AP Calculus Newsletter for the Week of December 8th

🏫 Classroom Highlights

This week, we wrapped up the first half of Unit 5. Since this unit carries one of the heaviest weights on the AP Exam, we’re taking our time and diving deeply into each concept. Learners are engaging in thoughtful discussions and practicing carefully to build strong understanding.

📚 Learning Focus – This Week

We'll explore the following topics this week - 

• Mid–Unit 5 Quiz

• Review for Cumulative Assessment 2, covering Units 1 – 5.7

🧠 Math Support & Tutoring Times

• Before School: Every day at or before 8:30 AM (traffic permitting!)

• 7th Period / After School: 3:40–4:30 PM, daily

• Titan Time (12:00–12:40 PM):

  • Mon/Thurs: LS 17

  • Tue: LS 16

  • Wednesday: LS 18 (my learning space)

Lunch: If none of the above work, learners can always find me during lunch.

🍽️ Math at the Dinner Table

🍽️ Math at the Dinner Table

We're talking about the real life examples in the class so that our learners can relate the content to their life. Try asking your learner one or two of these everyday questions to spark math thinking - 

• If a restaurant wants to minimize food waste, how could derivatives help them find the optimal number of meals to prepare?”

• Imagine tossing a ball in the air—how can we use derivatives to figure out when it reaches its highest point?

• Why would a delivery company care about where a route has increasing or decreasing travel time

• If a bottle is being filled with water, how can we use derivatives to know how fast the water level is rising at a specific moment?

• “How can knowing whether a graph is concave up or concave down help someone make better decisions?

📝 Homework & Due Dates

Review due on the Friday

🔔 Reminders

⭐ Toyota Presentation on Tuesday!

Please remind learners to be on time and attentive.

💡 Did You Know?

The Second Derivative Test helps determine whether a critical point is a relative minimum, relative maximum, or neither, by checking the concavity of the function at that point!

✨ Inside Our Math Lab: 

Extrema Scavenger Hunt

This week, learners completed an engaging Extrema Scavenger Hunt:

• Students worked in pairs, each with a different function and interval.

• They identified critical points, evaluated endpoints, and found absolute extrema.

• Each pair presented their findings on the whiteboard.

• We ended with a gallery walk, comparing results and noticing big-picture patterns in calculus.
  
  

A fun, hands-on way to strengthen intuition about maxima and minima! Here are some pictures from it - 

✨ Words of Wisdom - Sloka:

धर्मेणैव सुखं प्राप्यते, धर्मेणैव हि जीवितम्।
धर्ममार्गे प्रवर्तस्व, नीतिर्हि परमं बलम्॥

Transliteration:
Dharmeṇaiva sukhaṁ prāpyate, dharmeṇaiva hi jīvitam;
Dharmamārge pravartasva, nītir hi paramaṁ balam.

Translation:
“Happiness arises from righteous actions; life itself stands on righteousness.
Walk the path of integrity, for ethical conduct is the greatest strength.”

Applicability:
This verse reminds us that true success and inner peace come from honesty, responsibility, and doing what is right—values that help every human grow, lead, and thrive.

                Thank you for partnering with us in supporting our learners’ growth and success in math! As always, if you have any concerns, feedback, or ideas for our class, please don’t hesitate to email me at devipriya.jain@pisd.edu.

Wishing you a week full of learning, curiosity, and joy ✨

— Mrs. Jain