Daniel Rowe
darowe{at}nmu{dot}edu
I'm an associate professor of mathematics in the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Northern Michgan University. I've been a professor at NMU for nine years, and I am very passionate about the praxis of doing mathematics and teaching it. I grew up on a fishing camp in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
This is a condensed, online, six-week class that will teach you about precalculus mathematics. It is intended for students who plan to study calculus and those seeking quantitative literacy credit who wish to assess their desire to study calculus.
At the completion of the class, students will:
In the spirit of academic honesty, credit for this section is due to Asher Auel, as this is an adapted form of their discussion of academic honesty in mathematics.
Work with anyone or anything to develop your own personal understanding of the ideas required to solve your homework problem, but always write-up the final draft by yourself and in your own words.
You must list your collaborators and electronic sources at the top of the very first page. This makes the process completely transparent and honest.
Mathematical writing is idiosyncratic; if your assignments are copied, it is quite easy to tell. You will not learn by copying solutions from others, or from external sources such as internet forums (e.g. math.stackexchange) and generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT). Regarding internet forums, you are free to look at them and use any understanding you've gained from them. Be warned that internet forums often contain incorrect or circuitous solutions, misleading discussions, use of techniques outside of the course material, and other material that may be detrimental to your learning process. Even the time that it takes to repeatedly search for solutions and read through dozens of forum posts could be better spent learning the material on your own or composing a question to the instructor or classmate. Regarding generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT), you are free to experiment with asking questions, but be warned that these systems are currently still very bad at deductive reasoning, and that the output may contain a mix of correct, incorrect, and unverified statements. Ask them to prove something false, they will work hard to do so, often giving contradictory answers. Therefore, I would be very careful with using these tools as learning resources on your own.
In this modern world of online resources, cheating, copying, copy-and-pasting, ChatGPT, etc.; it is now more important than ever that citizens develop the intelligence to use their own brain to solve problems. I want my classes to be a postive force in this regard, by promoting the principles of academic honesty, and punishing those who disrespect those principles. The first infraction will result in a 0% on the entire assigment and a stern warning. If there is a second infraction, I will pursue sanctions through the Dean of Students office.
If you have a need for disability-related accommodations or services, please inform the Coordinators of Disability Services in the Dean of Students Office at 2001 C. B. Hedgcock Building (227-1737 or disability@nmu.edu). Reasonable and effective accommodations and services will be provided to students if requests are made in a timely manner, with appropriate documentation, in accordance with federal, state, and University guidelines.