Biocalculus Computer Laboratory
MAP 2480 Fall 2009 All Sections
GOTO Current: MAP 2480

• Meeting times: (All sessions meet in 107 MCH)
  • T 9:30 - 10:45 -- Section 1 Instructor: Rhoads
  • T 11:00 - 12:15 -- Section 2 Instructor: Rhoads
  • T 2:00 - 3:15 -- Section 4 Instructor: Dixon and Rhoads
  • T 3:35 - 4:50 -- Section 5 Instructor: Dixon
  • T 5:15 - 6:30 -- Section 6 Instructor: Dixon
• Lab Office Hours (Held in 107 MCH)
  • R 8:00 - 9:15: Rhoads
  • R 5:15 - 6:30: Fletcher and Lu
  • F 2:25 - 3:15: Dixon
• Office Hours outside of the lab
  • Mon 11 -12 402-B MCH: Lu Teaching Assistant sections 1 2
  • Mon 1:30-2:30 251 LOV: Fletcher Teaching Assistant sections 5 6
  • Mon 3:30-4:30 223 LOV: Bellenot 223 LOV TBA (Course Coordinator, MapleTA Coordinator) (Also Wed 1:30-2:20, 3:30-4:30)
  • Thu 9:30-10:30 401-C MCH: Rhoads Instructor sections 1, 2, 4
  • Fri 1 -2 402-H MCH:Dixon Instructor sections 4, 5, 6

Current Schedule with Assignments

• The Prelab Server
• The Lab Server; It only works in MCH 107 You get the same type of problem over and over until you get it correct. This is where to see your lab grades.

Bookmark these pages, they run independently of everything else. If your fsu id is abc08z and your fsusn is XY7654321, then your login will be abc08z and your password abc4321. You can find your FSUsn here (If your fsu id has only two initials, like ab08z and your fsusn is XY7654321, then your login will be ab08z and your password ab4321.)

FAQ on mapleTA. There are several things that can cause confusion about the way mapleTA shows the correct answers.

• mapleTA will show the the answer to sqrt(2) as 1.414214 plus/minus 0.001 but the plus or minus sign is not part of the answer. Instead it is telling you that your answer must be correct within a 0.001. So if you answered 1.41, it would be marked wrong and if you answered 1.41455555 it would be marked correct
• mapleTA will add comma's to answers to mark the thousands and millions etc. These are not part of the answer. If the answer is 1234567, mapleTA will claim the answer is 1,234,567 but will mark 1,234,567 as incorrect.
• The lab portion gradebook will sometimes make it look like you only have partial credit, for example claiming 1/2. Do not believe it, the one on the top says you have full credit, the 2 on the bottom says it took you two tries. The number of tries does not effect your grade. (The gradebook is a link above all the assignments and the class name.)
• Only the best grade counts, if you get a 0 after getting a perfect score, your grade is still the perfect score.
• MapleTA is not the same thing as Maple, it is incorrect to shorten MapleTA to Maple.

Our homework problems generate lots of computation, sometimes the server is slow to present the problem. Sometimes it stops and needs to be given a kickstart, do not count on the server being available at the last minute.

READ THIS

If for some reason the server is not working, immediately email bellenot with a careful description of your problem. Include exactly where the error occurred and what the error message was. Do not assume that someone else also has the same problem or error.

Your private gradebook This has the same username password which is needed for the lessons. [You will also have to add your-code.html to the url above.] This grade book has the participation grade. At the end of the course the MapleTA grades get moved here and your final grade will get computed and reported here.

The free fsu email account are now managed from the FSUID site, this link will point you in the correct direction. You can have your email forwarded to your favorite ISP or you can read your mail directly from the web from this link or you can read your fsu email by several other methods.

MAP 2480 is a computer calculus LAB course mainly for Biologists

Course Description From the Bulletin:

MAP 2480. Biocalculus Computer Laboratory (1). Prerequisite: MAC 2311. A computer laboratory that applies calculus methods to solve problems in biology, medicine, and physiology.

The Dropbox:

• Letter from the Biology Department: Why this Course is Required
• This fall we will mainly being using the FREE Scilab, You should download and install Scilab on your computer. (A couple of labs will still use Matlab.)
• some Matlab will be used in this course, it is not free. A student version is available at bookstore or online at Mathworks. Matlab is installed in 107 MCH and the campus computer labs.
• Scilab is a free mathlab clone and availible from scilab.org. Mac using INTEL machines can just download 5.1.1-alpha; Mac users on PPC machines must also have X11 installed and use an older version of scilab; here is help if you need it
• Octave (like Scilab) is another free matlab clone Octave home
• FSU Math Tutor List

Last Modified: 2009-08-12