Are you concerned about the State of the Planet? Do you wish you could help? Why not bring a sustainability theme to your calculus classes? It's easy and rewarding and can be incorporated into the class without changing the typical calculus content.
As one student commented anonymously "...for once a math class used real world information for their questions/problems instead of just pulling numbers out of nowhere and expecting we understand them ."
On this page you will find data sets, example worksheets, and the background information you need to incorporate a sustainability theme into your Calculus I course (feel free to use anything here for other courses as well). There are also links for further reading for you or your students.
The basic idea is simple: students use Excel to fit curves/functions to real data (using at most one day of class time) on global average temperature, grain consumption, atmospheric CO2, etc. (simple instructions for curve fitting in Excel are also provided). Once we have the functions, calculus tools can be used to answer important sustainability questions.
You will also find resources for statistics courses as well as other potentially useful material to add to courses that have a quantitative literacy goal.
If you are finding this page useful in any way (especially if you are using any of this in a class), if you have a comment for improving this page, or want help incorporating sustainability into a calculus class please send me an email: tpfaff(at)ithaca.edu