Lecture Section 1:
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00-2:30pm
Location: East Hall 3088
Instructor: Nir Gadish
Email: gadish@umich.edu
Office: East Hall 3827
Office hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 5:30pm-6:30pm
Lecture Section 2:
Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00-2:30pm
Location: East Hall 2866
Instructor: Linh Truong
Email: tlinh@umich.edu
Office: East Hall 4842
Office hours: Mondays 10:30am-12:30pm
Syllabus
Course Assistant and Grader: Akash Narayanan
Email: anaray@umich.edu
Course Information:
This course is an introduction to point-set topology. The course will investigate ideas relating to open sets, compactness, connectedness, and convergence of sequences in metric spaces and abstract topological spaces. See the LSA course listings for more details.
Our course will use Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). During each class, students will work on exercises together in small groups. Development of collaboration and mathematical communication skills is an overarching goal of the course.
The course will have a closed-book midterm exam and a closed-book final exam.
The midterm will be held in-class on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.
Some practice material is available here.
Our final exam will be held Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 1:30pm–3:30pm.
| Grading Scheme: | ||
| Homework | 30% | |
| Class Participation | 15% | |
| Quizzes | 10% | |
| Midterm Exam | 15% | (Tuesday, October 24, 2023, in class) |
| Final Exam | 30% | (Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 1:30pm–3:30pm) |
Attendance policy: Attendance in class is required. From the date a student registers for the class, s/he may miss two classes, but each subsequent unexcused absence will result in a penalty of 3% of the final grade. If you must miss a class, please inform your instructor as early as possible. Circumstances such as illness, job interviews, religious observances, certain university-sponsored events, etc, usually constitute "excused" absences and do not typically count toward the two missed classes, provided your instructor is informed in advance when possible.
Office hours: Students from any section may attend the office hours of either instructor or course assistant. Office hours take place in-person unless noted.
Class conduct: Class discussions and small group work are major components of this course. Students are expected to be active participants in the classroom, and are expected to conduct themselves with professionalism and respect for their classmates. Our goal is to create a supportive class environment where students are comfortable testing ideas, and both offering and receiving constructive criticism from peers.
Homework policy: Each week, students will be asked to write up and submit one or more problems from the latest in-class worksheet(s), along with some additional homework problems. Homework assignments will be posted to the course webpage. Homework is due Fridays at 8pm, and collected through Gradescope. See the Gradescope instructions below. Your homework solutions should be neat and legible.
Students may not consult books or online references for their homework. You may work in groups and discuss homework problems with other students, but all solutions (worksheet and homework) must be written up independently and in your own words. You must put away any notes from discussions with classmates or office hours while you write up your solutions, to ensure you fully understand and can reproduce the arguments.
Each student's two lowest homework scores will be dropped.
Quizzes: There will be regular short quizzes throughout the quarter, usually on Tuesdays. Quizzes will typically be between 10-15 minutes. Students will receive advance notice about each quiz and hints about what it will cover. The quizzes are intended to encourage the class to regularly review the material, to provide practice for the exams, and to give feedback (both to you the student, and to me the teacher) about your progress, early on and in a lower stakes setting than the exams.
Each student's two lowest quiz scores will be dropped.
Academic integrity: Students are expected to know and to uphold the LSA Community Standards of Academic Integrity.
Students with documented disabilities: If you might need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please get in touch with your professor as soon as possible. Requests for accommodations by persons with disabilities may be made by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located at G664 Haven Hall. The SSD phone number is 734-763-3000 and their website is ssd.umich.edu. Once your eligibility for an accommodation has been determined, this information will be reflected in SSD's Accommodate system. Please note that under most circumstances University Policy is two weeks' prior notice for any academic accommodation.
Gradescope is an online platform for grading homework and exams. Your work is still being graded by a human on the Math 490
instructional team, but Gradescope streamlines the process. Gradescope is designed around grading best-practices, for example, the
solutions are anonymized for the grader, points are assigned according to a rubric that we set, and Gradescope allows the grader to
give more detailed feedback more efficiently.
You can find instructions and trouble-shooting advice at the Gradescope student centre and Gradescope help page.
How to set up a Gradescope account. Gradescope synchronizes with Canvas to create our course roster. Students should receive an email from Gradescope with information on how to create their log-in credentials. If you have not received this email by Thursday 2 September, contact your instructor.
How to upload an assignment or test. To upload an assignment, you must:
Resubmission. If you find a mistake in your solution, it is possible to resubmit it anytime before the deadline passes. In Gradescope, click on your assignment, and you will see a "resubmit" button in the bottom right corner. Unfortunately, to make any changes to your solution you must re-upload your whole solution and repeat the page selection process.
How to produce a pdf of your homework. If you write your homework solutions by hand, you can "scan" your solutions to
create a pdf. Gradescope has recommendations for apps you can use to
produce a pdf with a smartphone. To create legible scans, it is best to write with a dark pencil or pen.
Please preview your scan before you upload it to ensure it is clearly readable.
You can also complete your homework on a computer, using software such as LaTeX. If you do use LaTeX, it may be easiest to draw
figures separately by hand and scan or photograph them. You can add graphics to a LaTex document by using the graphicx package, or use software to collate the pdf files after your LaTeX document is complete.
Viewing your graded assignment. Once your work is graded and the grades are "published", you will be able to log into
Gradescope to see your graded solutions. Click on the name of your assignment to see a problem-by-problem breakdown of your score.
Click on an individual problem to see your solution, the complete grading rubric, and any comments from the grader.