Name: Lawrence S. Husch
Aud_Level: All Length: 30 minutes Description: Visual Calculus is a WWW-based resource that has been under development for about five years at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The project started out as a collection of modules for freshman calculus teachers to illustrate how they could use computer programs to illustrate various topics in their teaching. Detailed instructions were provided for a variety of public domain, shareware and commercial software packages. Starting in the spring of 1997, with support from the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, collections of drill problems and tutorials on the use of the graphing calculator were constructed for the use of students. These collections were made available to the students in the Fall semester 1997 calculus I course. During that and the following semester, tutorials for calculus II and other interactive materials were developed and used in the Spring semester 1998 calculus II course. Two instructors used these materials in their class that was taught in a microcomputer lab. The calculus I materials were revised during the summer of 1998 to include more interactivity. Five instructors are using the materials in six calculus classes in Fall semester 1998. With support from an ITC/CUE Hewlett Innovative Teaching Fellowship, the materials were designed so that they could be used in a completely web-based course that is coordinated with a freshman physics course that was also offered in the Fall semester 1998. Since the materials are web-based they have been accessible from other sites; there were over 200,000 hits in October 1998. The presentation will include some illustrations of the course materials and a discussion of results from surveys of students. The author will share some observations about student usage of the materials and some plans for further development. Abstract: A report on using the WWW-based Visual Calculus project as the primary class materials for a freshman calculus course at the University of Tennessee will be given. Details of the materials, courses and results from surveys of student reactions to the courses, problems faced by the instructors and students, etc. will be discussed. Preferred Track: Track 1 Session Type: Lecture/Presentation Address: Department of Mathematics University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996 Affiliation: University of Tennessee, Knoxville Equipment: Projector which can be attached to my Windows 95 laptop computer. Email: husch@math.utk.edu Phone: 423-974-4162 Audience: Faculty Fax: 423-974-6576
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