Course Syllabus

Spring 2025 | MAT-1030-VJ01 - Applied Math Concepts

In Person Class

Standard courses meet in person at CCV centers, typically once each week for the duration of the semester.

Faculty

Sylvia Puglisi
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Deb Grant

General Education Requirements

VSCS Mathematics

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course develops students’ ability to think quantitatively and use mathematics as a problem-solving tool in their professional and personal lives. Mathematical applications are selected from a range of business, human services, health, and political topics. Concepts include: set theory, visual representation of data, operations in the real number system, geometry, linear and nonlinear equations, linear systems, personal finance, probability, and statistics. Students must take a math assessment for placement purposes prior to registration. Prerequisite: Math & Algebra for College or equivalent skills.

Essential Objectives

1. Apply basic concepts of set theory and use Venn diagrams to solve problems related to surveys and probabilities.
2. Utilize real number system operations (fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, and unit conversions) in the interpretation and analysis of problems from a variety of fields.
3. Analyze and interpret linear and nonlinear relationships using graphs and equations and apply algebraic techniques and models to a variety of problems.
4. Apply geometric concepts including angles, areas, volumes, and the Pythagorean Theorem.
5. Examine and apply the concepts of probabilities using a variety of methods including counting techniques, frequency tables, probability distributions, pie charts, written summaries, and graphs.
6. Apply basic statistics, using sampling, tables, charts, graphs, means, standard deviation and normal distribution, to interpret and draw conclusions from data.
7. Compute and analyze the impacts of simple and compound interest, and analyze finance applications related to savings, taxes, discounts, loans, and purchases.
8. Select and perform appropriate procedures to solve mathematical problems arising in various disciplines and demonstrate proficiency in interpreting, evaluating, and presenting quantitative data and information.
9. Demonstrate proficiency on the quantitative reasoning graduation assessment.
10. Apply quantitative reasoning to analyze social justice problems in a variety of different contexts and consider whether these approaches are just and equitable.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a no cost textbook or resource class. ***

This course only uses free Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or library materials. For details, see the Canvas Site for this class.

Artificial Intelligence(AI) Policy Statement

CCV recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI tools are widely available and becoming embedded in many online writing and creative applications.

Allowed: This course's generative AI policy acknowledges technology, including generative AI, plays a supportive role in learning and feedback. During our class, we may use AI writing tools such as ChatGPT in certain specific cases. You will be informed as to when, where, and how these tools are permitted to be used, along with guidance for attribution. Any use outside of these specific cases constitutes a violation of CCV's Academic Integrity Policy.

For the types of math we do in this class, generative AI resources (ChatGPT, Copilot, AI content summaries) are often useful and correct! Other times, they will make mistakes or fail to understand the problem. In this way, they are very similar to having a "smart friend" to turn to and explain a problem you do not understand. Feel free to use them that way -- anywhere I explicitly permit you to talk to other classmates about math, you can choose to 'talk to' a generative AI tool and see what it says. Just like with a friend's work, you cannot copy it mindlessly into your assignment: you should read, understand, analyze, rewrite, and own its advice first.

In our first week, we will explore how AI tools can make mistakes in math problems, so you have a good idea how to use these tools to help you find learning. After that, we will not explicitly use any AI tools in this course, unless you undertake them for your own learning and research.

Methods

Our in-person class meetings will involve direct instruction (i.e. "lecture" and examples), group activities, individual problem-solving, and participatory discussion. Expect each week to try many problems of varying levels of difficulty, and challenge your brain!

Our Canvas course will hold resources and posts to help support in-class learning, and various assignments in the form of Canvas quizzes for easy submission and grading. You may complete these asynchronous assignments at times convenient to you, in accordance with their due dates. ***NOTE: Please let me know if you prefer handwritten assignments; I can weekly print them for you if preferred.***

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluated assignments use a weighted grading system and include:

• (30% of grade) Home Practice (Homework)
  • These assignments help you solidify core ideas from the course, using online learning tools and whatever math practice strategies are most effective for you
• (30% of grade) Problem-Solving (In-Class)
  • Most students attend class, work on problems, and ask questions
  • If you are absent, credit or partial credit may be obtained via completing the uploaded pages independently
• (30% of grade) Numeracy and Quantitative Reasoning Exams (In-Class)
  • Assigned in ~Week 5 and Week 10
• (10% of grade ) Final Presentation
  • This may be in-class or recorded and submitted

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential components of a student’s success in this course, as accords with CCV’s schoolwide attendance policy.

For participation credit, you must attend, and also demonstrate engagement during the class meeting (completing the assignment, problem-solving with your peers, asking questions, taking notes, or other activities -- depending on how you learn!) This participation will be graded weekly on "Discussion" assignments: no posting is required, they are a place for me to grade your in-class work.

In addition to class meetings, this course requires independent work through Canvas on your own time (“asynchronous” work). Expect between 45min-3hr of this independent work per week, depending on your experience with the material & your individual work speed.

Missing & Late Work Policy

All assignments in this course will have provided “due dates” to ensure they show up on your student schedule at the optimum time. For most individual assignments ‘late’ work is accepted, while synchronous and group work has hard deadlines. Specifically:

• Missed exams must be rescheduled individually. Any scheduled exam should be taken on the indicated day/time; a score of 0 is recorded for a missed exam. If you do miss an exam, or know that taking one in the future impossible, please email or Canvas message as soon as you can -- we can schedule yours at a different day or time.

• Missed in-class problem-solving work may be "made up". Please complete the posted work pages for any class you missed -- this may require doing some extra reading or research on your own. There is no late penalty, but I recommend completing it before the next class session if possible. Some weeks, portions (10-20%) may be impossible to complete on your own, but most weeks A-B level credit should be possible.

• Home math practice may be submitted and resubmitted any time. These are learning assignments, for which there is no late penalty. If submitted by the due date, I can ensure prompt grading and feedback a week from that date; submitted earlier or later, my grading speed might vary! Please consider reattempting them to attain the best score you can and show mastery.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

Apply Now for this semester.