MATH 105: Elements of Calculus I

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Brief course description:

This course is part of the General Education program at Saint Mary’s. It will allow you to

  1. improve your ability to think about complex problems by modeling word problems in mathematical form and carrying out the solution
  2. improve your quantitative skills by planning, carrying out, and checking the computations required to produce and interpret numerical solutions to problems
  3. improve your communication skills for technical material by reading mathematical material and writing solutions and explanations using correct language and organization
  4. appreciate the mathematical way of thinking and working; in particular, persistence, independence, and precision in the use of language and concepts.
  5. develop independent-learning and team-work skills by working on new concepts in a learning team.
The mathematical content of this course is calculus – the mathematics of change, and one of the major intellectual success stories of the past 500 years. We will develop the tools necessary for understanding this mathematics (functions, limits) and see how the tools of calculus (the derivative, the integral) are used in such areas as medecine, economics, biology, and physics.

MATH105 is the first semester of a two-semester sequence (MATH105 - 106). The first semester deals with the differential calculus (rates of change, limits, and their appplications in describing changing phenomena). The second semester deals with the integral calculus (total effect of varying changes, more uses of the limit and applications). The focus will be on an intuitive understanding of the major concepts and methods for use in applications, rather than a deep study of the mathematical theory.

 

This page will be occasionally updated to provide access to documents for the course, but most access will be through the Blackboard site(Students enrolled in class Login with own ID & password - others may login as "guest" with password "guest" but will not have access to all feaures)

For dates, course requirements, etc. see the current/most recent syllabus (Fall 2014)

 

Some other documents (mostly in MS Word (.doc) or .html format):

The team roles description

 

Maintained by cpeltier@saintmarys.edu

Last update 8/15/14

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Mathematics Department Home Page