Developing and Teaching an Honors Calculus Course in a Community College

By: Dr. Tanvir Prince, and Dr. Ruslan Flek  — Hostos Community College, City University of New York (CUNY)

Abstract

In this article, we describe, from personal experience, the different aspects of developing and teaching an honors calculus course in our community college. More specifically, we address the following issues:

  • What distinguishes an honors calculus course from a standard one?
  • Which high impact practices are applied in the course?
  • What are some of the obstacles to a successful implementation of an honors calculus course at a community college such as ours, and how they may be overcome?
  • What are the benefits of making such a course available to our students?
  • Why are honors course offerings, in general, important at a community college?

In this work, we will describe our individual educational journeys as instructors of this specific course and relate our experiences to other mathematics courses we teach as well as to honors course offerings in other disciplines at our college. Upon reflection, we hope to provide some helpful suggestions, both practical and pedagogical, to those faculty members who intend to design and offer an honors course at our college as well as other community colleges across the nation.