In the past ten years, the importance of mathematics in the life sciences has been growing at at a fast clip. Realizing this, Professor Sondra Lazarowitz of the School of Life Sciences in 1991 noted that Life Science students had a very poor impression of calculus and often slid by with a C or worse. When she asked them why, they said that there was little in the standard calculus course for them. They felt it was a course for engineers only. It did not connect with their professional plans.
BioCalc was created to address this issue. BioCalc is the Calculus&Mathematica version of Calculus 1 tailored to meet the needs of life science students through the study of many life science models. Sudents in BioCalc experience first hand the vivid connection between calculus and the life sciences.They no longer ask."what's this stuff good for?"
Professor Philippe Tondeur, chair of the Department of Mathematics at UIUC has said.:BioCalc has proved to be very successful."