THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN A TECHNOLOGY BASED CALCULUS CLASS

Although the focus of this paper is on the method I use in teaching a multivariable calculus course, based on Calculus and Mathematica (C&M) of Davis, Porta and Uhl, at the University of South Carolina Aiken, the issues I discuss and the teaching techniques I describe may be relevant to many other technology based math courses. In particular, I discuss how the objectives of the course are set and why I favor C&M over the traditional approach, how I try to alleviate problems related to student weaknesses in computational skills, lack of interest or commitment, and lack of familiarity with Mathematica, and how I evaluate the success of the course. The method I use differs substantially from the method suggested by the authors of C&M. In the presentation I will discuss, in some detail, the following four basic elements of my approach. (a) Introduction. Each chapter is introduced by a lecture that is very close to the C&M approach, using both hand calculations and Mathematica code. The students also receive a handout containing a complete list of the new concepts and some brief explanations. (b) Tutoring. The students are required to complete, at least part of each homework assignment, in class, usually in teams of two students. This allows the students to discuss problems among themselves and to ask for the instructor’s help when needed. (c) Feedback. Th