My wife teaches math in a public high school, and teaches the lowest math level. She says there is a lot of pressure not to fail anyone because the school can’t handle the backlog. Everyone just gets pushed through the system. This is not the quite the same issue, but I think there’s a connection.

I too have seen a similar thing. Thankfully, it’s been in relatively small numbers so far, but it’s always surprising when a student can’t do basic algebra but has passed the prerequisite calculus class.

Actually, no. It was the slicing a cube into a million pieces. I found that quite tedious, and AI was a big help.

Here's the link to the full video:
youtu.be/SuxUvlgWnWA?...

We too offer far fewer colloquia, but it’s due to smaller attendances rather than budget concerns (though that’s still an issue). My comment is based mainly on the large increase in advertised events. So maybe it’s not an increase in events, but rather an increase in advertising?

I totally agree. I recently was working on a program and got to the point where I knew exactly what needed to be done, but it was going to be extremely tedious to get all the “edge” corrections to work. It would likely have taken me a day or two to get it working, but with AI it was done in an hour.

OMG…AI is really good at programming…I use it a lot. Don’t fear it, let it help you! 😉

We’ve tried limiting the number of events we offer, and trying hard to make sure they are really worth students’ time to attend, and it seems like it’s working. Our event attendance has begun to increase.

Well, I’m probably not the best person to respond, given that I’m at the same institution. But I think part of the issue is event burnout. There are SO many more events than there used to be, and I think students are now simply numbed by an event listing, so they don’t even consider attending.

I like Boas for a first course. Arfken is more intimidating, but fine for more advanced students. I made a video on Taylor series for such a course; i have my students watch it in advance of my presentation, so we can have a discussion. I hope to make many more in the future. youtu.be/GINFaUB9zrc

Don’t ever send an email when angry! Sleep on it!

Not the “good” ones! But yes, we have a not-so-good one and it’s still pretty cool!

Welcome to the club. It is a little bittersweet, but then you start to love it!!

Wow! That sounds like the course I took as an undergraduate. Thankfully, it’s not the course I teach! (There’s a lot of flexibility at a small, liberal arts college.)

No one has mentioned thermodynamics. I think a minimal coverage is important.

Thanks! And I enjoyed yours. You and I share some programming history.

Heh…I usually continue revising my talks until right before I give it!