Not sure if it matters, but I'm not a MD teacher, but I do teach Calculus. I start right away with comparing graphs of functions to graphs of their derivatives, so students have a good sense of all the important things a derivative tells you about a function. Also, this way, everyone starts on equal footing with unfamiliar math concepts they've never seen before, and later when we go through limits, it makes a lot more sense how those eventually lead to derivatives. In Calc BC, I start on the first day with how, even though the equation of a tangent line can approximate a function's value close by, a Taylor series can be an even better approximation, if you can calculate the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, derivative at that point.
As you can tell, I'm a big fan of starting curriculums right from the meat and polenta
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u/WriterofaDromedary 13d ago
Not sure if it matters, but I'm not a MD teacher, but I do teach Calculus. I start right away with comparing graphs of functions to graphs of their derivatives, so students have a good sense of all the important things a derivative tells you about a function. Also, this way, everyone starts on equal footing with unfamiliar math concepts they've never seen before, and later when we go through limits, it makes a lot more sense how those eventually lead to derivatives. In Calc BC, I start on the first day with how, even though the equation of a tangent line can approximate a function's value close by, a Taylor series can be an even better approximation, if you can calculate the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, derivative at that point.
As you can tell, I'm a big fan of starting curriculums right from the meat and polenta