Honors Multivariable Calculus Documentation
About the Experience :I enrolled in the
Honors section of Multivariable Calculus during the fall semester of my sophomore
year. The reason why I chose this class is because I wanted to experience a
part of mathematics in a way that focuses less about problem solving and more
about understanding concepts and ideas. This class met three days a week and
was taught by Dr. Buckingham. My classmates were all engineering majors and
mostly freshman with the exception of a few honors sophomores and non-honors
sophomore. This mix made learning the material easier in my opinion since
nearly everyone approached the material with an engineering mindset. The
interaction with freshman also made the multivariable class exciting because I
was able to interact with new engineers I had not seen my previous semesters.
What made this class honors was the graded weekly homework. While other
sections of multivariable calculus Dr. Buckingham taught had WebAssign, an
online homework system, assigned, the honors section only had the weekly
homework. The work was extremely difficult and often included proving theorems
and concepts. As a result I learned to understand the concepts behind the class
instead of just how to solve problems. Many of the problems took more than an
hour to solve and needed to be tackled with an engineering mindset. I was
challenged in this class every week and feel like I understand the material
better than I would have if I didn't take the Honors section. Overall this
class exceeded my expectations for an honors experience. I thought that the “Honors”
part of the class would just mean that the material would be taught and tested
more rigorously. I was pleasantly surprised by how understanding the origins
and concepts behind math can really assist in applying the material outside of
the classroom. I can say that I have applied Stoke’s Theorem once or twice in
my co-op so far and this is because I understand the theorem’s meaning.
This honors experience was unlike any I have taken so far. My prior knowledge of calculus made learning the material much easier than it could have been. No experience I have had could have prepared me for learning about the concepts of multivariable calculus in depth. Next semester I will be enrolled in differential equations and I know I will be focusing more on understanding the class rather than solving problems. Learning to solve problems helps you short term, but learning the material helps you long term.
My Artifact: The artifact I decided to include that represents this honors experience is one of the weekly homework assignments I completed. The multiple pages needed to solve the problems shows how the work in the class was more challenging than the work in a non-Honors section. While the work was harder, the rewards that resulted from successfully solving the problems was worth it.
This honors experience was unlike any I have taken so far. My prior knowledge of calculus made learning the material much easier than it could have been. No experience I have had could have prepared me for learning about the concepts of multivariable calculus in depth. Next semester I will be enrolled in differential equations and I know I will be focusing more on understanding the class rather than solving problems. Learning to solve problems helps you short term, but learning the material helps you long term.
My Artifact: The artifact I decided to include that represents this honors experience is one of the weekly homework assignments I completed. The multiple pages needed to solve the problems shows how the work in the class was more challenging than the work in a non-Honors section. While the work was harder, the rewards that resulted from successfully solving the problems was worth it.