Teaching Calculus as a Tool in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The calculus curriculum has seen remarkably little change over time even as the computational power available to students has increased. The Applied Mathematics department at the Wentworth Institute of Technology has been working to actively address this issue for the past 4 years. We will discuss the curriculum currently used for a year-long calculus sequence for students who will apply their knowledge in engineering and computer science, as well as the compromises and areas of opportunity we have found along the way. The major components of our approach include a series of inquiry-based in-class group exercises and six group projects. The in-class activities provide an initial review of prerequisite material and introduce students to major concepts in both differential and integral calculus. This in-class work is reinforced and extended in the group projects. Each project culminates in a formal paper and/or an oral presentation. A streamlined textbook, developed especially for this course by the authors and their colleagues, provides a resource for the students and includes relevant homework assignments and worked-out examples.