The current Generation-Z students have the characteristics of active learners and visual gamers. The traditional teaching method only guides students to learn theoretical knowledge, lacking the experience of learning by doing and the challenge of solving practical problems. Therefore, this study proposes a three-stage progressive teaching method that uses traditional lectures, mathematical software, and visual problem-solving models incrementally over a semester. The purpose of this study is to provide students with an experiential learning environment to explore changes in their understanding and interest in calculus by sequentially engaging in three different teaching methods. The results of this research show that the introduction of visual mathematical software can allow students to directly observe the curve trend of functions, which is in line with the observer behavior of Generation Z’s learning preferences. Furthermore, engaging in creative projects enables students to apply concepts from the theory of variation to identify relationships between mathematical components and then create visual models for solving problems. Students agreed that the proposed three-stage pedagogy enhanced their interest in learning which allowed them to gain an applied knowledge of calculus through experimental learning.