Professor
Jason Bintz
Office: Paine 209A
E-Mail: jason.bintz@houghton.edu
https://jasonbintz.rbind.io
Contents
Course Description
Textbook
Software
Homework
Participation
Grading
Academic Honesty
Accomodations
Resources
Time Commitment
Course Description
Students will learn and implement numerical methods for root-finding, integration and optimization. In order to do this, students will necessarily gain essential scientific computing skills including basic control structures, input and output, and writing functions.
Textbooks
Introduction to Scientific Programming and Simulation Using R, 2nd ed., Owen Jones, Robert Maillardet, and Andrew Robinson.
Software
We will use R and RStudio…a lot.
Homework
Problem Sets: There will be approximately 7 problem sets assigned throughout the half-semester. These will be posted on the course website. You are encouraged to talk to other students and the professor about the problems, but you must write your own solutions and acknowledge your collaborators at the top of your work. Solutions must be clear and neat. Do not make the mistake of thinking that understanding someone else’s solution means that you are able to do the problem yourself! Finding solutions on the internet and/or copying from another student’s work is strictly prohibited.
DataCamp: There will be a couple of DataCamp courses assigned near the beginning of the semester.
In-class Exercises: I anticipate many classes consisting of workshop-like labs. These will count towards the homework grade. Whatever is not completed during class, you will have to complete outside of class.
Participation
You are expected to be present and actively engaged for each class meeting.
Grading
Homework will be worth around 80% of your grade and participation 20%.I reserve the right to change the grading distribution. Final letter grades will be assigned based on the scale below at a minimum (i.e., if you earn a 94% overall in the course, your final grade will be at least an A-):
| A | ≥ 96% | B | 87–91% | C | 74–82% | D | 67–69% |
| A- | 94–95% | B- | 85–86% | C- | 72–73% | D- | 65–66% |
| B+ | 92–93% | C+ | 83–84% | D+ | 70–71% | F | <65% |
Academic Honesty
Students are expected to be familiar with and comply with the college statement on academic honesty found here.
Accomodations
If you have a disability and need accommodations in this course, please discuss it with the Director of the Center for Academic Success and Advising, Ms. Sharon Mulligan. Her office is in the CASA suite (in room 222 in the Chamberlain Center) and the CASA extension is 2610. Please let me know how I can assist you as well.
Resources
Some possible places to find assistance:
- Fellow students
- Help sessions
- Office hours
- The internet; there are several good websites with calculus help that you are welcome to use for additional explanations, but you may not use the internet for solutions
Time Commitment
In accordance with the guidelines of 2–3 hours of work for each credit hour for a course, the well-prepared student should spend approximately 8–12 hours of work per week beyond the time spent in class. If you find that you are spending significantly more time than this, please let me know so that I can help you be more efficient or adjust the workload. If you are spending less time than this, you may not be investing enough time to learn well.