Seeking inspiration to excite her calculus students, Ms. Jill Henry attended a National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference on real-world math assignments. She immediately began working on a project to expand students' understanding of calculus through the integration of statistics and economics. 

This year's project asked students to explore how an element of environmental change can be understood using calculus. They utilized historical World Bank data to predict the potential impact of contemporary tariffs on global economies. Students created short documentaries about their findings. 

Jill invited environmental science teacher Eric Kleinsasser to share local environmental issues worthy of further study. Alum Tomas Diaz '12, a principal at Karagozian & Case, spoke to the class about how he uses machine learning to work with complicated data and make predictions. Dave Henry '03, a Peabody Award winner and Emmy-nominated film and television editor, gave the class tips to convert data and research into a compelling visual story. After completing their mini-documentaries, Mr. Kleinsasser, Mr. Diaz, and Mr. Henry attended a viewing party in December. 

Jill loves to introduce real-world projects. "The takeaways are more tangible when the context is authentic, and as a result, students seem to develop a much stronger attachment to what they've learned," she says. "Each group had complete autonomy, which meant their discoveries were entirely their

own. They combed through reputable sources for real-world data, applied calculus to interpret patterns, and conducted background research to understand why changes occurred when they did. They become the foremost experts in the room on their topic."