bat365 Homepage

Teaching Calculus with MATLAB

Allow your students to effortlessly switch among visual, numerical, and algebraic representations of calculus concepts.
Shift emphasis from manipulative skills to fundamental calculus ideas.
Improve students’ engagement and concept retention by exploring more realistic problems earlier.
Introduce your students to professionally developed, rigorously tested, and fully documented mathematical modeling software that will help them throughout their studies and careers.
Communicate mathematical ideas using a single notebook that includes explanatory text, formulas, pictures, as well as MATLAB commands, outputs and graphics.

Some Benefits of Using Computation in Calculus Courses:

Research shows that the thoughtful inclusion of computation in calculus courses (Murphy, 2006) provides a dynamic, hands-on, learning environment (Vasquez, 2015), promotes concept understanding (Awang, Zakaria, 2013, Leng et. al. 2009), keeps students engaged (Colonna, Easley, 2011), and increases their competence and confidence (Merriweather, Tharp, 1999).

Free Course Materials:

Texas A&M University (symbolic, using Early Transcendentals, 8^th edition):

Calculus 1 (Chapters 2-6, 10-12)
Calculus 2 (Chapters 5-7, 10-11)
Calculus 3 (Chapters 12-16)

University of Maryland (symbolic):

University of Ohio (mixed symbolic and numerical):

Redwood College (mostly numerical):

Redwood College: Math 50c (Multivariable Calculus)

Other Calculus course materials (numerical):

Teaching Calculus with MATLAB University of Stuttgart
Bridge to Mathematics Northeastern University

Example Lecture Materials:

Essential Calculus Lectures with MATLAB: Functions, Limits, Continuity, Derivatives and Integrals (Download)

Calculus Books using MATLAB:

Video Lectures:

Pre-Calculus and Algebra Lectures:

Solving Algebraic Equations Symbolically (11:54)
Solving Systems of Algebraic Equations Symbolically (12:11)

Calculus Lectures:

Note: since “inline” will be discontinued, to follow through the videos in the links below replace function definitions like “f=inline('sin(x)/x','x');” with function definitions like “syms x f(x); f(x)=sin(x)/x;”

Limits using MATLAB (6:31)
Derivatives using MATLAB (6:26)
Evaluating Derivatives at a point (5:37)
Partial Derivatives using MATLAB (8:37)
Indefinite and Definite Integrals (9:10)
Calculus Operations with MATLAB (22:34)

Differential Equations and Linear Algebra:

Learn Differential Equations
Differential Equations and Linear Algebra Course by Gilbert Strang (MIT)
Solve ODEs in MATLAB (MIT Courseware)
Solving Ordinary Differential Equations with MATLAB (self paced course)

Curriculum Usage Examples:

MATLAB Documentation and Examples for Calculus:

An introduction to Symbolic Math Toolbox utilities for calculus:

Introduction to Symbolic Math via hands-on practice sessions and demonstrations
- Introduction to Symbolic Math with MATLAB
- Solving Nonlinear Equations with MATLAB
- Solving Ordinary Differential Equations with MATLAB
- Introduction to Linear Algebra with MATLAB
- Introduction to Statistical Methods with MATLAB
Symbolic Toolbox Cheat Sheet
Collection of Calculus utilities

Common calculus topics in the Symbolic Math Toolbox documentation:

Other Symbolic Math Toolbox examples:

Numerical functions commonly used in calculus: