Friday, September 11, 2009

Mathematical Fundamentalism

I've been looking through my teaching stuff, dusting off the cobwebs, oiling the cogs, etc.  I remember seeing this when I was in college and having a good laugh about it with my fellow nerds.  I have this text book called "Content Area Reading" by Vacca and Vacca (I have the sixth edition).  Chapter 8 is about helping students learn vocabulary and organize concepts.  This book is meant for teachers of all content areas so we see examples for everyone.  This example just happens to be for a calculus class.  On page 330, there is a list of terms calculus students need to know and a graphic organizer showing how the items are related.

Item 7 on the example worksheet is "Second fundamentalist theorem of calculus".
I can't really explain why it is so funny without taking the sting out of the punch line.  So, for those of you that have taken calculus, I hope you enjoy the obvious, larger than life, blaring mistake.

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