Lab Calculus is an elective math course designed for prospective STEM major students, or even non-STEM students who wish to explore the concepts of Calculus with real-life experiments. This course is also intended for students who want to learn Calculus but are not specifically interested in taking AP Calculus exams. You may be concurrently enrolled in any AP or IB math class, however, this course is not exam-oriented. Lab Calculus class does not teach Calculus in depth with theorems and proofs, but rather, we will learn to use and explore basic Calculus techniques and formulas that appear in both AP Calculus AB and BC, and to apply them in real-world contexts. This also means that the contents of this course are not exactly in line with the AP Calculus AB or BC curriculum.

The main goals of this course are to learn Calculus by:

• Collaboration - We "do" Calculus together

• Building a sense of wonder - Creating a safe space for students to ask questions and wonder

• Real-world applications - Let the students experience real-world mathematics

To accomplish this, we aim to center on:

• Investigating and modeling

• Problem-based learning

• Visualization & technology

• Writing for understanding

• Numerical methods

• Basic toolkit of derivatives and integrals

We aim to de-center on:

• Symbolic manipulation

• Drill and practice

• Template problems

• High-stakes testing

• AP syllabus

• Direct instruction

The course consists of:

• Problem Sets - Help review and explore each lab's prior/required knowledge.

• Pre-Labs - Warmups before going into the actual labs. Students will practice any necessary practical skills in collecting data. May involve quizzes to check the mastery of the basic skills.

• Labs - Explorations and experiments in a real-world context. 

• Post-Labs - Writing lab reports, and sharing their experiences and takeaways to the class.

All works, except writing lab reports, are done collaboratively in different groups, which will change randomly for each lab.

• Grade 10 - 12

• 80% or above in Pre-Calculus

• May be concurrently enrolled in AP/IB math course

• 20% Participation

• 20% Problem Sets

• 15% Pre-Labs

• 30% Labs

• 15% Lab Reports

Participation:

• A total of 10 points are possible to be earned in each class.

• Students are expected to be on time for every class and be ready for the day's activities when class begins. Students are expected to come to class prepared with all required supplies each day. Each day, a student can earn the following participation points: 1 for being on time, 1 for coming prepared, 1 for staying on task, and 2 for demonstrating positive and respectful attitudes.

• Since all works, except the lab reports, are done collaboratively in groups, the participation of each member of the class is extremely important in carrying out the labs and class. Students will be assigned to a new group before a new lab starts, and they will be graded on their participation and engagement in active discussions during the whole process of the labs, on a scale from 0-5.

Problem Sets

• Every new set of lab begins with the problem sets. Students will submit their work on problem sets in groups. The emphasis on grading is on meaningful effort and accuracy.

Pre-Labs

• Pre-labs may be worksheets or quizzes. Most of the time, students will work on the pre-lab worksheets in groups, but quizzes will be assessed once in a while to check the mastery of basic skills learned. 

Labs

• Lab worksheets will be provided after each Pre-Lab. Students are to carry out the experiments in groups, which will involve discussions and recordings of each result. Each lab is based on different real-world problems that require different mathematical tools (Desmos, GeoGebra, Excel or Google Sheets, calculators, etc.) and Calculus skills in real-life experiments and explorations.

Lab Reports

• Students must write a lab report at the end of each lab. They will use the results obtained from their groups, but they must put them in their own words. Writing lab reports will provide the students with the skills to input mathematical expressions, use proper citations for mathematical papers, generate graphs with digital tools, etc. The lab reports will be graded based on a rubric that will be provided via Google Classroom.

*** All gradings follow AP/IB. If I cannot read or follow your work, I am NOT grading it ***

** Some labs may be excluded depending on the pace of the course. 

** Quarterly breakdown may adjust depending on the pace of the course.

First Quarter

• Introduction

• Lab 1: The Zombie Apocalypse

• Lab 2: Differences

• Lab 3: Approximating Rate of Change

• Lab 4: Linear Approximation

• Lab 5: Transformations and Derivatives

• Lab 6: Addition Rule and Product Rule for Derivatives

• Lab 7: The Most Exciting Moment on the Tilt-a-Whirl

Second Quarter

• Lab 8: Graphs and the Second Derivative

• Lab 9: The Chain Rule for Derivatives

• Lab 10: Discovering Differential Equations

• Lab 11: Projectile Motion

• Lab 12: Introducing Slope Fields

• Lab 13: Introducing Euler's Method

• Lab 14: Extreme Skydiving

Third Quarter

• Lab 15: The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

• Lab 16: The Gini Index

• Lab 17: Geometric Probability

• Lab 18: The Normal Curve

• Lab 19: The Exponential Distribution

Fourth Quarter

• Lab 20: Predator/Prey Model

• Lab 21: Calculus and Data Analysis

• Lab 22: The SIR Model

• Late submissions will NOT be accepted. All assignments are designed to be done in class, and they are strictly due by the end of the class period.

• If a student is absent with an excuse, he/she has as many days to make up work missed due to absences as the number of excused days of absence that occurred. Excused absence requires an email from the school office or the student's parents/guardian, or the Transit Form entry. Any email or message directly from the student will not be counted as an excused absence.