Calculus Lite

WeBWork at UML

2008-02-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well, over a year later and now we have WeBWork at UML. One problem is the occasional down time the our IT people are trying to eliminate. Overall, I think it's great in spite of a steep learning curve.

http://webwork.uml.edu/webwork2/

WeBWork

2006-12-28T05:20:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted in a while. Big news since then has been Webwork (http://webwork.math.rochester.edu/). Used it in the Fall 2006 semester and found it very useful. Am negotiating to get it at UML.

CBL

2006-04-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

I got a CBL unit and one of my students is working on some ideas for it. One of the first things that I assumed we could do is monior the temperature of a cup of coffee for a while and then do a regression to extract the ambient temperature. That doesn't seems to be quite as simple as I thought since the regression model A+ B C^t doesn't seem to be available on the TI-84. Or is it...?

Getting the motion sensor soon - there are lots of things that can be done with it.

In and Out for this summer's Calculus Summer Institute

2006-03-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

In:

infinite series
Transcendental Functions
Derivative without limits (Monthly article)
Canine calculus
TI Navigator
TI CBL

Out:

Cardiac output
Slope fields

cheat sheet

2005-07-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

Just finished the first summer institute in calculus for Focus on Math. It went well

One thing that was suggested for the august session was a "cheat sheet" that would have some of the basic math that we used a lot to help some of the teachers who were not as accustomed to the algebra. it would include:

slope formula
equation of a line
equation of a circle
Some TI key sequences, such as how to enter Y₁ in an expression

four tangent spheres

2005-06-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

Given four points in 3D, under what conditions will there exist spheres centered at these points that are mutually tangent?

differential equations for teachers

2005-06-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm working on some material on differential equations that is part of a calculus workshop I'm doing next month. I know it's "advanced" but it seems to be the most natural way to use derivative qualitatively. We'll see!

Finished the Baroque Cycle!

2005-06-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

The Baroque Cycle is a trilogy by Neal Stephenson that has, among its many subplots, the calculus controversy between Newton and Leibnitz. It took me parts of two years to finish, but it was well worth it. In the end, the distinction between the two is that Newton, the alchemist, lives in a continuous world, while Leibnitz, the monist, is ahead of his time, trying to develop the "Logic Mill" - a pre-Babbage mechanical computer.

Why Calculus Lite?

2005-06-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I teach calculus at different levels at UMass Lowell. Besides the standard science and engineering calculus, I'm involved in a program called Focus on Math in which I happen to be teaching a calculus overview for grade 5-12 teachers. Also, I teach a Mathematica course and do a lot of calculus review to illustrate the software.

I've been meaning to try a blog for a while. I don't know where this will go, but it's started!