The Calculus of Leaves: A Modeling Project for a Calculus Class

When I taught a calculus class composed mostly of biology students, I looked for a project wherein the students could collect biological data for which a mathematical mode l would be constructed. Although the project was conceived for biology students, all students can do the project easily and benefit from it. The project consisted of having the students measure the leaf area of pole beans they grew for the occasion, and then construct a model to describe t h e area as a function of time.