News	from Duke Mathematics Learning Materials Development Projects

Latest update: June 20, 2001

Contents

• Teaching Mathematics with Online Materials
  NSF Chautauqua Course 27, Duke University, June 26-28, 2001
• Web Feats, a workshop for secondary teachers, sponsored by
  the PostCalc Project, Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, and Math Forum
  Ohio State University, July 9-13, 2001
• Adapting Web Based Materials for the Interactive Computer Classroom, an Instructional Technology Profile on the web site of the Duke Center for Instructional Technology

• Presentations at the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics (including PowerPoint slides, papers, and video clips)

• Connected Curriculum Project
  • New Mathematica files and tutorials in all sections
  • New Matlab files and tutorials in almost all sections
  • New Mathcad files in the Precalculus section
  • New materials
  • Materials coming soon
  • CCP Users Workshop, Durham, 7/19-22/00

• PostCALC Project
  • PostCALC materials
  • PostCALC Users Workshop, Durham, 7/12-14/00

• Project CALC

  • Project CALC in the news

  • Textbook
  • Lab manuals
  • Future publication plans
  • Special needs for materials

Connected Curriculum Project

• New Mathematica tutorial modules and worksheets for almost all modules are available in the following sections:
  • Precalculus
  • Differential Calculus
  • Integral Calculus
  • Multivariable Calculus
  • Differential Equations
  • Linear Algebra
  • Engineering Mathematics

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• New Matlab tutorial modules and worksheets for almost all modules are available in the following sections:
  • Precalculus
  • Differential Calculus
  • Integral Calculus
  • Differential Equations
  • Engineering Mathematics

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• New Mathcad worksheets are available for all modules in the Precalculus section

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• New materials
  • Taylor Polynomials II (Integral Calculus, 9/28/00)
  • Linear Filters (Linear Algebra, 6/11/00)
  • The SIR Model for Spread of Disease (Differential Calculus, 6/2/00)
  • Titration (Projects, 5/10/00)

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• Materials coming soon
  • Additional worksheets for Matlab.

  • Additional units for Calculus I, mostly based on the lab materials and textbook from Project CALC.
    • Logarithmic Plotting
    • The Spread of AIDS

  • Additional units for Calculus II, mostly based on the lab materials from Project CALC.
    • Symbolic Computation of Integrals
    • Numeric Computation of Integrals
    • Normally Distributed Data
    • Periodic Functions
    • The p-Series and Improper Integrals

  • Additional units for Calculus III, mostly based on the lab materials from Project CALC.
    • Experiments with Partial Derivatives
    • Surface and Contour Plotting
    • Directional Derivatives
    • Local Extreme Points
    • Vectors in Space
    • Centers of Mass
    • Line Integrals I
    • Line Integrals II

  • Additional units for Engineering Mathematics
    • Laplace's Equation on a Rectangle
    • Laplace's Equation on a Disk

  • Additional worksheets for Mathcad -- complete collections for Precalculus and Differential Equations, plus many others

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PostCALC Project

• PostCALC Materials
  The PostCALC site currently contains seven completed modules:
• Maple Tutor, an introduction to Maple that is tailored to the needs of the PostCALC modules
• Fourier Approximations and Music, a long module introducing Fourier series through the analysis and synthesis of musical sounds
• Introduction to Differential Equations, a shorter review and reference module
• Population Growth Models, a long module including exponential, superexponential, and logistic growth. Populations studied include the human population of the world and the lobster population off the Maine coast.
• Distributions of Data, an introduction to continuous data distributions with emphasis on the normal distribution
• Systems of Differential Equations: Models of Species Interaction, An introduction to systems of two first-order differential equations with discussions of the phase plane, nullclines, and equilibria. The applications are to predator-prey models and models of competetive species.
• The SIR Model for Spread of Disease, an expansion and extension of the module of the same name in the differential calculus section of CCP.

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• PostCALC Workshop
  A workshop for high school teachers interested in Post CALC materials was held at Duke University, July 12-14. A small but lively group of teachers participated -- most were from the local area, but one came from New Mexico. Workshop activities included
  • working through the Maple tutorial and other parts of the modular materials;
  • hearing about experiences using the modules in high school courses;
  • discussing sample student reports;
  • working on a project to implement or extend the available materials

  Click here to see the schedule for the workshop.

  Click here to see pictures from the workshop.

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Project CALC

• Project CALC in the News
  
  The November 10, 2000, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education included this picture of Prof. Betty Mayfield working with her students at Hood College on a Project CALC activity. The article was about the future of women's colleges, not about mathematics or Project CALC. If you subscribe to the Chronicle and want to find the article in the archives (sans picture), click here.
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• Textbook, Calculus: Modeling and Application: The publisher of the first edition, Houghton Mifflin (HM), has decided not to publish a second edition and has returned all rights for subsequent editions to the authors. The first edition of the single variable text (Chs. 1-11) and the final preliminary edition of the multivariable text (Chs. 12-16) will continue to be sold by HM as long as there are books in the warehouse. We estimate that, at current rates of sales, these books will be available for another three to four years. Since HM is not marketing the work, there is no reason to think that sales will go up dramatically. See the Project CALC materials page for details of ISBN numbers and ordering information.
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• Lab manuals: The HM decision announced in the preceding paragraph applies to lab manuals as well. Existing stock for each of the computer and calculator versions (except HP-48, which was custom published) should last at least as long as the textbook stocks. We are in the process of publishing "second edition" versions of the labs as CCP modules in our Differential Calculus, Integral Calculus, and Multivariable Calculus areas. We expect these online lab manuals to be completed over the next few months and to replace print versions anywhere that students have ready access to a computer algebra system.
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• Future publication plans: As the preceding paragraph indicates, the future publication of lab manuals will be in modular form on the Web. No decision has been made about the future of the textbook, but we are considering the possibility of modular Web publication for it as well. We are eager to have feedback, especially from current and past users, about the feasibility and desirability of a textbook being provided entirely on the Web, perhaps with licensing for local downloading and printing. Contact the authors.
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• Special needs for materials: Please let us know if you have a need for Project CALC materials that is not being met. For example, if supplies of calculator-based lab manuals are exhausted, we can provide those as PDF files on the Web. We (and our lab manual co-authors) have the electronic files from which the manuals were produced, and we can use them as we wish once HM's warehouse stock is sold. Contact the authors.
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