Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Fall 2006
Note: All files, assignments, etc. for this course are being kept in //Public/+Courses/ICBMathPhysicsFall06. Please visit this directory for up-to-date information, to turn in work, etc.
The first year Integrated Course Blocks are a major curriculum component at Olin. This is the venue where Olin introduces so many of the notions that the institution holds dear - interdisciplinary teaching and learning, a wide familiarity with a variety of engineering tools, open-ended projects, fundamental knowledge in mathematics and physics, an ability to design and build devices, oral and written communication skills, etc. The ICB has evolved into a closely knit set of courses focused on the theme of modeling, simulation, and experimentation of physical systems. This course has been specifically designed to fully integrate the mathematics and physics components of the ICB into a single endeavour with the following objectives:
Studios
10-12 Tuesdays and Fridays (Sections 1 and 3); 1-3 Tuesdays and Fridays (Section 2); in the studios (AC204-209)
Tutorials
9-11 Wednesdays, 1-3 Thursdays in the auditorium
People
John Geddes
Office: OC255
Office Hours: TBA
Michael Moody
michael.moody@olin.edu or karen.stone@olin.edu
Office: OC261
Office Hours: TBA
Mark Somerville
Office: OC257
Office Hours: TBA
Yevgeniya V. Zastavker
Office: OC369
Office Hours: TBA
A note on office hours: In addition to official office hours, you can also make appointments with us at any time that is mutually beneficial – just drop the relevant one of us an email or talk to us after class. If you don't make an appointment, you're welcome just to try to find us for questions – but we do reserve the right to say “sorry, I'm in the middle of something right now.” We want you to talk to us whenever you have questions or concerns – so please do.
To be determined…
We are not requiring you to buy any texts for this class – there is not one (or two) texts that covers the material we'll be dealing with. Having said that, there are some wonderful books that it would be great for you to own – you'll find them useful both in this class, and in the rest of your lives. Therefore, we recommend that you buy some of the following books. You will find them on reserve in the library too!
• James Stewart, Calculus, Early Transcendentals, 5 th Edition, Brooks Cole, ISBN 0534393217 (2003): One of many, many introductory calculus books with only 1320 pages. This book covers both single variable and multivariable calculus. Despite the enormous size of the book it is actually pretty good – if you want a reference for your shelf this is a good bet. No calculus required.
• Frank Morgan, Calculus Lite, 3 rd Edition, A K Peters, ISBN 1568811578 (2001): The “same” stuff as the Stewart book in only 300 pages. If you are intimidated by big fat books or more likely to carry a little book around this is a handy little book on the essentials of calculus. No calculus required.
• William E. Boyce and Richard C. DiPrima, Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, 8 th Edition, Wiley, ISBN 0471433381 (2004): One of many introductory differential equations books with only 800 pages. Makes a great reference and covers pretty much everything you want. You should have had calculus already.
• Richard L. Burden and J. Douglas Faires, Numerical Analysis, 8 th Edition, Brooks Cole, ISBN 0534392008 (2005): One of many books on various aspects of numerical methods and analysis. A pretty good read if you have an advanced mathematics background – probably difficult otherwise.
• Charles F. Van Loan, Introduction to Scientific Computing, ISBN 0139491570, (2000): A very nice book on numerical methods using Matlab – a pretty good read for anyone with very useful Matlab commands and examples. A previous calculus course very helpful.
Twice a week we will meet as a group in the auditorium for two hours (Wednesday mornings and Thursday afternoons). These will be interactive sessions that introduce you to important concepts in mathematics, physics, and modeling and simulation, and provide you with the first opportunity to practice using these concepts.
For each tutorial session you will be given an outline/problem sheet, which describes the day's activities and which provides you with a set of problems, some of which we'll work on together in class, and some of which you will be expected to work on outside of class. We expect that you will spend between 1 and 3 additional hours outside of the tutorial sessions to do these assignments. You are required to turn in each tutorial assignment before the following tutorial.
One of the goals of the tutorials is to prepare students to pass quizzes. You can expect quizzes about every 2-3 weeks. The problems on the quizzes will be very similar in nature and scope to those on the tutorial assignments.
The development of important concepts and skills in modeling and simulation will primarily be accomplished via case studies and open-ended projects in a studio setting. It is intended that these activities will simultaneously motivate and reinforce the basic concepts and skills covered in the tutorials.
Within the studio setting, some amount of your time will be devoted to case studies -- constrained projects in which you develop important skills in modeling and simulation by focusing on a single challenge activity. Although each individual case study will be introduced at a specified time, studios are explicitly designed to be largely asynchronous – you will work with your partner on the case study at an appropriate pace. Each case study will require frequent deliverables.
In addition to case studies, you will do two open-ended projects. These projects are intended to be explorations of topics connected to and motivated by the case studies. Each open-ended project is intended to provide an opportunity for you to pose and solve an authentic problem of your own choosing. In addition, each project will provide an opportunity for you to apply basic disciplinary knowledge and continue to strengthen your skills in modeling and simulation. Each team will first prepare a project proposal for negotiation with their studio instructors and at the end of the project cycle each team will submit a final deliverable which will be evaluated and graded by faculty. Again, studio time is designed to be asynchronous and the role of faculty is ensure that projects are appropriately scoped and to guide you and your team-mates toward successful completion. It is worth noting that the transition from case studies to project will be different for different teams. Some teams may spend the majority of their time working on the case study, while other teams may quickly finish the case study and move on to more open-ended work.
Both the case studies and the open-ended projects will require certain deliverables. There will be frequent deliverables during the case study phase, and these deliverables will take the form of visual communication, including figures, equations, etc. Some of these deliverables will be team-based, and some will be individual. All will be examined by faculty, and will receive a grade. The deliverables are designed to define objectives, promote learning, and provide an opportunity for feedback. During the project phase, there will be a poster presentations at the end which will also be assessed and graded. All deliverables must be posted in the your studio space in order to be officially turned in.
Our general philosophy on attendance to tutorials is simple: you are an adult, and as such are responsible for deciding how you want to spend your time. If you think that getting more sleep will be more helpful than coming to tutorials, by all means stay in your room and get some more sleep (rather than snoring in front of 24 of your closest friends). We will do our best to keep you engaged and to make time spent in tutorials productive, but we won't be counting noses.
Whether or not you choose to come to tutorials, you are required to turn in the tutorial assignments on time. These will be available (as files) in the course directory.
Attendance in studio is mandatory and you should bring your laptop. Studio time is generally open time for you to work on the project with your teammate(s) and interact with faculty and course assistants. Studio time is also used to assess your deliverables. Our interactions with you during this time play a role in your grade for the studio component -- so please check in with us if you need to miss studio for an extraordinary reason.
We expect that a well-prepared student, working effectively , needs to spend a total of about 15 hours per week doing everything associated with the mathematics/physics component of the ICB. Having said that, it is important to point out that many of the things we're doing this term are quite big. If you do not manage your time effectively – in particular, by planning ahead so you avoid crunches – you will find yourself in a world of pain. We highly recommend that you keep a calendar so that you know what's coming up.
We expect you to act like a professional in this course. What does this mean?
Having said all this, we do want you to have fun as well...
We expect you to tell us how things are going on a regular basis. We will frequently be asking you to give us an update on how things are going via minute papers, surveys, etc; we also would love to hear from you in person. We can't fix stuff if we don't know about it!
In order to pass the mathematics and physics portions of the ICB, you must:
Of course, this course is being graded on a pass-no record basis. However, we will be keeping track of your grade throughout the semester, so that you (and we) have a better idea of how you're doing. Your grade will be determined according to the following percentages:
This course provides students with the opportunity to develop the following competencies:
This course will provide assessment of the following competencies:
Note that these assessments also play a role in determining your grade for the course.
Both of these competencies are addressed throughout the course. Tutorials and quizzes will intentionally address conceptual issues as well as calculational issues. Specific problems on quizzes will be called out as conceptual or as quantitative, and will be used to help assess your competency in the appropriate area.
Both case studies and projects also provide ample opportunity for you to develop these skills. In the studio setting, these skills will be developed through intentional question-asking on the part of studio instructors, and will be assessed via the intermediate and final studio deliverables.
Deliverables in the studio setting will be used both to develop and to assess your competency in communication. The forms of communication we intend to address include effective visual presentation (particularly of data) and oral communication. Over the course of the semester you will be responsible for doing informal oral presentations, supported by graphical aids, approximately six times.
The case studies and open-ended projects will require you to formulate and test hypotheses throughout the semester. You will be instructed in and will practice concepts like validation of models, posing of hypotheses, and design of (virtual) experiments to test your hypotheses. This competency will largely be assessed through the assessment of deliverable presentations and through interactions between you and individual studio instructors.