View Proposal #254
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| ID | 254 |
|---|---|
| First Name | Mariah |
| Last Name | Birgen |
| Institution | Wartburg College |
| Speaker Category | faculty |
| Title of Talk | Calculus for the 21st Century |
| Abstract | There are several deep issues with the way we have been delivering calculus to this generation of students. First is the issue of the audience. With the extreme growth in pre-health science majors, the majority of students in our first semester calculus courses are Biology majors who are taking the course because it is required for the MCAT. They are not particularly excited to be there and are not afraid to share that opinion with the rest of the class. Second, which is tied to the first, is the issue of AP calculus. Many students coming to college who do want to study in the mathematical sciences are not in that first semester calculus course because they have AP credit. Thus, we often do not see OUR students until after that critical first semester in college. Additionally, the AP calculus curriculum is not equivalent to the material we deliver in college, so the students are always lacking, especially in sequences and series. The last issue has to do with engineering. The fundamental reason calculus is the first mathematics course taught to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors in College is because of the space race. As a nation, we sent a majority of our mathematically talented and gifted students into engineering for decades. However, Wartburg does not have an engineering College and neither do most of our liberal arts college kin. We do have a small number of engineering science majors every year, but they are dwarfed by the health sciences students who are probably not taking calculus based physics until their third or fourth year at Wartburg. <p> Our new applied calculus |
| Subject area(s) | Teaching, Calculus |
| Suitable for undergraduates? | Yes |
| Day Preference | |
| Computer Needed? | |
| Bringing a laptop? | Y |
| Overhead Needed? | N |
| Software requests | |
| Special Needs | |
| Date Submitted | 10/1/2009 |
| Year | 2009 |