I’m excited to share several important updates:
1. new landing page at https://activecalculus.org
2. updated versions of Active Calculus (single variable, 2018 edition) in HTML, PDF, and print (with updated activities workbooks [1-4], [5-8], too)
3. updated version of Active Prelude to Calculus, now hosted at the main page and with HTML, PDF, and (new!) print available (plus an activities workbook)
In a bit more detail:
1. At https://activecalculus.org, you’ll find information about all three texts I’ve contributed to: Active Prelude to Calculus, Active Calculus (single variable), and Active Calculus Multivariable. In addition to the landing page, there’s an individual page devoted to each text, and those pages provide additional information about the text and available ancillary materials.
2. Thanks to a large amount of helpful user feedback in the 2018-19 academic year, I’ve made numerous updates to the 2018 Edition of Active Calculus, resulting in “2018 Edition – UPDATED”. The vast majority were minor (many had to do with correcting errors in the answers to activities and exercises, which were newly included in the 2018 edition); the differences were not substantial enough to merit calling it the “2019 Edition”. The most significant changes can be found in Section 5.6 (with a much clearer discussion of the error of numerical integration techniques), Section 3.1 (some clarification on terminology with “increasing” and “decreasing”), and Section 5.2 with an added exercise on how the absolute value arises in antidifferentiating the natural logarithm. If you would like a full list/changelog of what has changed between August 2018 and July 2019, email me to ask: boelkinm at gvsu dot edu.
The main logistic issue of note: if you have students who were using the 2018 edition for calculus 1 at some point in the last year and will be taking calculus 2 in Fall 2019 or later, they should download the updated PDF and be aware that there are some minor differences between that and the version they had previously. This is especially important if they purchased a print copy of the text from Amazon before July 30, 2019. The 2018 print version is still fine to use, but just beware the changes noted above. Same for activities workbooks.
In print and PDF, you know you have the most up-to-date version if on the cover you see “UPDATED” following “2018 Edition”. The HTML at https://activecalculus.org/single/ is “2018 Edition – UPDATED”.
3. In January, I released the first public version of my new calculus-prep text, Active Prelude to Calculus. I originally titled it “Active Preparation for Calculus“, but subsequently decided that the “Prelude” title was a better fit, and that it was early enough in the book’s life to make the change.
Over the course of the coming year, I expect that my GVSU colleagues and I will develop some ancillary materials to support Active Prelude; for now, the main one available is the activities workbook, which you can acquire for free in PDF by emailing me (boelkinm at gvsu dot edu) or in print form on Amazon.
As ever, I welcome hearing from users at any time with questions, error corrections, or suggestions. Thank you for considering https://activecalculus.org as a resource for your calculus-related teaching and learning.
