Active Calculus 2nd Ed

The first edition of this text began as my sabbatical project in the winter semester of 2012, during which I wrote most of the material for the first four chapters. For the sabbatical leave, I am indebted to Grand Valley State University for its support of the project, as well as to my colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their endorsement of the project. I’m also grateful to the AIM Open Textbook Initiative, sponsored by the American Institute of Mathematics, for their support of open textbooks generally and their support of this one in particular. Since August 2013, Active Calculus - Single Variable has been endorsed by the American Institute of Mathematics and its Open Textbook Initiative.

The .html version of the text is possible only because of the amazing work of Rob Beezer and his development of PreTeXt that’s been ongoing for more than a decade. The PreTeXt community has also been invaluable: Oscar Levin and Steven Clontz developed the CLI and related tools that make writing and producing the text far easier; Alex Jordan’s work made live WeBWorK exercises possible, plus he has contributed some WeBWorK versions of Preview Activities; and Mitch Keller brings wide-ranging expertise across many aspects of PreTeXt work to his role as production editor. Due to PreTeXt, one or more .html versions of the text have been available since 2017.

For the graphics in the text, I’m grateful for the support of David Austin, first through his Python library that uses Bill Casselman’s PiScript program, and now through his latest fantastic project, PreFigure.

David Austin and Steve Schlicker each wrote a chapter to support the completion of the material on integral calculus early in the life of the textbook late in 2012. David wrote Chapter 7 and Steve wrote the version of Chapter 8 that appears in the first edition. The new Chapter 8 in this second edition is primarily my own contribution, but with substantial critical feedback and support from Spencer Bagley and Chrissy Safranski. Chrissy has also authored a considerable number of new WeBWorK exercises and Preview Activities, the latter of which especially support the Runestone implementation of the text. Ted Sundstrom and Steve Schlicker each contributed a large number of exercise and activity solutions and answers.

For the 2018 first edition, Kathy Yoshiwara of the AIM Editorial Board read the entire text and contributed editorial suggestions for every section, making the prose cleaner, more direct, and simply better. Mike Shulman is a long-time user of the first edition and has frequently provided substantive feedback that has improved many aspects of the text. Especially through their in-class work with students and the text, Chrissy, Mike, and Spencer have been invaluable partners in strengthening Active Calculus in both its first and second editions.

Over my more than 27 years at GVSU, many of my colleagues have shared with me ideas and resources for teaching calculus. I am particularly indebted to David Austin, Will Dickinson, Paul Fishback, Marcia Frobish, Jon Hodge, Lauren Keough, and Steve Schlicker for their contributions that improved my teaching of and thinking about calculus, including materials that I have modified and used over many different semesters with students. Parts of their ideas can be found throughout this text.

Many other people have written me with comments, suggestions, and corrections, and I am indebted to everyone who has taken the time to share their feedback. Overall, I’m grateful for how the work of these friends and colleagues has made the text so much better.

Finally, I am thankful for all that my students have taught me over the years. Their responses and feedback have helped to shape me as a teacher, and I appreciate their willingness to wholeheartedly engage in the activities and approaches I’ve tried in class, to let me know how those affect their learning, and to help me learn and grow as an instructor.

Any and all remaining errors or inconsistencies are mine. I will gladly take reader and user feedback to correct them, along with other suggestions to improve the text.