In my IB Calculus Tutors series, I will explain different topics taught at HL and SL levels of IB Calculus. Here is the first one.
If we want to understand the importance of Calculus in the IB Diploma Programme, We should have a look at the number of teaching hours recommended for it. It’s 40 hours in SL(out of 150 total hours) and 48 (out of 240 total hours) hours in HL. This makes calculus the most important topic for IB Calculus Tutors as well as for IB students.
What is Calculus
Calculus is an ancient Latin word. It means ‘small stones’ used for counting. In every branch of Mathematics, we study of something specific, like in Geometry, we study about shapes, in Algebra, we study about arithmetic operations, in coordinate, we study about locating a point. In calculus, we do the mathematical study of continuous change. It mainly has two branches-
►Differential Calculus- Mainly about rates of change and slope of curves
►Integral Calculus-Mainly about areas under the curves, areas between the curves and accumulation of quantities.
These two branches are related to each other by the fundamental theorem of calculus.
Approach to teach calculus- Calculus is a topic which is newer to almost all the students at both SL and HL level and it often takes students a bit more difficult to understand calculus. IB Calculus tutors should keep this thing in mind.
There are many topics in HL which are not there in SL syllabus but we can start both levels in a similar way. Initially, we should start with basic differentiation or the derivative.
Definition of Differentiation
The rate of change of any quantity with respect to any other quantity has great importance. The rate of change of any quantity ‘y’ with respect to any other quantity ‘x’, is called the derivative of ‘y’ with respect to ‘x’. Process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. we can denote derivative in many ways. All these are different ways to represent derivative
Different Explanations of Differentiation-
- Differentiation is explained as a measure of the rate of change in the given function
- Differentiation is explained as the velocity of a moving object. this explanation is actually an extension of the first
If distance moved by an object is given by an equation S(t)=at²+bt+c the velocity of that object at time “t” is calculated by the differentiation of S(t) with respect to time. Differentiation is explained as the slope of a tangent line.
Here is a Pdf of 10 solved questions on differentiation by the first principle
10 solved questions.pdf
In the next post in IB Calculus Tutors series, I will discuss how to solve problems using differentiation formulas and also the geometrical meaning of differentiation.
