Another PSA: The Penn State Learning offers free peer tutoring (walk-in, no appointment is required). It is a great resource if you ever need help for the course but are unable to make my office hours. Check out their website for hours and locations: Penn State Learning - free on-campus peer tutoring

8-27-2012: Assignment #1 will be given in class on Friday, August 31. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, September 6.

The first 2 sets of lecture notes + a review (reprints of my transparencies):
Intro. and part 1 of Chapter 2
The rest of Chapter 2 lecture notes on first order differential equations
Review of Partial Differentiation

In-class worksheet set 1
This is the first set of in-class worksheet. It is basically your ready-made class notes. In addition to giving you something to do while in class, it also serve as a lecture outline, a source of extra examples and exercises, and an exam study guide (generally it is a safe bet that items/concepts/formulas appearing on the worksheet are, somewhat, more important than those only appear in the online lecture notes but not on the worksheet).

The class Facebook group: for class and homework online "technical support"

Assignment #2 will be given in class on Friday, September 7. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, September 13.

9-5-2012: Assignment #3 will be given in class on Friday, September 14. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, September 20.

9-12-2012: In-class worksheet set 2 - the second set of the in-class worksheet, covering sections 3.1 through 4.2.

Lecture notes for Chapter 3:
Second Order Linear Equations, Part 1 - homogeneous equations
Second Order Linear Equations, Part 2 - Nonhomogeneous Linear Equations
Mechanical Vibrations

Assignment #4 will be given in class on Friday, September 21. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, September 27.

If you have a scheduling conflict for midterm exam 1 and need to arrange to take either the conflict exam (same day as the regular exam, but from 5:05 to 6:20pm), or the make-up exam (on Thursday, Oct 18, from 6:30 to 7:45pm), please come to see me before or after class.

9-17-2012: Assignment #5 will be given in class on Friday, September 28. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, October 4.

9-27-2012: Assignment #6 (exam I review, you can start on it now): Due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, October 11. Do the following:
Sample exam from Spring 2010 (answer key available) and Summer 2012:
Exam I, Spring 2010    answer key
Exam I, Summer 2012    answer key
Do all necessary steps for the partial-credit problems, show all work or sufficient reasoning to justify your answers to the multiple-choice / matching / true-or-false / short-answer questions.

Other recommended sample exams: Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2009.

10-1-2012: Chapter 4 notes: Higher Order Linear Equations

10-3-2012: Midterm Exam I study guide

Notes, worksheet, and more, on Laplace Transforms (Chapter 6):
In-class worksheet set 3 - covering Laplace transforms, sections 6.1 through 6.5.
Laplace Transforms, part 1
Laplace Transforms, part 2
Laplace Transforms, part 3
Partial fractions review notes
Table of basic Laplace Transforms

10-4-2012: The Penn State Learning (the folks at 007 Sparks) will be holding a Math 251 exam review session, lead by student peer tutors, on Sunday, October 7, starting at 3:30pm in room 010 Sparks.

10-11-2012: Assignment #8 will be given in class on Friday, October 19. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, October 25. Assignment #9 will be given in class on Friday, October 26. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, November 1.

Here is an experimental how-to guide of using the second translation theorem of Laplace transforms using examples with color-coded parts. (It works better if you print it out in colors.)

10-22-2012: Notes, worksheet, and a reference chart, on chapters 7 and 9, they cover the rest of the topics that are going to be on the second midterm exam:

In-class worksheet set 4 - covering systems of differential equations, and phase portraits (Chapters 7 and 9).
Systems of First Order Linear Equations
Phase portraits; Nonlinear Systems
Predator-prey Equations
Phase portrait reference chart

Assignment #10 will be given in class on Friday, November 2. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, November 8.

10-24-2012: If you have a scheduling conflict with our second exam and need to arrange to take either the conflict exam (same day as the regular exam, but from 5:05 to 6:20pm), or the make-up exam (on Monday, November 26, from 6:30 to 7:45pm), please come to see me before or after class. The deadline for signing up for taking the conflict exam for the second midterm is Tuesday, November 6. Please be advised, however, in case you need to sign up for the make-up exam, that the make-up exam will be held AFTER the late-drop deadline (which is Friday, November 16, this might affect your decision regarding taking the make-up), and on the first day after the Thanksgiving break (in other words, if your travel schedule would prevent you from getting back in town immediately upon the conclusion of the Thanksgiving break, then you should NOT sign up to take the make-up exam).

10-29-2012: Assignment #9, originally scheduled to be due on Thursday, November 1, is POSTPONED until Monday, November 5.

10-31-2012: Assignment #11 (exam II review, you can start on it now): Due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, November 15. Do the following:
Sample exam from Summer 2012 and Spring 2011 (answer keys now available for both):
Exam II, Summer 2012    answer key
Exam II, Spring 2011    answer key
Do all necessary steps for the partial-credit problems; show all work or sufficient reasoning to justify your answers to the matching / true-or-false / short-answer questions.

Other recommended sample exams: Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Fall 2010, Spring 2009, and Spring 2008.

Here is a set of exam II review formula sheets made by a fellow student last year. I include it here because it might proved to be helpful to you as well. Note that it includes mechanical vibrations, which will not be on the second exam (the first exam covered that topic)

11-5-2012: Assignment #10, originally scheduled to be due on Thursday, November 8, is POSTPONED until Monday, November 12.

Midterm Exam II study guide

The Penn State Learning will be holding a Math 251 exam review session, lead by student peer tutors, on Sunday, November 11, starting at 1:00pm in room 121 Sparks.

11-7-2012: Assignment #12 will be given in class on Friday, November 16. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, November 29.

Notes and worksheet on Chapter 10 - Partial Differential Equations:
In-class worksheet set 5 (chapter 10) - partial differential equations
Part 1 (10.1 and 10.5) - introduction, separation of variables, 2-point boundary value problems, eigenvalues and eigenfunctions
Part 2 (Fourier Series: 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4) - Fourier series, Fourier convergence theorem, even and odd periodic functions
Fourier Series summary (the bare minimum version of part 2 above)
Summary sheet of common simple 2-point BVPs
Part 3 (10.6 + summaries) - heat conduction problems, nonhomogeneous boundary conditions, steady-state solution
Part 4 (10.7 and 10.8, plus incomplete optional topics section) - wave equations, Laplace/potential equation

11-14-2012: Assignment #13 will be given in class on Friday, November 30. It is due at the beginning of the class on Thursday, December 6.

11-16-2012: For assignment #12 (due Thursday, Nov 29), you just need to do questions #1 through #7. Skip #8 (it will become a part of assignment #13 instead).

How the 100-point homework score is calculated: There are going to be 13 assignments total, each is worth 10 points. Basically, the top 10 scores are kept, for a total of 100 points. But, there is an exception -- the last 2 assignments (#12 and #13) on PDEs cannot both be dropped. At least one of the 2 scores must be included in the calculation. There are 2 reasons for this exception. The first is that PDEs is, literally, the fourth credit (above Math 250's) of the course, so at least one score from a PDE assignments should count. The second is that, in the past many students who had scored well in the first 10 assignments elected to skip the last 2 or 3. Essentially, they decided to ease up on class work during the most difficult part of the course, and at the most critical moment just before the final exam. This complacency usually did not turn out well for the students. Remember, now is not the time to ease up because more than half of the final exam is going to be consisted of PDE / chapter 10 topics. This rule would, hopefully, make sure everyone are to spend sometime studying chapter 10.

11-28-2012: On this Sunday, Dec 2 (only), the Penn State Learning will hold its peer tutoring service for Math 251 in their main office in room 220 Boucke Bldg, instead of the usual 007 Sparks location. Math 251 tutoring will resume in 007 Sparks on Monday, Dec 3.

12-11-2012: There will be no class on this Friday, December 14. Thursday's (12/13) class is, therefore, the last one of the semester.

Recommended sample final exams: Spring 2012, Fall 2011, Summer 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010, and Spring 2009 (answer keys are available for all of them).

12-12-2012: The Penn State Learning will be holding a Math 251 exam review session, lead by student peer tutors, on Tuesday, December 18, starting at 6:00pm in room 114 EES Bldg.

12-13-2012: Final Exam study guide

In addition to the Penn State Learning's exam review on Tuesday, I will personally have a review session on Sunday, December 16, from 1:00 to 3:30pm, in room 262 Willard.

12-16-2012: Final exams week office hour: Monday, Dec 17, 2:30 to 4:00pm.