Make Calculus Great Again Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium

D E P A R T M E N T
O F
M A T H E M A T I C S
A N D
S T A T I S T I C S
St. Cloud State University
Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium
Make Calculus Great Again
– On Sequences and Their Applications
Student Presenters: Lauren Hamilton, Zachary Loff, Natalie
Molloy, Slade Simpson, Alberto Whitlatch, Jeffery Witthuhn
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Danrun Huang
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
St. Cloud State University
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
3:00 p.m., ECC 130
*** Refreshments will be available at 2:50 in ECC 130***
ABSTRACT
Sequences and series are very important tools in math, science and engineering. However, it is one of the most
difficult topics to many students in a typical two-semester sequence of single variable calculus. Though the core
theory of calculus remains unchanged from the past, there is a clear trend in most textbooks to reduce the rigor and
difficulty of calculus, and to increase the use of technology and applications. Many regular exercises from before
have either disappeared or become “Further Explorations” and “Additional Exercises” now; in other words, they
can be simply skipped. Even in those “high level” problems, a mathematical proof is often replaced by “Graphing
to Make a Conjecture”. Using what they have learned, the students of real analysis class this semester did a project
to “make calculus great again”. They went over 111 problems in Section 8.2 on sequences from the current
calculus book, solved many challenging problems that they didn’t touch in calculus, and deepened the results in
terms of real analysis. The talks here are part of Project 111 to share with all the students in calculus and
beyond. The topics include Drug Use and Contracting Sequences; Fibonacci Sequences and Golden Mean;
Continued Fractions; Hailstone Sequences and the 3n+1 Conjecture. Most of the speakers major in math
education, so they have been tutoring or will teach calculus!
.
*Questions about the mathematics colloquium should be directed to:
Danrun Huang 308-2237
Michael Ernst 308-2175
[email protected]
[email protected]