Calculus and Probability for Life Science Students - Math 3C/1 - Fall 06

Reading Assignments

Subject to Change

The reading assignments is a significant component of this course, namely 10% of your final grade, as much as the writing assignment. Learning theory tells us that it is better to be exposed to concepts multiple times, and in multiple forms. The weight given to the reading assignments is to encourage this.

Instructions and motivations.

• Complete each reading assignment (listed below) before the day of the corresponding lecture.
• Write a blog entry (new posting). Your blog entry should
  • have the section number you write about as its title

  and have the following two parts in the 'body':
  • Difficult Answer the question "What was the most difficult part of the material for you?". Note that "nothing" is not an acceptable answer. If nothing challenges you, then you should think about the material at a deeper level and generate some honest questions.
  • Reflective Write something reflective about the reading. This could be the answer to the question "What was the most interesting part of the material?" or "How does this material connect to something else you have learned in mathematics?" or "How is this material useful/relevant to your intellectual or career interests?" or something else.
  Answer the above two parts separately, labeling each part clearly according to Difficult and Reflective.
• The blog posting is due by midnight on the evening before each lecture (i.e. on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights). The point here is to get you to reflect on what you have read before you listen to me lecture on it. This approach is based on a pedagogical theory called "Just-In-Time Teaching".
• Many, but not all of your responses will be graded, according to the following scheme:
  0 points: No blog submission on time or part Difficult is not sufficient (see below) .
  1 point: Submission of both parts, Difficult and Reflective, on time, but posting Difficult is irrelevant, or does not sufficiently show that you have done the reading.
  2 points: Submission of both parts, Difficult and Reflective, on time, and part Difficult shows you have done the reading and thought about it.

  An example of a good (2 points worth) posting is: having read section 10.6.2 in the text:
  

  1. Difficult On page 670, I do not understand what g(x,y) has to do with the problem, and why it is equal to zero. Couldn't it also be equal to another number?
  2. Reflective It was nice to see how we use vectors, dot products, paths and the definition of the derivative again, even though at first sight it seems that the subject does not have much to do with it.

Section and/or Page(s)	To Be Read for the lecture on
12.1.1-12.1.4	10/2/06
12.2.1	10/4/06
12.2.2 until, but excluding The Mark-Recapture Method	10/6/06
12.3.1	10/9/06
12.3.2	10/11/06
12.3.3	10/13/06
12.3.4	10/16/06
12.4.1	10/18/06
12.4.2 until example 9 incl.	10/20/06
rest of 12.4.2	10/23/06
12.4.3	10/30/06
12.4.5	11/1/06
12.4.6 until example 35 incl.	11/3/06
rest of 12.4.6	11/6/06
12.5.1	11/8/06
12.5.2 until example 7 incl.	11/13/06
rest of 12.5.2	11/15/06
12.5.3	11/20/06
12.5.4 until example 17 incl.	11/22/06
rest of 12.5.4 starting on p.880 Aging	11/27/06
12.6.1 until middle of page 888	11/29/06
rest of 12.6.1 (skip example 3 if you like)	12/1/06
12.6.2 until example 7 incl.	12/4/06
rest of 12.6.2	12/6/06