Freshman
Fall----------------------------Spring
Calculus 1--------------------Calculus 2

Sophomore
Fall----------------------------Spring
Calculus 3--------------------Differential Equations


Edit: What's the name of your class?

Differential equations and vector calculus.

I've had several courses with 50-60% finals, but they've always had atleast a midterm (~30%) and some project/quiz/homework. The project/quiz/homework should basically be free marks.

At worst, do whatever you want and just bellcurve the final marks.

TBH I don't really understand why Calc3 and DE are being combined. These are weeder courses and most places seperate them for good reason. I also doubt you can cover both subjects with any depth and expect students to get it within 16wks.

Finally, I understand wanting to build a theoretical base for engineers but in the real world most of them will not be working in engineering and most calculations require only algebra.

Are you teaching at MIT or some ****? This is like a year and a half-worth of material.

Um, this.


And you're teaching to FRESHMAN? You're teaching basically all of calc 3 AND diff eq. to freshman, in one semester..... not sure if srs.

I took calc 3 and diff eq. separately, as a sophomore. And it was pretty challenging.



Also, not having a book for the sake of you not reading sounds selfish. Not sure how it would mislead students, it usually serves as a huge resource. Also then you don't have to write problems, they are in the book with solutions to half of them usually.

I don't know any book that is perfect for this course and I don't want to make students buy two books.

Books are huge ressource, but it's easy for student to get lost especially if I do not cover the material in the same order and/or I add or remove topics.

Is this a joke? No text book, no homework, you said no quizzes but now you will throw in 2 of them (whats the point?)... this will be fun to watch. You'd be lucky to have sophmores/juniors pass a class designed like this because they have to be responsible and keep up with material themselves. Freshman will not be that self-motivated.

Also, breaks aren't to study. They're to gather your wits so you can finish the semester without going crazy. Every decent professor will get their exams in before the break. If you're expecting freshmen to spend their first college Spring Break studying for a DE exam you're going to be pretty disappointed.

I will teach a class of vector calculus/differential equations to freshman engineers.

The previous teacher hasn't left any online course material (partially due to his age, he was only writing on the chalkboard) and the syllabus is incomplete (I have been told the department was unsatisfied with the level of the course, it was too easy).

Now, it seems like I have carte blanche to build a syllabus from pretty much nothing.

I am not a big fan of following or using a particular textbook.

Here is my plan, the midterm is basically on vectors stuff, and then we jump to differential equations after.

W = week

W1: Taylor's theorem and applications;
W2: Vector functions and curves;
W3: Partial differentiation and differential calculus for vector functions;
W4: Curvilinear integrals, surface area, change of variables;
W5: Introduction to more rigorous analysis, then the fundamental theorem of vector calculus;
W6: Existence, continuity, etc, theorem, and some more analysis;
W7: Gauss, Green, Stoke theorem;
W8: BREAK
W9: Application of the three theorems + MIDTERM (50%)
W10: Series, power series and first and second-order linear equation;
W11: nth-order linear constant equations;
W12: Green's function and Laplace transform methods;
W13: Laplace transform methods and applications;
W14: Systems of first-order equations;
W15: Fourier series methods;
W16: FINAL (50%)

EDIT: NEW SYLLABUS PAGE 3.

But if I add quizzes we lose time for more material.

Is this a joke? No text book, no homework, you said no quizzes but now you will throw in 2 of them (whats the point?)... this will be fun to watch. You'd be lucky to have sophmores/juniors pass a class designed like this because they have to be responsible and keep up with material themselves. Freshman will not be that self-motivated.

Also, breaks aren't to study. They're to gather your wits so you can finish the semester without going crazy. Every decent professor will get their exams in before the break. If you're expecting freshmen to spend their first college Spring Break studying for a DE exam you're going to be pretty disappointed.

The spring break is called the reading week at my undergraduate university.

And it's alright if they don't study that week, but then it's their responsability to find the time that fits them the best.