Calc classes to get software upgrade

The Math Department is riding on the crest of technology. Starting next semester, math classes numbering 140 and beyond will utilize a new software system which will act as a "mathematical word processor," said Undergraduate Math Chairperson Dennis Deturck. The program, which is currently used in about five universities in the country, will enable students to view "the illustration of calculus concepts" and do "computer homework assignments," DeTurck added. Deturck said the incorporation of computers into the curriculum will "broaden computer literacy" and "give [students] a tool for their academic and professional life." He predicts that most of the machines in campus computer labs and libraries will be programmed with the software and students will be able to buy copies of the software "at a reasonable price" by next academic year. He also said that a new "Introduction to Calculus" class, Math 130, will be implemented next fall. This new section has been added because an estimated "90 percent [of the student body] has seen some calculus" and professors of Math 140 and 141 must teach to students with different levels of calculus experience. "[The system] isn't serving anyone well," he said. DeTurck said he predicts that Math 130 will fulfill a formal reasoning and analysis requirement, but this rule has not yet been approved. And he said he hopes that this "gentler introduction to calculus" will encourage more non-science and math students to take calculus. "I think a lot of liberal arts students would like to attempt calculus but are intimidated," he said. Math Department Chairperson Robert Powers said he has requested more teaching assistants and faculty members for the additional section, because "the teaching load [for the new section] will be equivalent to the responsibilities of three extra faculty." He said the funding for these changes depends on a grant from the National Science Foundation, which may be awarded this April, and administrative aid. "We're hoping we just don't get the rug pulled out from under us by the administrators," Powers said. DeTurck also added that the advent of electronic mail accounts for all College students next fall will allow students to get their homework assignments and ask questions to their TAs and professors electronically. A number of students who have taken calculus or are now enrolled in calculus courses said they disapprove of the computerization of calculus classes. "I don't think it's really necessary," College freshman Shirley Jang said. "The best method to learn calculus is just to sit down with a book and do the problems." "It's just making it more and more complicated," Wharton freshman Anh Dang said. "Some people have calculus phobia and if you force them to use computers, it only scares them more." Dang also said she believes that a lower level calculus class is unnecessary and that the difficulty many students have with Math 140 and 141 lies in poor teaching. "I think the problem is the professors," she said. "Essentially, they don't know how to teach." But other students praised the progressive move of the math department. "I think that doing calculus on a computer would be less of a burden then doing a homework assignment that ends up being six to seven pages long," College freshman Valerie Kelly said, describing the new system as "environmentally correct." "I think we are basically moving into a computer age and work on computers should be done as frequently as possible," she said.