Cálculo para Economistas

Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 11:35:27 -0500
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From: Ashuchat@wellesley.edu (Alan Shuchat) 
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Subject: [CALC-REFORM:2202] Re: calculus in economics courses 
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>From an earlier posting by Robert Foote: 

>I told one of my colleagues in econ that this discussion was 
going on, and he loaned me some of his course notes and homework 
so I could see that they really are doing these things. When 
I asked what text they use, he told me that this is not done 
in any undergraduate econ text that he knows of, that his 
department is atypical in expecting their students to do these things. 


There's a recent undergraduate economics book that makes 
significant use of calculus and matrix algebra. It's by D. 
Wade Hands, Introductory Mathematical Economics, from D.C. Heath. 

Alan Shuchat
Department of Mathematics
Wellesley College
Wellesley, MA 02181

ashuchat@wellesley.edu


Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 15:12:52 -0500
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From: "Robert L. Foote"  
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Subject: [CALC-REFORM:2207] calculus in economics courses 
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------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- 

Date sent:	Wed, 15 Mar 1995 11:36:45 -0500
Send reply to: calc-reform@e-math.ams.org 
From:	Ashuchat@wellesley.edu (Alan Shuchat)
To:	Multiple recipients of list 
Subject:	[CALC-REFORM:2202] Re: calculus in economics courses

>>From an earlier posting by Robert Foote: 

>>I told one of my colleagues in econ that this discussion was 
going on, and he loaned me some of his course notes and homework 
so I could see that they really are doing these things. When 
I asked what text they use, he told me that this is not done 
in any undergraduate econ text that he knows of, that his 
department is atypical in expecting their students to do these things. 

>Alan Shuchat replied:

>There's a recent undergraduate economics book that makes 
significant use of calculus and matrix algebra. It's 
by D. Wade Hands, Introductory Mathematical Economics, from D.C. Heath. 

I forwarded this to my economics colleague. His response 
was that yes, there are number of good books for 
mathematical economics out there, but that they are geared 
towards a _single_ course, usually called Mathematical 
Economics, that only a small number of students take. 
What he and his colleagues are doing is to incorporate 
more mathematics into their core economics courses for 
all of their majors. 



**************************************************************** 
* Robert L. Foote	Dept of Math and CS *
* footer@wabash.edu	Wabash College *
* (317) 364-4429	Crawfordsville, Indiana 47933 *
****************************************************************


Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 11:38:17 -0500
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From: DICK BELDIN  
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Subject: [CALC-REFORM:2219] Re: calculus in economics courses 
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After doing some profit optimization exercises in my Calculus 
for Business course, I asked if any such exercises are 
included in the Microeconomics course they took. They were 
unanimous that the entire "Theory of the Firm" is done in 
non-quantitative format.
But what really shocked me was to learn that these students 
thought that I was the only teacher at ANY level who 
emphasized "word problems". Prior to this, all their math 
courses have been pure rote and mechanics. Is their experience 
atypical or were they just sleeping through most of high 
school or are they just trying to flatter me? Dick


Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 16:39:09 -0500
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From: HALFACRS@TEN-NASH.TEN.K12.TN.US
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Subject: [CALC-REFORM:2221] Re: calculus in economics courses 
X-Comment: From the CALC-REFORM discussion list. 

I would say your experience is quite typical. This is in 
response to the posting about word problems not being 
done in high school. Hopefully, it's changing. A lot of 
teachers avoid word problems because they are hard for 
the students, they are hard to teach, and they take up 
a good quantity of time. In interest of "covering the 
curriculum" some things have to be left out. Why not 
word problems? My personal feeling is that word problems 
are very important. They show the students how mathematics 
can be used. Maybe we could work on making better problems 
for them. A lot of textbook problems are of the "cookbook" 
variety. My students tell me they "can't do do word problems, 
have never been able to do them, and don't expect to ever be 
able to do them." I think it is lack of experience. 
By the way, I teach
precalculus.

Sandra Halfacre
Memphis, TN

I hope this goes through correctly. Sorry if it doesn't. 


Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1995 17:02:31 -0500
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From: arifkin@raven.cybercom.com (Lynn Rifkin) 
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Subject: [CALC-REFORM:2222] Re: calculus in economics courses 
X-Comment: From the CALC-REFORM discussion list. 

>My personal feeling is that word problems are very important. 
They show the students how mathematics can be used. Maybe we 
could work on making better problems for them. A lot of textbook 
problems are of the "cookbook" variety.

I teach (in a high school) precalc and AP Calc AB and BC 
(our BC is a second full year of calculus to firm up the 
extend past the BC curriculum). The basic "word problems" 
in calc are related rate and optimization types which make 
"sense" of the derivatives the students have learned. They're 
very useful for showing where the student may use the formulas. 
Most of my students see the word problems relevant to their 
future fields (sciences usually) in physics classes and in 
college calc classes that are directed to their majors.

But in the academic algebra, geometry and algebra 2 classes 
learning from the UCSMP books (so-called "Chicago math"), 
the new word problems, which were supposed to be "real life" 
and not "cookbook" type make no more sense to the kids than 
the old ones do! They are no more relevant than the train 
and plane problems we've always used - at least not to the 
students we see in our system. However, I understand that 
there is a movement from the lowest grades to make word 
problems a daily occurance. I hope that will mean that 
reading and math will no longer be mutually exclusive! 
****************************************************** 

* Lynn Rifkin	arifkin@raven.cybercom.com *
*	arifkin@llnj.pppl.gov *
******************************************************

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