Precalculus with Calculus Previews

Dennis Zill received a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Iowa State University, and is a former professor of Mathematics at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Loras College in Iowa, and California Polytechnic State University. He is also the former chair of the Mathematics department at Loyola Marymount University, where he currently holds a rank as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. Zill holds interests in astronomy, modern literature, music, golf, and good wine, while his research interests include Special Functions, Differential Equations, Integral Transformations, and Complex Analysis.' Jacqueline Dewar - In her 30-year teaching career at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, Jackie Dewar has taught a wide variety of courses ranging from intermediate algebra and precalculus to algebraic topology and been very active in curriculum development.' 'She has developed or co-developed a hands-on lab for future elementary teachers, a unique math/science core course entitled Mathematics:' Contributions by Women, a community-building course for freshman math majors that focuses on problem solving and mathematical communication, and a quantitative literacy course that engages students in campus or local community issues.'''''''''''' 'From 1995-2001 she worked with a team of faculty from ten institutions of higher education in the Los Angeles Collaborative for Teacher Excellence (http://www.lacteonline.org), a $5,500,000 NSF-funded initiative with the goal of improving K-12 teacher preparation programs in science and mathematics. She has served as department chair (1983-86, 2005-6) and was recently appointed the Director of Loyola Marymount University's Center for Teaching Excellence.''''''''''' 'In 2003, she was selected as one of 26 scholars by the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). She has worked to expand the international SoTL movement in the mathematics community by co-organizing minicourses (2006, 2007) and a contributed paper session (2007) at the national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America.' In 2006, she received the Mathematical Association of America's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching.' She has written book reviews for Teaching Children Mathematics, and published articles in The Arithmetic Teacher, College Mathematics Journal, Collegiate Microcomputer, Journal of Mathematics and Science:' Collaborative Explorations, Mathematics and Computer Education, and National Teaching and Learning Forum.'