Math 203: Contemporary Math

Fall 2009

Instructor: John L. Orr
Email: jorr@math.unl.edu
Phone: (402) 472-4503
Office: Avery Hall 205

Class: Meets MWF 12:30 - 1:20 in Oldfather Hall 308
Office Hour: Wed 1:30 - 2:20, and Thurs 10:30 - 11:20
Text Book: A Mathematical View of Our World, Parks, Musser, et al.
Calculator: You will need a calculator with a square root key. Cell phones are not allowed!

Journal number 3 assigned Nov 9!
Samples for Test #2 are avaailable

Course resources: Project | Reading & Homework | Journal Assignments | Useful links | About 203

Course Content

Chater Topic Start Date
Chapter 1 Numbers in our lives Aug 26
Chapter 13 Financial mathematics Sep 2
Chapter 6 Routes and networks Sep 14
Chapter 7 Scheduling Sep 23
Exam 1 Oct 5
Chapter 8 Data and patterns Oct 7
Chapter 9 Collecting data Oct 14
Chapter 10 Probability Oct 26
Chapter 11 Inferential statistics Nov 4
Exam 2 Nov 16
Chapter 3 Voting and elections Nov 18
Quiz 1 Nov 30
Chapter 4 Fair division Dec 2
Quiz 2 Note: 3:30-4:30pm Thu, Dec 17

Grades

Your final grade will be calculated based on your total points earned in the following categories.

Item Number Points Total
Exams 2 100 200
Quizzes 4 25 100
Project (sample) 1 50 50
Journals 5 10 50
Total 400
Reading homework (bonus) ~15 25

The grading scale will be no harsher than:

360 or higher A
320 - 359 B
280 - 319 C
240 - 279 D