AP CALCULUS BC (MATH 504) SYLLABUS

Math 504 is equivalent to a two semester college course in Calculus. Students are expected to take the AP Calculus BC Exam at the completion of the course. Each student will need a TI-83+ (or more powerful graphing calculator) throughout the year.   During class, students will also use dynamic geometry software (Geogebra) on computers and other programs to explore and experiment with calculus concepts. 

We will be using the following text:

Calculus from Graphical, Numerical, and Symbolic Points of View, Ostebee, Arnold and Paul Zorn. Harcourt College Publishers, First Edition, 1997.  ISBN  0-03-019587-X

 For our study of Sequences and Series, we will use Taylor Polynomials and Infinite Series, A chapter for a first-year calculus course by Benjamin Goldstein, 2013 which is available for free on the internet.

As needed, supplementary materials from other texts are distributed.

Students work daily homework assignments, usually from the textbook, which require a range of problems be solved.  Some will be routine practice and others will require deep thought about the main concepts of calculus.  This written work is checked for completion daily and counted towards students’ grades. 

At the end of each unit, students have a written exam on the material covered.  Few of these problems are routine.  There will be a mix of short answer and multiple choice and problems modeled on AP Free Response questions, or actual previous Free Response questions.  On these written unit tests, longer questions require students to justify answers and explain their reasoning.

Throughout the year, students will work past AP Free Response questions also as homework.  Students will work through practice AP problems in cooperative groups and will receive copies of the College Board grading rubrics to enable them to improve their understanding of what will be required of them on the actual exam.

Topics Covered

(Organized in units)

Unit 1: A Graphical Introduction to the Derivative

Test Last Year:  9/23/14

Unit 2:  Limits, Continuity and Basic Rules for finding Derivatives Symbolically

Test Last Year:   10/21/14

Unit 3  More Challenging Symbolic Derivative Rules

Test Last Year:  11/7/14

Unit 4 Related Rate, Theory of Differentiation

Test Last Year:  11/21/14

Unit 5 The Definite Integral

Test Last Year:  12/11/14  Quiz on Approximations:  12/19/14

Unit 6– Techniques of Integration

Test Last Year:  1/6/15

Unit 7 – Applications of the Definite Integral: Area and Volume

Test Last Year:  1/30/15

 Unit 8 – Parametrics, Arc Length

Test Last Year:  2/13/15

Unit 9 – Improper Integrals and L’Hopital’s Rule, First Part of Series

Test Last Year:  3/6/15

Unit 10 – Sequences and Series, Second Part

Test Last Year:  4/1/15

Unit 11 – Differential Equations

Test Last Year:  4/17/15

AP exam preparation

Test Last Year:

            Practice Free Response:  3/24/15

            Practice Non-calculator Multiple Choice 3/26/15