Supplemental Instruction has a long history of effective use in third level education in the United States. However, there are few rigorously controlled studies in which the potentially confounding effects of student aptitude and experience and of "volunteer effects" have been controlled. Analysis of the effects of peer assisted learning…

We discuss the introduction and teaching of partial differential equations (heat and wave equations) via modeling physical phenomena, using a new approach that encompasses constructing difference equations and implementing these in a spreadsheet, numerically solving the partial differential equations using the numerical differential equation…

This correlational study examined the relationship between gender and the students' attitude and prior knowledge of using one of the mathematical software programs (MATLAB). Participants were selected from one community college, one state university and one private college. Students were volunteers from three Calculus I classrooms (one class from…

Dorans and Holland (2000) and von Davier, Holland, and Thayer (2003) introduced measures of the degree to which an observed-score equating function is sensitive to the population on which it is computed. This article extends the findings of Dorans and Holland and of von Davier et al. to item response theory (IRT) true-score equating methods that…

This study focused on the relationship between students' Advanced Placement Program[R] (AP[R]) performance in AP English Language, Biology, Calculus, and U.S. History, and their subsequent college success. For each AP Exam studied, students were divided into three groups according to their AP Exam performance (no AP Exam taken, score of 1 or 2,…

The idea of cutting out a curve while looking at the direction of cut of the scissors is used to explore concepts related to curves, tangents and derivatives, especially tangent line, concavity and points of inflection, curvature, and a curve as envelope of tangent lines. (Contains 6 figures.)

This paper describes the construction of pedagogical environments in mathematics classes, centred on mathematical modelling and denominated "investigative scenarios", which stimulate students to investigation, to formulation of problems and to political reflection, as well as the sharing of acquired knowledge with other persons in the community.…

In this note a new proof of the divergence of the harmonic series is given based on the expected life of a parallel system with independent exponentially distributed component lifetimes.

In this short note is presented an easy and instructive proof of l'Hopital's Rule in both the 0/0 and [infinity]/[infinity] cases, obtained by translating the theorem into a simple geometric statement about paths in the plane. (Contains 4 figures.)

Investigates the effectiveness of teaching basic calculus concepts by two approaches. One group was taught by a concrete inductive method and the other by an abstract deductive method. (Editor/PG)

Recent developments are explained which use the concepts and methods of mathematical logic to provide a suitable framework for the development of the differential and integral calculus. (DT)

Notation and definition of the derivative function are discussed. (DT)

This unit provides some activities designed to familiarize the reader with the TI-59 and instructions on creating a library of programs on magnetic cards. (MP)

An axiomatic development of the derivative and the antiderivative is presented. (DT)