You can earn 5% of your grade (called "5% Credit" in the syllabus) by submitting (as part of a group of 1-4 students) a DIGITAL essay or poster about an application of calculus (or mathematics in general) in a subject related to your major (or anything else you find interesting). The format of the essay or poster should preferably be a web-site sent to me by e-mail in html format, with all the neccessary files by the deadline: Sunday May 2. The names of the students participating in the project should be sent to me in the same e-mail.

Format of your poster: The poster should have at least three parts:

Part I Explanation of the problem

Part II Explanation of the calculus (mathematics) ideas needed for the solution

Part III Explanation of the application of the mathematical idea in Part II for the problem in Part I

Part IV List of sources you used for the essay (internet links, books, etc)

The best way of finding a project is to inquire in your department. E.g. from your undergraduate advisor or any professor. (Your question to them could be something like: My calculus professor is curious about why do we have to study calculus. Can you tell me a calculus project which is useful for my major?)

There are plenty of material on the internet or in the library, see e.g.:

Applications of calculus in science

Applications of Calculus

Your essay or poster should be in an electronic format, preferably as an html file, so that we could post on the website of the class. Html is very simple to use. You can use softwares like Dreamweaver or Microsoft's Front Page. Also browsers have website builders. Moreover you may "save as webpage" your word document in Microsoft Word. Here are some very simple tutorials into html:

Guide to Html

Basic html

Math in html