All Questions
Tagged with mathematical-pedagogy calculus
38
questions
2
votes
3
answers
303
views
Is this a viable Calculus 1 question?
A person is standing next to a hot air balloon. At the same time, the person starts moving away from the balloon at 5 ft/sec and the balloon rises straight into the air at a rate of 12 ft/sec. Is the ...
- 295
15
votes
15
answers
7k
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Students can't seem to grasp the intent of tangent lines and getting general trends of derivatives from graphs
Background
I'm informally helping a few students with college Calc 1. This isn't the first time I've aided people with calculus, and so they've sought me for help, though I don't consider myself to ...
- 141
3
votes
5
answers
396
views
Average Rate of Change isn't/is Statistics
I have the common misconception in my business calculus classes that the Average Rate of Change, say from $x=1$ to $x=5$, is the statistical average of the rates on the four unit intervals $1$ to $2$, ...
- 454
3
votes
6
answers
1k
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Is this motivation for the concept of a limit a good one?
tldr: There is a simple intuitive definition of a limit for monotone sequences, and I suggest that it can be used to motivate the (more complicated) standard definition. I am asking for feedback on my ...
- 245
33
votes
14
answers
2k
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Revisiting topics from previous courses [closed]
I teach calculus to students who have almost all taken calculus before. (Primarily first-year college students who took calculus in high school but didn't perform well enough to skip the course.)
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- 237
4
votes
0
answers
792
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What are your experiences with Buck’s Advanced Calculus?
I stumbled across the book when searching for rigorous alternatives to Rudin with some solutions. It’s an “old school” (1965) calculus text but, I think, covers similar material to Rudin in a more ...
- 141
8
votes
4
answers
756
views
Exponential & logarithm in a high school calculus class
So recently I was teaching high school calculus to a high school class and I was wondering about the pedagogically best way to make students actually understand why the derivatives of the exponential &...
- 475
5
votes
1
answer
275
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Making the leap from Pre-Calculus to Calculus
This question is targeted at teachers who taught both low and high level mathematics. I have a group of students that I'm currently teaching precalculus and they seem to be doing really well in all ...
- 5,629
2
votes
1
answer
460
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Are there any university programs that "supersize" calculus courses?
Most differential calculus courses begin with the theory (and analysis) of differentiation, followed by computations, and likewise integral calculus courses. That's a lot for a three credit course, ...
- 1,512
4
votes
4
answers
2k
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How are the basic trigonometric functions introduced to students?
The fundamental trigonometric functions $\sin(x)$ and $\cos(x)$ are used throughout the sciences, but I believe students are often introduced to a very limited initial understanding where it is ...
- 9,729
21
votes
6
answers
6k
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How rigorous should high school calculus be?
In the UK, calculus taught in secondary school focuses mainly on computation of derivatives and integrals and solving simple differential equations. There is a small amount of discussion about limits ...
- 109
8
votes
1
answer
193
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How can I deal with the time pressure of teaching a short course?
I am an undergraduate applied math student. In about a month, I will be teaching two nine-hour math courses (one precalculus, one calculus) to a small group of motivated high school students. My broad ...
- 4,845
2
votes
3
answers
147
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How to teach integrals motivated by the work done in moving an object?
I am now teaching Calculus of several variables this semester. In apllications of integrals, the problem of finding the work done in moving an object under a force $F$ is one of the most common ...
CommunityBot
- 1
27
votes
6
answers
795
views
Would taking 5 minutes to explain the history behind a mathematical idea help stimulate learning the idea?
I read a paper in my "Research Issues in Mathematical Education" class that I have applied to the Undergraduate Calculus I and Calculus II class that I teach. I take five minutes to explain the ...
- 209
7
votes
5
answers
2k
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Teaching asymptotic notations at the beginning of calculus [duplicate]
I'm thinking about teaching calculus by firstly introducing the asymptotic notations (big-Oh, little-oh, and $\sim$), secondly explaining their "arithmetic" (things like how to sum little-oh's and ...
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