>I agree that we want to avoid an overly abstract approach, however, I
>think we should also be showing how calculus fits into the life and
>social sciences, etc--we don't want to turn off the students who do not
>appreciate physics.
>
>Bruce Yoshiwara
>(currently at Barnsley College, England)
>
I agree with you sir. A good physics-calculus combo will need to
segue into dynamical systems theory and modeling programs like
SimCity, which give kids a good sense of networked interactions,
feedback loops (with humans very definitely "in the loop"). This
is what differential equations aims to supply, but iterative
looping on computer (ala the pioneering Club of Rome stuff at MIT)
has made social sciences and games of life much easier to study.
Economics and such use discrete calculus a lot more than continuous
calculus, and a lot of good websites show how DC can be phased into
K-12 pretty seamlessly, along with some statistics/combinatorics.
Kirby
---------------------------------------------------------
Kirby T. Urner http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/kirby.html
4D Solutions http://www.teleport.com/~pdx4d/ [PGP OK]
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