Brewing Alien Beer: Calculus Legacy as a Ludo-Didactical Experiment in a First-Year Engineering Calculus Course
Calculus is a foundational course in STEM programs, closely connected to various engineering disciplines, yet many first-year students experience this subject as abstract and demotivating. It often functions as a “gatekeeper course” hindering students’ motivation to continue. From this perspective, we redesigned the tutorials of a first-year calculus course with improved teaching philosophies, leading to…
Read MoreIntroducing students to mathematical problem solving – why and how?
Why problem solving? Students entering a university-level mathematics program often have a particular image of what mathematics is, shaped by their experiences in secondary school. Typically, this image is biased toward calculational skills—such as solving equations and manipulating formulas. Much of the practice they encountered in high school focused on training these skills. However, at…
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