We discuss how applications from microbiology and sociology can be used to involve students and give a physical context for critical concepts in a first semester calculus course. Using data they collect themselves (from bacteria or yeast grown in a laboratory, for example), students develop elementary models of population growth in interdisciplinary class projects. Using the tools of calculus, demographic software, and available technology (CAS or graphing calculator), students then proceed from #x201C;microcosm to macrocosm,#x201D; moving from biology to sociology, to address questions of human population projections.
展开▼
