1st entry

My name is Rye Carlson, I'm a freshmen this year and I plan on majoring in physics. I took one CIS (college in the schools) calculus course during my senior year, so I'm familiar with some calculus. I would say the weakest part of my math background is probably the aspect of applying calculus concepts in the real world. I always felt that we learned equations and fancy graphing skills, but we never had a good understanding of how the concepts could be used practically. The strongest aspect of my math education is simply the fact that I'm familiar with calculus prior to taking this course, so everything isn't totally new to me, at least right now. I'm taking applied calculus for it's application in my physics courses. I want to gain a firm understanding of calculus, and more importantly a good feel for applying that knowledge in the world around me. I'm also really interested in the humanities and international studies. My worst math teacher taught my calculus course, my only complaint about him was that he never answered the why question. If I ever approached him about a problem he would simply do it for me and not really show me the fault in my method. My best math teacher taught geometry, and I liked him because of his physical expressions for geometry, he didn't just write on the white board about geometric concepts, he wrote on the walls, ceiling, and used any object at hand to explain something. I'd appreciate hearing "So He Won't Break" by the Black Keys.