Make Calculus!

For about five years, Rich Cameron and I have been working on a book to rethink teaching calculus from the ground up, using minimal algebra and maximal intuition. Finally, it is (almost) here. Our book Make:Calculus is now available for preorder in the Maker Shed.

On Thursday July 14 at 11 AM US Pacific Time, Rich and I will be doing a LinkedIn Live Office Hour along with the editor for the book, Michelle Lowman. Save your spot here to join us and ask questions!

A lot of people fail calculus, and we think that some of the reason is that it is traditionally taught in a very algebra-heavy way. However, Isaac Newton's original writeup that defined many of the key concepts, his Principia Mathematica, was all geometrical drawings. (My personal favorite is here.) However, Newton's contemporary and archrival, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, came up with the algebraic notation we know and fear today. That notation caught on and is useful for calculation, but is tough to use to get intuition.

It is also challenging to make accessible for those with various sensory disabilities. We have had wonderful support from people in the visually impaired community in helping us think about creating models that stand alone as tactile storytelling.

Newton was notoriously a hacker, trying experiments and writing up chatty missives about them. We started this project by asking: What if Isaac Newton had owned a 3D printer? The question evolved a bit to include making things other ways, too (including paper, LEGO bricks, Adafruit Circuit Playground boards, and other random items).

Our book is not intended to help you pass any particular exam or learn tricks for a lot of special cases. We hope it will do several things, however:

• Help people who might need calculus intuition, but who might not have the math background usually required get to the point of being able to read technical literature. For this audience, we have a summary at the end of each chapter of common alternative notations to help with the guesswork self-learners often have.
• Be a supplement for those in a traditional class who learn better with hands-on models. (We have a few chapters at the end of the book tying in to sequences and series.)
• Allow people with visual or other impairments to have another tool to learn math.

And if calculus is a little more than you want, there's always our previous book, Make:Geometry!