The sequence of the topics and the development and refinement of the tasks in the activity guide have been carefully informed by the developers understandings of what students need to know and how they learn. The selection of topics was influenced by input from the members of the Workshop Mathematics Local and National Advisory Groups who represent disciplines that use mathematics and statistics extensively biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, physics, political science, psychology, and sociology. In addition, the Workshop Calculus materials are enhanced by applications developed by Priscilla Laws as an outgrowth of the award winning Workshop Physics materials. The tasks are designed to help students explore new concepts or discover ways to solve problems. The steps in the tasks provide students with a substantial amount of guidance.
Students make predictions, do calculations, and enter observations directly in their activity guide.
At the conclusion of each task the main ideas are summarized and students are given a brief overview of what they will be doing in the next task. The tasks are intended to be completed in a linear fashion. The homework exercises provide students with an opportunity to utilize new techniques, to think more deeply about the concepts introduced in the section, and occasionally to tackle new ideas. New information which is presented in an exercise is usually not needed in subsequent tasks. However, if a subsequent task does rely on a concept introduced in an exercise, students are referred back to the exercise for review.