Susquehanna Township High School

Advanced Placement® Calculus AB Syllabus

Ms. Mary Beth Nied, Room 312
Email:
Teacher Page:

AP Calculus AB Exam is on Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 8 am.

Course Description
Advanced Placement Calculus AB is a one period year-long preliminary course in college level Calculus1 designed to give students an introduction to the major concepts of limits, derivatives, integrals, and their applications concluding in the AP cumulative course assessment in May. The goal of this course is to offer the opportunity to earn college credit for an introductory Calculus class within the high school environment.

Calculus is the apex of traditional advanced or honors high school math curriculum. Students must gain a conceptual understanding of limits, derivatives and integrals in order to be successful applying them. Students will learn to utilize the TI-84 calculator to aid in visualization and computation. Some use of the TI-84s include assistance in visualizing functions, exploring local linearity, and picturing area under curves as well as to computing definite integrals and derivatives at a point.

Structure of the Course
Students have approximately 150 school days prior to the start of the AP Exam weeks in early May to cover all topics listed within the course description by the CollegeBoard. Students will be required to complete 30 minutes to one and a half hours of homework, studying and/or reading each night. It is imperative that students complete homework and pre-reading assignments to be successful in this class. Instructional time will be spent completing exploratory learning activities, discussing how to apply each concept, and exploring techniques for dissecting AP problems. Using the AP style of layering topics within each question, students will work within their learning groups to discuss and explain their ideas for finding solutions to the problems and individually communicate those findings on paper.

Major Topics

I. Functions, Graphs, and Limits

II. Derivatives

III. Integrals

The entire outline of the course can be found on my teacher page underthe AP Calculus AB tab.

Technology
Technology is utilized heavily course. Students must have access to a TI-84 for use on many assignments both in class and at home. If students are unable to obtain their own calculator, one will be assigned to them from the class set.

Grading Overview
Students will be graded on practice work and assessments. Practice work is any assignment that is graded for completeness and will be worth 25% of the student’s grade. This category includes homework, classwork, group work, and reading check quizzes.Assessments are any assignment that is graded for correctness and will be worth 75% of the student’s grade. This category includes quizzes, chapter tests, unit tests, cumulative exams, AP problem sets and projects.

A student may be exempt from the final exam if he or she fulfills the requirements listed by the School District.

Primary Textbook

Finney, Demana, Waits, Kennedy. Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic, Third Edition

Expectations

  1. Students must conduct themselves in a professional manner (courteous and mature behavior) and follow the policies and guidelines of the Susquehanna Township School District.
  2. Students must maintain a notebook, binder or folder containing all class notes and homework assignments.
  3. Students must bring a notebook or folder, textbook, and pencil to class each day. All work should be done in pencil.
  4. Students must complete all exams, quizzes, projects, and the final exam.
  5. Students must assume responsibility for their make-up work and grades using their Schoolwires account.
  6. During work time in class you are expected to work on calculus and may work either individually or in small work groups. I am also available for help.
  7. The Susquehanna Township School District tardy policy and electronic device policy will be followed.
  8. Students talking during a test (but not cheating) will receive a ten percent reduction in their test grade. Students caught cheating on a test or quiz will receive an immediate zero on the test or quiz, and parents will be notified.

Make-up Policy

It is the student’s responsibility to make-up all required notes, homework, quizzes, assignments, projects, and tests. Homework should be made up within one week upon return to school. Tests and quizzes should be made up within 3 days of return, if new material was presented during the absence. If no new material was presented, quizzes and tests should be completed during class upon the student’s return to school. If a student is absent on the review day prior to a unit exam, the student will be required to take the exam on the day of the return. Students may not be permitted to make up any work assigned during an unexcused absence.

Remind.com

An account at remind.com is set up for one way communicating between teacher and students/parents. Please see the attached page to register to use this service.

Additional Help

It is the student’s responsibility to seek out extra help when struggling with concepts or problems. After school study sessions will be held throughout the course of the year and should be attended as regularly as possible. Several other tutoring opportunities are also available to students both before and after school. Students should use these sessions to gain understanding on difficult concepts and to reinforce previously mastered ideas. AP courses require students to have a working knowledge of the content previously discussed so review is critical to success.

Student and parents/guardians are encouraged to contact the teacher with any questions or for suggestions regarding additional assistance.

Notes on the Outline:

The outline below provides the topic structure and tentative pacing for each unit. Assignments will be assigned from the corresponding chapter’s problem set or out of one of the resource books. Students will sometimes be given AP problems as homework or classwork as well.

Unit One: Prerequisites for Calculus

  • 1.1 Lines
  • 1.2 Functions and Graphs
  • Comparing functions expressed numerically, analytically, graphically, and verbally (word problems)
  • 1.3 Exponential Functions
  • 1.5 Functions and Logarithms
  • 1.6 Trigonometric Functions

Unit Two: Limits and Continuity

  • 2.1 Rates and Change and Limits
  • 2.2 Limits Involving Infinity
  • 2.3 Continuity
  • 2.4 Rates of Change and Tangent Lines

Unit Three: Derivatives

  • 3.1 Derivative of a Function
  • 3.2 Differentiability
  • 3.3 Rules for Differentiation
  • 3.4 Velocity and Other Rate Change
  • 3.5 Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions
  • 3.6 Chain Rule
  • 3.7 Implicit Differentiation
  • 3.8 Derivatives of Inverse Trigonometric Functions
  • 3.9 Derivatives of Exponential and Logarithmic Functions

Unit Four: Applications of Derivatives

  • 4.1 Extreme Values of Functions
  • 4.2 Mean Value Theorem
  • 4.3 Connecting f’ and f” with the Graph of f
  • 4.4 Modeling and Optimization
  • 4.6 Related Rates

Unit Five: The Definite Integral

  • 5.1 Estimating with Finite Sums
  • 5.2 Definite Integrals
  • 5.3 Definite Integrals and Antiderivatives
  • 5.4 Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
  • 5.5 Trapezoidal Rule

Unit Six: Applications of Definite Integrals

  • 7.1 Integral as Net Change
  • 7.2 Areas in the Plane
  • 7.3 Volumes
  • 7.4 Lengths of Curves

Unit Seven: Differential Equations and Mathematical Modeling

  • 6.1 Antiderivatives and Slope Fields
  • 6.2 Integration by Substitution
  • 6.4 Exponential Growth and Decay