Abstract
ABSTRACT Alternative forms of evaluation can provide deep and powerful learning experiences for students. Portfolios in the form of group projects are one way of providing such an experience. The goal of this article is to explain how I implement portfolios as an evaluation tool and to describe a problem that I have successfully implemented in my second semester reform calculus class. The problem centers on the process of inverting a pendulum (rotating the pendulum 180 degrees from the rest position) and the mathematics surrounding the analysis of the resulting motion. In particular, the mathematics involves a relatively obscure function known as the gudermannian. The result is a problem that unifies a wide range of mathematics, from algebra to differential equations, through a very simple and concrete image of the non-periodic motion of a pendulum.
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