First
Group of Freshmen Students Meeting ‘Fast Track Calculus’ Challenge
The first members of Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology’s 2006-07 freshman class have arrived on campus to hit
the books to complete an entire year of college-level calculus
courses -- in just five weeks!
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| Pointing Things Out: Rose-Hulman
Mathematics Professor Roger Lautzenheiser helps Fast Track
Calculus program student Joshua Loudermilk understand a
problem during a recent classroom assignment. The program
continues through Aug. 18. |
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VIEW FAST TRACK VIDEO
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high-res version |
Forty-seven students from 16 states and India are
enrolled in Rose-Hulman’s unique Fast Track Calculus program,
through Aug. 18. The group is reviewing differential and integral
calculus, covering all of the multivariable calculus, and becoming
familiar with the computer implementation of mathematics.
The payoff: Each student that passes the course
receives 15 hours of academic credit (nearly an academic quarter),
and is able to enter sophomore-level mathematics courses as a
freshman.
Instruction by mathematics professors Elton Graves
and Roger Lautzenheiser is conducted eight hours each weekday.
Students must complete an average of 20 to 30 homework problems each
night and a group project each week.
Most students are studying or working in groups
until midnight –- or later –- each night to keep up with the
academic workload.
For instance, one recent homework assignment asked
the students to plot the path of Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing fighter and
that of a laser bullet, given a set of mathematical variables.
“These students are putting in an enormous amount of
time, and we’re giving them very challenging assignments,” says
Graves, director of the Fast Track Calculus program.
This year’s Fast Track Calculus students seem to be
up to the challenge, with the entire class passing the first test
with 75 percent-or-better grades. The students must pass all five
weekly exams and a final exam to receive credit for the program.
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| Problem Solvers: Rose-Hulman freshmen
Rachel Spellum and Robert Williamson exchange ideas on how
to solve a problem in the college's unique Fast Track
Calculus program. |
“This is a really good group,” stated Lautzenheiser,
a veteran educator with the Fast Track Calculus program.
Graves added, “If this group is representative of
the math skills in this year’s freshmen class, we’re going to have a
good group joining the student body this fall. I have been pleased
so far.”
Freshmen are chosen for the Fast Track Calculus
program based on their scores on college preparatory tests and
completing one year of calculus and analytic geometry in high
school. Students must pay a course fee and campus room-and-board
expenses. The group constitutes
slightly less than 10 percent of the incoming class.
Away from academics, the summer program gives
incoming students an early acclimatization to Rose-Hulman. The
students participate in intramural and extra-curricular activities;
dine and work together just as they will during the school year; and
learn the academic expectations of Rose-Hulman students. Rarely do
Fast Track Calculus program graduates experience any adjustment
problems during the school year, according to Lautzenheiser.
“I have had (Fast Track Calculus) students that have
correctly answered all homework problems in an assignment, but I
counted off points for failing to show how they came up with the
answer. I wrote, ‘Show me your work,’” stated Graves, who is state
director of American Mathematics Competition. “That (lack of showing
student’s work) may have been good enough for high school, but it’s
not good enough for Rose-Hulman. There are higher expectations here.
That’s a valuable lesson that will lead them throughout their
careers on campus.”
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| Working Together: A group of
enterprising Fast Track Calculus program students pulled
together their mental resources -- and laptop computers --
to solve several problems during a recent classroom session. |
The Fast Track Calculus program was started in 1982
by former mathematics professor Gary Sherman. Since its inception,
the program has been rated by students as the most worthwhile
courses taken during the freshman year, according to Graves. Pete
Gustafson, vice president of student affairs and dean of students,
states that he has "never heard a negative comment about Fast Track
Calculus."
Rose-Hulman students have unusually strong
mathematics credentials, Mathematics Department Chair Allen
Broughton noted, with all freshmen starting at calculus or beyond.
For the past few years about 40 to 45 percent of the college's
freshmen started their fall quarter with advanced placement credit
for at least one calculus course through AP Calculus exams, college
transfer credit, or passing Fast Track Calculus. However, only
the Fast Track Calculus students are able to start fall classes with
three courses of credit in calculus.
Fast Track Calculus participants are the first
students to use the 2006-07 HP NW8440 Mobile Workstations, which
will be utilized by all incoming freshmen. The laptop computer has
an Intel Core Duo Processor (Version T2600, 2.16 GHZ), 1GB RAM, 1
DIMM, an 100 GB 7200 RPM hard drive; 15.4” wide screen display;
Ethernet, wireless and Bluetooth network interfaces; three USB ports
and one IEEE Firewire port; and a software suite which includes all
titles needed throughout a student’s academic career, including
Solid Edge, Working Model and LabView.
During Fast Track Calculus, the Maple software
package is being used as an integral part of the course. This
symbolic algebra system allows students to obtain exact solutions to
problems in differentiation and integration, to solve algebraic and
differential equations, to graph families of functions and to expand
functions in series -- all in the traditional form, but without the
usually excessive paper-and-pencil manipulations.
