COURSE OUTLINE: A.P. CALCULUS AB
(Course Number: 120231000101)
Instructor: Victor (Rocky) Budzyn III
Prerequisites: Algebra I (Regular or Honors), Geometry (Regular or Honors), Algebra 2 (Regular or Honors), Precalculus (Honors) or permission of instructor
Meets: TBA
Texts: Calculus: Single Variable, Hughes-Hallett, D., Gleason, A.M., et. al., Wiley, 3rd ed., 2002.
Approximate price: $91.30
How to Prepare for the AP Calculus Examination, Hockett, S., Bock, D., Barron’s, 7th ed., 2002.
Price: $16.95 (although 8th edition may be printed soon)
Cracking the AP Calculus AB & BC Exams, Kahn, D., Princeton Review, 2004.
Price: $19.00
Other sources will also be used.
Office: School for Advanced Studies
Miami Dade College - Kendall Campus
days/times TBA
[Appointments can be arranged.]
Grading*: Because of the nature of higher-level mathematics, guaranteed grades are as follows.
Grading curves may or may not be applied accordingly.
90 - 100 A
80 - 89 B
70 - 79 C
60 - 69 D
below 60 F
Distribution:
Tests, Quizzes, Projects, etc. 75%
Homework 20%
Class Participation 5%
*subject to change
Course Description:
“Calculus is one of the greatest achievements of the human intellect. Inspired by problems in astronomy, Newton and Leibniz developed the ideas of calculus 300 years ago. Since then, each century has demonstrated the power of calculus to illuminate questions in mathematics, the physical sciences, engineering, and the social and biological sciences.
Calculus has been so successful because of its extraordinary power to reduce complicated problems to simple rules and procedures. Therein lies the danger in [learning] calculus: it is possible to [learn] the subject as nothing but the rules and procedures - thereby losing sight of both the mathematics and of its practical value. [It is important to] refocus the [learning] of calculus on concepts as well as procedures.
-from Calculus: Single Variable, Hughes-Hallett, D., Gleason, A.M., et.al., Wiley, 3rd ed.,2002.
“What is Calculus?”
We begin to answer this questions by saying that calculus is the reformulation of elementary mathematics through the use of a limit process. If limit processes are unfamiliar to you, then this answer is, at least for now, somewhat less than illuminating. From an elementary point of view, we may think of calculus as a “limit machine” that generates new formulas from old. Actually, the study of calculus involves three distinct stages of mathematics: precalculus mathematics (the length of a line segment, the area of a rectangle, and so forth), the limit process, and new calculus formulations (derivatives, integrals, and so forth).
Some students try to learn calculus as if it were simply a collection of new formulas. This is unfortunate. When students reduce calculus to the memorization of differentiation and integration formulas, they miss a great deal of understanding, self-confidence, and satisfaction.
-from Calculus with Analytic Geometry, Larson, R.E., et.al., Heath, 4th ed., 1990.
Budzyn (2010)