From harelb Sun Nov 21 21:12:57 1993 Date: Sun, 21 Nov 93 21:12:56 EST From: harelb (Harel Barzilai) To: cwoodbur, bservat, beverly Cc: orlandi, gargova Subject: Calculus Reform: Could It Happen Here?? Dear Beverly, Brigitte, and Cynthia, Following the Occasional Seminar on Undergraduate Teaching on calculus reform and the presentations by Brigitte Servatius and Cynthia Woodburn, Maria Gargova and I got talking during office hours about the idea of instituting calculus reform here at Cornell. Following this I talked with Beverly West who suggested we see Chairman Peter Kahn; Maria and I scheduled such a meeting with Professor Kahn and met with him in his office last Tuesday (Nov 16th). He seemed to be interested in the idea and said he could bring this up with the Curriculum Committee. He asked if we could basically submit some kind of proposal. I'll carbon-copy everyone next a draft of such a proposal that we could hand in to Kahn. Also I understand that Maria met with Cynthia for us to be able to look at some of the materials used in her calculus re-reformed course she taught. ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: (1) This semester my third (consecutive) time teaching 112. It's syllabus is even more overcrowded than 111's. Louis Zulli, who graduated last spring and who had taught both 111 and 112 zillions of times, felt the same way. In fact, last semester before leaving, he wrote a letter to then Math-112-Czar Prof Marshall Cohen, which Cohen posted to the "math 112" email-list I was one (Lisa, Louis, and I, were 112 instructors that semester), politely complaining at length about the need to re-structure 112 due to the incredibly over-stuffed syllabus. Cohen said he would forward that to the Curriculum Committee, and suggested that any of us who wanted to could also email our comments. I and I think some others, wrote, concurring. I just remembered that Beverly West was also a 112 instructor that semester. (2) Lisa and I have both tried out some group-teaching in our class. Because the course syllabus is so over-crowded, we only get to do this a few days per semester. I've had my students work in groups, usually with their desks in circles, a few times giving presentations at the board to fellow students, once working in groups *at* the board (the *one* single advantage of the otherwise insane *five*-board arrangement in Sage 221!). I believe Lisa has done similar things. (3) Also, we should be talking to Professor Rishel about this sometime (soon), to let me know, hear out his ideas and concerns -- Lisa and Maria, shall we try to schedule a time to meet him (rather than formally, we could maybe gang up on him during Tea/Cookies Tuesday circa 4:15?). (4) I'm sending you next the email I just sent today to this semester's "math112" email list. Here we are again at the end of the semester with too much to cover. Note that the email you are about to read is *after* I spoke with Gross -- who by the way said he *did* know of and read Zulli's letter but now finds himself in no better a situation than last semester's course -- and Gross eliminated 2-3 other topics already since after Prelim II... ********************************************************************** bservat In real life: Brigitte Servatius - Math Visitor cwoodbur In real life: Cynthia Woodburn - Math Grad.- Prof. Sturmfels Cynthia Woodburn - Math Grad.- Prof. Sturmfels (cwoodbur) is not presently ------------------------------------------------------------------ orlandi In real life: Lisa Orlandi - Grad - Stillman gargova In real life: Maria Gargova - Math Grad. - Prof. Shore ------------------------------------------------------------------ Login name: beverly In real life: Beverly H West in B-2 White at 5-7244 Beverly H West in B-2 White at 5-7244 (beverly) is not presently logged in. ------------------------------------------------------------------