Slough, William

Eastern Illinois University

Department of Mathematics

Charleston, IL  61920



cfwas@eiu.edu



A Brief Calculus



The interactive texts I am developing address the ``brief'' calculus 

course serving the needs of students majoring in business, management, 

and the biological and social sciences. Currently, the primary 

emphasis in this course is placed on mechanical skills such as 

differentiation, integration, and algebraic manipulations.  However, 

the primary emphasis should focus on the fundamental concepts of 

calculus and on the development of high-level problem-solving skills. 

Laboratory activities, coupled with  Maple to assist with purely 

mechanical aspects, permit this shift.



Although textbooks for this course do an adequate job of presenting 

graphical information, these graphs are static objects. Moreover, it 

is not always easy or practical for students to visualize graphs of 

functions for problems they need to solve. The worksheets under 

development involve frequent use of graphical information and are by 

their very nature dynamic objects.



The interactive texts being developed include explorations involving 

the usual topics of the ``brief'' calculus: functions, the difference 

quotient, the derivative, tangent lines, patterns of differentiation, 

logarithmic and exponential functions, integrals, and calculation of 

area. Joining all of these topics is a central focus on applications. 

These texts and the underlying technology allow the topics to be 

explored by students in ways which are very different from traditional 

methods.

.