In a series of group activities supplemented with independent explorations and assignments, calculus students investigate functions similar to their own derivatives. Graphical, numerical, and algebraic perspectives are suggested, leading students to develop deep intuition into elementary transcendental functions even as they lay the foundation for…

This note presents geometric and physical interpretations of the sufficient condition for a critical point to be a strict relative extremum: f[subscript xx]f[subscript yy] - f[superscript 2][subscript xy] greater than 0. The role of the double derivative f[subscript xy] in this inequality will be highlighted in these interpretations. (Contains 14…

This article discusses a classroom activity in which students in a small-sized (n = 4) Abstract Algebra class were able to discover some properties related to permutations and transpositions by physically moving from chair to chair according to suggested guidelines. During the lesson students were able to determine ways to write a permutation as a…

In this note we consider a type of integral that is usually presented as an example in any textbook discussion of integration by parts. Invariably this integral is determined by integrating by parts twice and solving. We will present an alternate approach to this integral which makes use of the linearity of the integral, i.e., the fact that…