have a human grade each problem, and so we will instead have a homework quiz corresponding to each homework assignment. The homework quizzes will done through Gradescope, and the questions will be based on your homework assignments, so you should be able to read the answers off your completed homework (which I know you will have done in a timely fashion!). In addition, we may have one problem per homework assignment graded by a person (if possible), and in these cases, you will be expected to upload a photo of your homework exercise to Gradescope. (You will be informed in advance which problem you will be asked to submit.) Homework assignments will be posted to Canvas as they are written. (See below for more information on the quizzes.)
Projects: Topics outside of the main theme of the course will be discussed during discussion sections with aid of various projects. Additionally, there will be projects related to the history paper you will be writing for this class. Projects will be done in groups during discussion section, and will be submitted through Gradescope. (You may submit as a group, so that only one submission is necessary.) It is not required that you attend discussion section, and it will be possible to upload the projects for an extended period after the discussion sections meet. However, if you wish to work on the projects outside of discussion section, you may have to do them on your own, without the help of a TA or fellow classmates. Projects will be posted to Canvas as they are written.
Project Due Dates: The projects may be submitted on Tuesdays from 11:00 AM until 11:00 PM. Projects are untimed, but they must be completed within this time window. Your cumulative quiz score will be based on the best 8 of 9 possible project scores. There will be no makeup projects. If you miss a project for any reason, your cumulative quiz score will be based on the remaining 8 project scores.
History Paper: Math 163 has a writing component. The Math 163 History Paper can be written on any topic that relates to the history of mathematics. This is a significant part of the course and you are expected to treat it seriously. More information on the history paper can be found here.
Quizzes: There will be a 30-minute quiz each week, given on the days specified in the course calendar. You will be given exactly 35 minutes to complete your quiz. (The quizzes are 30 minutes, but we are providing you with an extra 5 minutes in case of technological difficulties.) You will be provided a 12-hour window within which to complete the quizzes. The quizzes will be given through Gradescope. Your cumulative quiz score will be based on the best 8 of 10 possible quiz scores. There will be no makeup quizzes. If you miss a quiz for any reason, your cumulative quiz score will be based on the best 8 of your remaining 9 quiz scores. If you miss two quizzes for any reason, your entire quiz score will be based on the remaining 8 quiz scores.
Note: It is not possible to retake a quiz for a better score.
Week 1 Quiz—Syllabus Quiz: During Week 1, there will be a quiz about the content of the syllabus (and related policies). This quiz will be like the rest of the quizzes in the course, except that it will be about the content of the syllabus. The quiz is "open syllabus", which means that you are allowed to consult the syllabus while you are doing the Syllabus Quiz. However, due to time constraints, you are encourage to familiarize yourself with the Syllabus before you attempt the syllabus quiz.
Quiz Due Dates: The quizzes will be available on Thursdays from 11:00 AM until 11:00 PM. You will have 35 minutes to complete the quizzes, but they must be completed within this time window.
Special due date for the Week 1 (Syllabus) Quiz: The Week 1 quiz (which is the Syllabus Quiz) is due on the Thursday of Week 1 at 11:00 PM. However, since students can add the class until the Thursday of Week 2, we will allow the Syllabus Quiz to be submitted until the Friday of Week 2 at 11:00 PM (without penalty). This policy exists for students that add the class late, but any enrolled student can submit the Syllabus Quiz until the Friday of Week 2 at 11:00 PM without penalty. This is called the "Late Due Date" for the Syllabus Quiz.
Late Due Dates for Homework Quizzes & Projects: You are allowed to submit your homework quizzes and projects up to 24 hours late without penalty. That means you can submit them until the next day at 11:00 PM without penalty. Quizzes or projects submitted after the due date but before the late due date will be marked "LATE", but will incur no penalty. Please be aware that no further accommodation will be given for late quizzes or projects. If you try to submit your homework quiz Friday at 11:05 PM, for example, it is not five minutes late, it is 24 hours and 5 minutes late.
Note: We will not accept email submissions for quizzes or projects.
Late Add Policy: If you are on the waitlist for a course, you are expected to attend class for the first two weeks and complete assignments. If students choose not to attend class or to not turn in assignments before the due dates, the student will receive a "0" on all missed assignments/quizzes/etc. No exceptions will be made. Similarly, a student not on a waitlist who chooses to add the class late will not be given additional time, nor will they be excused from the assigned work.
Midterm Exams: There will be two 50-minute midterm exams given on the days specified in the course calendar. You will be given exactly 55 minutes to complete your exam in Canvas (through Canvas Quizzes). (That's 50 minutes for the exam plus 5 minutes as a buffer in case of issues with technology.) There will be no makeup exams..
Technology Requirement: It is a requirement of the course that you have a stable enough internet connection to complete and upload your exams during the time available. We will not accept late exam submissions and we will not accept submissions by email.
Final Exam: The Final Exam will be given through Canvas Quizzes. The date of the exam, as listed in the Schedule of Classes and the course calendar is 06/07/2021 (Monday) at 8:00a-10:59a. More information about the final exam will be made available later in the quarter.
Regrade Policy: Your midterm exams will be graded using Gradescope. If you believe there was an error in the grading of your midterm exam, you will be able to request a regrade via Gradescope for a specified window of time. Be sure to make your request within the specified window of time; no regrade requests will be accepted after the deadline. Regrade requests should be made only when you believe there was an error in the original grading process, and the request must be accompanied by an explanation of the mistake. Unjustified requests will not be considered. (The desire to have a better grade does not count as sufficient justification for a regrade. There must be some mistake made by the graders.)
Note on Submissions: No email submissions (for any form of assessment) will be accepted. This class is far too large for us to allow students to submit any form of assessment through email. If we allow one student to do it, then we would have to allow every student to do it, and there are over a hundred students in this class. (If it takes you 5 minutes to upload your project, then it would take me over 8 hours to submit 100 projects.)
Administrative Deadline: It is your responsibility to check that scores are correctly recorded in Canvas. Contact your TA before the end of the 10th week of the quarter to resolve recording errors.
- Questions regarding missing or incorrectly recorded scores will not be considered after the last day of instruction.
- Be sure to check that your scores entered in Canvas are the same as your scores published on Gradescope.
Academic Integrity: Academic integrity is very important at UC San Diego and academic dishonesty is considered a serious offense. Students caught cheating will face an administrative sanction which may include suspension or expulsion from the university. It is in your best interest to maintain your academic integrity. (Click here for more information.)
Academic Integrity and Homework: All homework that you submit should be done yourself. While you are allowed to consult with other students in the class about homework, you should never let another student do your work for you. You should never let anyone do your homework for you, whether they are in the class or not. The homework you submit should be done by you, and you alone. Copying answers from another student or from any other sources (including online sources) is not allowed.
Academic Integrity and Quizzes/Exams: You are not allowed to consult with other students when working exams or quizzes. For exams and quizzes, you must work on your own. You may not ask another person for help, either online or offline. In particular, you may not visit any site where questions may be uploaded and answered by others. Quiz and exam questions must be answered by you and you alone.
Calculators and Notes for Quizzes/Exams: You are allowed to use technology (such as a calculator) to aid in computation, and you are allowed to refer to your notes. However, all written answers must be accompanied by supporting work. Part of the answer is explaining how and where the answer comes from. Correct answers without supporting work will not receive credit. (This does not apply to multiple choice questions.)
Sanctions for Academic Misconduct: Any student found responsible for cheating on an assessment (project, quiz, exam, history paper) will receive a zero score on that assessment. Any student found responsible for cheating on multiple occasions (that is, more than once) will receive an F in the course. Cheating includes, but is not limited to, receiving answers from someone else, asking or allowing someone else to do the work for you, soliciting solutions online, or copying solutions from another person. Any person suspected of committing any form of academic misconduct will be reported to the Academic Integrity Office.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as your own. Plagiarism is academic misconduct and is not allowed. While you are allowed to discuss things like homework problems and your history paper with other students, the work you turn in must be your own. Your work must be written by you alone and in your own words. Copying someone else's work—be it another student's or something you found in a book or online—and passing it off as your own is a serious violation of academic integrity. In particular, if you are found to have copied someone else's work in your history paper or exams and not properly cited it, you will be reported to the Academic Integrity Office for academic misconduct.
Managing Time: Spend sufficient time on the course. According to the policy of UCSD's Academic Senate, "The value of a course in units ... shall be reckoned at the rate of one unit for three hours' work per week per quarter on the part of the student." During a ten-week quarter, for a 4 credit course, you should be willing to spend about 12 hours per week on the course.
Filing for a Incomplete: Sometimes it is not possible to complete all of the work in the course due to circumstances beyond your control. (Being unable to take the final exam because of accident or sickness, for example.) In such a case, it may be possible to file for an Incomplete grade. If an Incomplete is granted, you will be given the opportunity to complete the work during the next quarter. (All work must be completed before the end of Week 10 the following academic quarter.) In order to be eligible for an Incomplete, you must meet the following criteria:
- Your incomplete work must be due to circumstances beyond your control. (Sickness, accident, etc.)
- You must be able to verify the circumstances with official documentation.
- Your course work must be of "non-failing quality" (from the Academic Senate Regulations).
Credit by Examination: This course is not eligible for credit by examination.