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Calculus

01

The Spread of Disease and SIR Models - Start Calculus Numerically!

​Introduction to this unit ​​(and the best calculus textbook)

  • Skip the limits (at least for a bit)

  • Working with spreadsheets

  • How can the fundamental theorems of calculus be so obvious to students?!

02

Projects
  • The Roller Coaster Project

  • The Optimization Project (generalize!)

03

Integration
  • Start with CAD

  • The inverse chain rule

The Five College Calculus Project by

  • James Callahan, Smith College

  • Kenneth Hoffman, Hampshire College

  • David Cox, Amherst College

  • Donal O'Shea, Mount Holyoke College

  • Harriet Pollatsek, Mount Holyoke College

  • Lester Senechal, Mount Holyoke College

Making Math is honored to be a site for sharing the extraordinary National Science Foundation-funded Calculus In Context curriculum. These materials were developed with many goals including:

  • Making the big themes of calculus better motivated and accessible from the beginning

  • Putting numerical methods, and the technology that supports them,  on an equal footing with symbolic ones to broaden the range of questions that the students can address

  • Making mathematical modeling a central theme while also presenting many exciting sophisticated calculus tools and topics that are not usually seen in an introductory class.

 

The authors are inspired by the belief "that calculus can be for our students what it was for Euler and the Bernoullis: A language and a tool for exploring the whole fabric of science."  But, those of us who have taught this course know that it equally brings to life the beauty, meaning, and power of the mathematical ideas and their connections within mathematics. 

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Explore all of the Calculus In Context resources on our dedicated Calculus In Context page.
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