Mainstream Calculus I Enrollments (fall only for 2- & 4-yr colleges & universities)

0

50

100

150

200

250

1980–81 1985–86 1990–91 1995–96 2000–01

academic year

students (thousands)

4-yr colleges &universities

2-yr colleges

AP Calculus (AB & BC)

AP Calculus 2005: 240,000

Currently growing at ~13,000/year

Mainstream Calculus I Enrollments (fall only for 2- & 4-yr colleges & universities)

0

50

100

150

200

250

1980–81 1985–86 1990–91 1995–96 2000–01

academic year

students (thousands)

4-yr colleges &universities

2-yr colleges

AP Calculus (AB & BC)

AP Calculus 2005: 240,000

Currently growing at ~13,000/year

Estimated # of students taking Calculus in high school: ~ 500,000

Estimated # of students taking Calculus I in college: ~ 500,000

(includes Business Calc)

The Problem:

Most students in Calc I had no intention of continuing with calculus

Most students in Calc II had taken Calc I while in high school

Our solution: separate Calc I and II into distinct courses

Calc I Applied Calculus, a course that emphasizes, geometric understanding, concepts; includes partial and directional derivatives, linear transformations, eigenvalues and eigenvectors.

The natural successor to this course is Statistical Modeling which can include multivariate analysis.

Calc II Single Variable Calculus, designed to build on the AP Calculus syllabus. AP Calc does a good job of covering the techniques and concepts of calculus, but does not involve students in deeper explorations of these topics.

AP calculus AB syllabus does not include

•L’Hospital’s rule

•Integration by parts

•Taylor polynomial approximations

•Numerical methods for solving diff eqns

It is also weak on modeling in general, including

•Converting problems into definite integrals

•Reading and writing differential equations

AP calculus AB syllabus does not include

•L’Hospital’s rule

•Integration by parts

•Taylor polynomial approximations

•Numerical methods for solving diff eqns

It is also weak on modeling in general, including

•Converting problems into definite integrals

•Reading and writing differential equations

Not Taylor series, convergence tests!

AP calculus AB syllabus does not include

•L’Hospital’s rule

•Integration by parts

•Taylor polynomial approximations

•Numerical methods for solving diff eqns

It is also weak on modeling in general, including

•Converting problems into definite integrals

•Reading and writing differential equations

Not Taylor series, convergence tests!