Damped harmonic oscillations appear naturally in many applications involving mechanical and electrical systems as well as in biological systems. Most students are introduced to harmonic motion in an elementary ordinary differential equation (ODE) course. Solutions to ODEs that describe simple harmonic motion are usually found by investigating the…

This article presents the views of 24 nationally recognized authorities in the field of mathematics, and in particular the calculus, on student understanding of the first-year calculus. A framework emerged that includes four overarching end goals for understanding of the first-year calculus: (a) mastery of the fundamental concepts and-or skills of…

We give an overview of why it is important to include sustainability in mathematics classes and provide specific examples of how to do this for a calculus class. We illustrate that when students use "Excel" to fit curves to real data, fundamentally important questions about sustainability become calculus questions about those curves. (Contains 5…

In mathematics, as in baseball, the conventional wisdom is to avoid errors at all costs. That advice might be on target in baseball, but in mathematics, avoiding errors is not always a good idea. Sometimes an analysis of errors provides much deeper insights into mathematical ideas. Certain types of errors, rather than something to be eschewed, can…

This article was inspired by a set of 12 cylindrical cups, which are volumetrically indexed; that is to say, the volume of cup "n" is equal to "n" times the volume of cup 1. Various sets of volumetrically indexed cylindrical cups are explored. I demonstrate how this children's toy is ripe for mathematical investigation, with connections to…

The purpose of this classroom note is to provide an example of how a simple origami box can be used to explore important concepts of geometry and calculus. This article describes how an origami box can be folded, then it goes on to describe how its volume and surface area can be calculated. Finally, it describes how the box could be folded to…

We estimate the parameters present in several differential equation models of population growth, specifically logistic growth models and two-species competition models. We discuss student-evolved strategies and offer "Mathematica" code for a gradient search approach. We use historical (1930s) data from microbial studies of the Russian biologist,…

A typical introductory course in ordinary differential equations (ODEs) exposes students to exact solution methods. However, many differential equations must be approximated with numerical methods. Textbooks commonly include explicit methods such as Euler's and Improved Euler's. Implicit methods are typically introduced in more advanced courses…

Proofs that the area of a circle is nr[superscript 2] can be found in mathematical literature dating as far back as the time of the Greeks. The early proofs, e.g. Archimedes, involved dividing the circle into wedges and then fitting the wedges together in a way to approximate a rectangle. Later more sophisticated proofs relied on arguments…

An earlier paper discussed the case of a flexible but inextensible membrane filled to capacity with incompressible fluid. It was found that the resulting shape satisfies a set of three simultaneous partial differential equations. This article gives a more general derivation of these equations and shows their form in an interesting special case.

We present an approach to the impulsive response method for solving linear constant-coefficient ordinary differential equations based on the factorization of the differential operator. The approach is elementary, we only assume a basic knowledge of calculus and linear algebra. In particular, we avoid the use of distribution theory, as well as of…

Flipping the classroom refers to moving lectures outside of the classroom to incorporate other activities into a class during its standard meeting time. This pedagogical modality has recently gained traction as a way to center the learning on students in mathematics classrooms. In an effort to better understand the efficacy of this approach, we…

This article presents a research study addressing the development, implementation, evaluation, and use of Interactive Modules for Online Training (MITO) of mathematics in higher education. This work was carried out in the context of the MITO project, which combined several features of the learning and management system Moodle, the computer-aided…

The use of logarithms, an important tool for calculus and beyond, has been reduced to symbol manipulation without understanding in most entry-level college algebra courses. The primary aim of this research, therefore, was to investigate college students' understanding of logarithmic concepts through the use of a series of instructional tasks…

The purpose of this article is to provide a deeper understanding of the natural rhythm of a typical semester, as observed in students' reflections in journals kept during the semester. Our analysis of students' writings rendered a breakdown of the semester into four distinct periods that were independent of the particular semester or section the…