Earlier quoted context omitted.
Married?
I think they meant it literally, to further reinforce the fact that they were colluding to extract profit out of their students via yearly textbook revisions.
Aye I did mean literally.
The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
101–110 of 142 posts
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#102Very much yes. I am currently trying to tutor my daughter through college-level calculus. She wants to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers, obviously, need to know calculus. But calculus is not being taught to her by engineers. It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset". Which means, in practice, that it is an entry to proofs. Every proof…
My college used calc 1/2 as “weed out” classes. The best part was the professors were married, the same calc book was used for calc 1/2/3, and they revved the book every semester, basically rearranging the problem sets so you had to buy a ~200 book for 3 semesters, or make friends with someone who would let you photocopy the problem sets. My entire faith in academia was broken as a result.
Do you mean that you had to buy the same book 3 times?
(or otherwise copy)
That's astonishingly bad.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Married?
I think they meant it literally, to further reinforce the fact that they were colluding to extract profit out of their students via yearly textbook revisions.
The confusion arises from “married” not necessarily meaning “married to each other”, in this context, especially since the number of professors is unknown. I did not even think about it as a possibility until I read your comment.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#104Am I the only one who loved that this article talks about an author named Andrew Hacker.. writing an article about myths of science.. on HN..? But regardless, while I disagree with the article’s argument it’s valid to debate this topic. My undergrad background is in engineering so I’m very biased here (and work as an engineer and have never used calculus for work). I do think a math major should take biology as much…
As far as I know, in the US, a bachelor of science major does require a variety of science courses. I had to take at least 2 biology courses with accompanying labs, 2 chemistry with accompanying labs, multiple physics, thermodynamics, plus a certain number of humanities (equaling at least 1 per semester I believe, so 8 courses).
Math was probably the most numerous universal course requirement, between multiple calculus and probability, statistics, discrete, and analysis courses. But that kind of makes sense given the foundational nature of it being the fundamental tool one needs to verify information in all the other sciences.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#105> The real question is: Why should passing calculus be required to major in biology any more than passing biology should be required to major in math? Interesting question, why should I be required to pass biology? There are a lot of good points addressed thoroughly in other threads here, but (while calculus may fill a bit of a different role) education to a little bit of depth in a variety of areas does seem to be p…
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Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#106Very much yes. I am currently trying to tutor my daughter through college-level calculus. She wants to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers, obviously, need to know calculus. But calculus is not being taught to her by engineers. It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset". Which means, in practice, that it is an entry to proofs. Every proof…
I was a civil engineer for a few years and left to do something that interested me more. I was glad I had the broad university treatment rather than a narrow practical one, it meant I had the knowledge to go on and do what I wanted when I figured out what that was.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#107Very much yes. I am currently trying to tutor my daughter through college-level calculus. She wants to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers, obviously, need to know calculus. But calculus is not being taught to her by engineers. It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset". Which means, in practice, that it is an entry to proofs. Every proof…
> It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset".
I think this is a problem not just with calculus, but really with most math instruction. Math is taught by people who are already in love with the special insider world of math. To students who don’t share that love, it’s often unappealing at best - and exclusionary at worst. It weeds out people who don’t need to be weeded.
When math is taught in a way that develops practical intuition, it is so much more useful and rewarding.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#108Math is too important to be taught by mathematicians.
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#109Very much yes. I am currently trying to tutor my daughter through college-level calculus. She wants to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers, obviously, need to know calculus. But calculus is not being taught to her by engineers. It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset". Which means, in practice, that it is an entry to proofs. Every proof…
You can't hope to understand first year physics without calculus. To be a reasonable civil engineer, don't you need to understand structural engineering, including dynamics, which requires differential equations? On the other hand, what do I know? The civil engineering plans for our place had glaring errors that the construction workers caught after doing half the earthmoving. Even after it was fixed, the results las…
The same argument could be made that what you interacted with was someone designing because their head is lost in the abstract porcelain tower of calculus proofs instead of the practical properties of the materials they were dealing with
Re: The case for ending calculus requirements for science majors
#110Very much yes. I am currently trying to tutor my daughter through college-level calculus. She wants to be a civil engineer. Civil engineers, obviously, need to know calculus. But calculus is not being taught to her by engineers. It is being taught by mathematicians. And as part of teaching it, they are attempting to instill a "mathematical mindset". Which means, in practice, that it is an entry to proofs. Every proof…
You can't hope to understand first year physics without calculus. To be a reasonable civil engineer, don't you need to understand structural engineering, including dynamics, which requires differential equations? On the other hand, what do I know? The civil engineering plans for our place had glaring errors that the construction workers caught after doing half the earthmoving. Even after it was fixed, the results las…
There's a big difference between applied calculus and theoretical calculus. Colleges teach theoretical and then wonder why students struggle to apply it.