Technology and Imagination

By Rosemarie Emanuele. Although the availability of graphing calculators is a great asset in teaching Calculus, I tell my students that one of my goals is for them to be able to leave my class with the ability of being able to imagine a function by just looking at it and doing simple calculations in their heads. Many of them come to Calculus never having been asked to do anything like that, but I ask them to consider how the slope or intercepts of a function come together with an equation to produce a picture that can just as easily appear in their minds as on the screen of a calculator.. Read more...