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Dr. Tyler Seacrest Publishes Open Educational Resource

August 30, 2021

Montana Western Associate Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Tyler Seacrest, recently demonstrated his commitment to producing quality and affordable education by publishing his first Open Educational Resource (OER), Informal Calculus.

Seacrest created a textbook students and faculty can access and use for free. Embracing the Open Educational model, Seacrest states that, “Informal Calculus is an approachable textbook for a survey calculus course. This book is shared under the creative commons with attribution license, and anyone is welcome to use or modify anything from the book for free.”

Working with a team of UMW faculty colleagues including Dr. Rebekah Levine, Dr. Debbie Seacrest, and Dr. Michelle Anderson, Seacrest’s calculus textbook is unique and progressive. Serving Montana Western students in a new way, this textbook focuses calculus on applications in environmental and biological sciences.

One application in the book is designed for determining the volume of earth moved in the 1959 earthquake that created Quake Lake. Another application uses differential equations to model various biological examples, including moose and wolf populations at Isle Royale National Park, Rana virus in amphibians, and competing species of protozoa.

Earth science and biological science majors will find this text relevant, connecting the core concepts to the degree path they have chosen.

UMW appreciates the efforts of Dr. Seacrest and his colleagues to create high quality educational resources while prioritizing textbook affordability for Montana Western students.

“We’re very excited about Dr. Seacrest’s work and look forward to seeing more of our faculty develop OERs,” said Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, Dr. Ashley Carlson.

The textbook, Informal Calculus, is immediately accessible at: https://oer.pressbooks.pub/informalcalculus

For more information about Open Educational Resources at Montana Western, please contact Library Director and Associate Professor, Anne Kish: 406-683-7494 or [email protected].

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