The Course in General

The Course in General#

On this page you will find information about the structure of the course. On the following pages you will find information about:

For the learning objectives etc. of the course, see the course base.

Course Structure#

A course week contains the following elements: A Long Day with a lecture and an exercise session with your teacher present, as well as a Short Day with a lecture and partial self-study that ends with a Weekly Test which lasts one hour. It is important that you participate in all of these activities, and it is your yield from this that will be tested at the written exam. You must expect a significant amount of homework.

Timeplan for the two days of teaching:

  • Long Day: Wednesdays 10:00-17:00 contains:

    • Lecture 10:00-12:00.

    • Self-study 12:30-13:00.

    • Exercise session with teacher present 13.00-16.00.

    • Self-study 16:00-17:00.

  • Short Day: Fridays 13:00-17:00 contains:

    • Lecture 13:00-14:00.

    • Partial self-study 14:00-16:00.

    • Weekly Test 16:00-17:00.

Lessons#

Week Programs#

The week programs constitute the spine of the course. They are an important means of communication from the teachers to you. On the week programs, key terms are listed from the syllabus of the week, and they contain syllabus referals to the LectureNotes, exercises, activities and discussion topics for the self-study hours and exercise sessions. Also, they contain information about homework assignments.

Before and After Lessons#

You will always be able to familiarize yourself well in advance with which parts of the curriculum that will be covered before a week of classes begins. Please read the Notes before the lectures, as this will yield a greater benefit from the teaching. It is entirely normal not to fully understand certain parts of the Notes before the class, but experience shows that preparing in this way still has an enormously positive effect. Similarly, it is extremely useful to spend time after the classes have ended reviewing the Notes and exercises once again to gain a deeper understanding of the material. Note that the course awards 10 ECTS credits, which means that the course is scheduled for 16 hours of work per week.

Lectures#

On Long Day, a survey lecture will be conducted where important and central topics of the week’s program are outlined and put into perspective. During the Short Day lecture, there will be time to delve into several examples, special cases, alternative methods, etc., providing crucial input for the subsequent exercises that culminate in the Weekly Test. Be aware that what has been covered in the lectures does not define the course curriculum. During exams, questions may be asked to parts of the curriculum that may not necessarily have been covered in the lectures. By reading the LectureNotes and other materials, you will ensure that you are well-informed about all the important points in the material.

Long Day#

Long Day begins with a lecture followed by an exercise session. Note that your study area is available from 12:00 onwards. Information and activities for the day, including assignments, are provided in the week programs (see later). Utilize the self-study time from 12:30 to 13:00 to familiarize yourself with the agenda’s challenges so that you are prepared for the subsequent sessions with the teacher. During these sessions, you and your study group, guided by a team of teachers, will continue working on the material from the day’s lecture and exercises outlined in the week program. After the exercise session is concluded, you (and your group) have the hour from 16:00 to 17:00 to finalize the day’s work, such as solving any remaining agenda exercises or starting on homework assignments.

Short Day#

Short Day begins with a lecture, followed by time for self-study and group work before the Weekly Test, where you are assessed on the fundamental skills in the week’s topics. There will be a few teaching assistants present in the study area who can provide both academic and technical assistance. For two weeks during the semester, the Short Day is organized around so-called Theme Exercises. These two weeks there will be no lecture, but instead you will be working on an exercise for the entire Short Day. You can find information on the semester overview page regarding when these Theme Exercises take place during the semester.

Theme Exercises#

A number of times during the semester, the usual lesson activities are replaced with Theme Exercises. The purpose of these Theme Exercises is to provide examples of how concepts and methods from Python programming can be applied in Mathematics 1b, as well as to relate the material to engineering applications. All four instructional hours on these Short Days take place in the study areas, and there is no lecture.

The Theme Exercise is released on the website a few days before the session. While the task is to be solved, it does not need to be submitted. Instead, the concepts and methods you learn in a Theme Exercise are essential for solving a related homework test in the Möbius quiz system. See the section on homework assignments for more information.

Weekly Test#

In the weeks without a Theme Exercise, we conclude the Short Day with a test called the Weekly Test. This test can grant you a bonus point that will be carried over to the exam (see the exam rules on the website). The test in week 1 does not grant any points; it serves as a trial to ensure that everything is functioning as intended.

A maximum of 6 bonus points can be collected throughout the course. Since the test is done in Full Screen mode on your pc, you should have your notes and other materials you want to use during the test ready in paper form. For the final exam in May, the first part will be without electronic aids. Therefore, it is a good idea to start a collection of paper notes and print any course materials as needed (they are continuously corrected for typos, so wait a bit before printing).

We emphasize the following about the Weekly Test:

  • It is an on-location test, meaning it must be completed in the usual study area.

  • The test must be solved without electronic aids but entered into the Möbius quiz program.

  • You should go into full-screen mode so that the test fills your entire screen.

  • Your teaching assistant will provide you with a code that activates the test.

  • You are allowed to discuss the tasks with your study group, but note: you have your own version of the test that you must solve and submit.

  • During the last hour of the Short Day you have just one attempt at the Weekly Test. Passing it will grant you 1 bonus point. From Friday 18:00 to Wednesday 18:00, the test is reopened for repeated attempts (the week version). Passing this week version will grant you 1/2 point (if you have not already earned a point).

You can find the link to the Weekly Test on the course’s DTU Learn page: The Möbius link is in the top menu bar; choose the version that corresponds to your day of the week.

Homework Assignments#

A number of homework assignments will be given. They can be found on the semester overview on the website and are to be handed in as a .pdf via DTU Learn. Deadlines are shown both on the website and within Learn.

All answers must be justified, and all necessary explanations and reasoning must be provided. Emphasis will also be placed on ensuring that formulations, logical conclusions, and reasoning are mathematically correct. A perfect assignment includes all the necessary explanation but nothing more. The assignments are individual, so while collaboration on solution strategies is allowed, the submissions should be crafted individually; two identical responses will be considered plagiarism.

Note: On the last Long Day before the submission of a homework assignment set, the teachers will be available for hints from 15:30 to 16:00 to your specific questions that you prepare and bring.

Group Projects#

In the last 4 weeks of the course the great group project will take place. This project period will end with a project presentation and oral defence at the final Long Day. Here you will in groups work with a project topic that uses the mathematics that you have learned in the course on an engineering-relevant scenario.

Materials#

The teaching material for the course consists of: Week programs and the other materials on the course website, including course Notes, exercises, SymPy demos etc.. The syllabus is found here

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