Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants

Small-group activities instead of examples: an inquiry-based approach to calculus

Department

Mathematics Department

College

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Date Range

2014-2015

Disciplines

Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Abstract

Historically, calculus texts and calculus instruction have presented students a large number of completed examples. Often, students then solve related problems by emulating work done in the examples. In an effort to instead have students build their own intuition, think more independently, and discover key ideas themselves, I have developed a large (and freely available) collection of activities that engage students in learning calculus in a more inquiry-based style. In this talk, I will share some sample activities, discuss the structure of a typical class meeting, and reflect upon student feedback and outcomes with this approach. (FYI, I am giving a second presentation as well that has already been accepted. That one is on points-free, standards-based grading and is based on recent work that I've done in some of my GVSU courses.)

Conference Name

Joint Meetings of the AMS and MAA

Conference Location

San Antonio, TX

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