Posted on 02/11/2025 4:13:51 AM PST by MtnClimber
Unless young students learn the predicate mathematics for calculus, our nation will grind to a halt.
While Democrats focus on the liberal arts, which train students to be leftist activists beginning in grade school, it is the STEM studies that keep America functioning. As students ascend that ladder of mathematical logic, calculus becomes central to their ability to maintain our systems and invent new ones. Sadly, though, our schools are failing students, not just in teaching calculus but in teaching everything preceding calculus.
It is widely recognized among today’s undergraduates that the STEM field is at once among the most rewarding and the most challenging, promising well-compensated employment in the future while also demanding devotion and consistent concentration in the present.
A principal source of the demanding nature of the STEM curriculum is its solid mathematical core, the centerpiece of which is calculus, a cause of both delight and frustration for generations of college students.
Calculus, the mathematical analysis of change of continuous functions, was invented in the late 17th century by both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, who were working independently of each other. Because Newton’s notational system was awkward and inconvenient, whereas the Leibniz notational system was intuitively appealing and easy to use, it is the Leibniz notation system that is in use today.
Because of the hierarchical structure of the topics in STEM, in which mathematics explains computer science and physics, physics explains chemistry, and chemistry explains biology, calculus finds itself cast in the role of the gatekeeper to STEM. And with that gatekeeper role in mind it would be highly illuminating to be a mouse in the corner of the first quarter college calculus classroom as the professor brings the daily class to a close.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Thx!
“I remember my early Calculus days in college early 80s. My problem was I could do the math, but I never really understood what it meant.”
Exactly. Figure out how to do the problems and eventually the real world applications (few they may be) start to fit into it.
I had a nephew who went to college for technical subject but dropped out after one year. I tried to tell him the same thing - Figure out how to do the problems and don’t worry about understanding all that theoretical stuff they teach you the first week or two.
My problem was I could do the math, but I never really understood what the professor was saying.
“Have never needed to solve any other polynomial or factor an equation since college”
I am a lawyer and graduated from college with honors in history and law with honors. The last math course I took was in high school, trigonometry and college algebra. I flunked the final managed to get a C for the course. It was an experience like falling off a motorcycle and deciding afterwards not to ride motorcycles, something I’ve also done. I structured my college courses so that I would be required to take no advanced math. One of the smartest decisions I ever made.
Is calculus really harder or more boring than trigonometry or logarithms? Cut back a few weeks of those and give the kids some calculus.
I structured my college courses so that I would be required to take no advanced math. One of the smartest decisions I ever made.
Same with grammar, teaches logic.
The big fat pencil and script, taught dexterity.
Ain't that the truth, I think mine only spoke Chinese
I am certain you did, FRiend...
I have a BS degree in Wood Products Engineering. Basically, Mechanical Engineering for wood. I took Calculus 1 & 2. Got A’s in both. Dropped Calc 3 because I would have failed it.
Got As in Statics, Mechanics and Strength of Materials. It just made sense and came easy to me.
Graduated and became a commodity lumber trader. Never used any of it in my job. However, I did design and build my first house. Built a couple barns/sheds and lots of furniture.
Great teachers make calculus fun and easy to learn.
Bad teachers make calculus a chore and hard to learn.
Most classes have DEI components to them. They demand adherence to liberal ideology or fail the class.
Quick, snap up April Wilkerson before she remarries.
Well, when you integrate some things, out pops trig and logs.
I’ve never seen that in a STEM subject.
Yep, I’m constantly taking courses on Udemy.com.
Great source!
one use is in force, stress, heat through material over time. Simulations and Controls are other uses. Amazingly useful. Basic calculus was not very interesting for me by Diff EQ, FFT, Signal Analysis, anything that brought the computer back into the process made the math interesting.
1. Math majors should never teach any math to non-math majors. They hardly ever even try to establish an application relationship. I don’t understand who becomes a math major.
2. I have never seen a teacher able to explain that the various math classes are building blocks; how Trigonometry leads to Calculus leads to Differential Equations. Linear Alzebra I never took so I don’t relate.
3. I never used Calculus for most of 30 years and my profession was math heavy but I did use and need to understand rate of change concepts. I used a whole lot of Algebra and simultaneous equations and indeterminate functions. Goal seeking in Excel was a breakthrough to me.
4. I wish I had better guidance on math including Calculus and Differential Equations. I finally did use Differential Equations to solve a very complex timing problem in a very complex mechanical device.
5. My Dad was an Engineering professor and only knew one other professor who actually used calculus.
Even cashiers at the grocery store are no better.
only the older ones get it when I hand them enough change to get only quarters back.
If I buy something that costs $4.79, I'll give them four pennies with a $20 and the confused looks on the kids faces tell it all.
My bad. We had to prove it in my calculus class.
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