Physics experts and students commonly use a variety of representations when working with partial derivatives, including symbols, graphs, and words. One especially powerful representation is the contour graph. In open-ended problem-solving interviews with nine upper-division physics students, we asked students to determine derivatives from contour…

As one way of applying and enriching mathematics instruction through integration with science, four mini-projects'' are briefly presented. The three topics are oil molecule estimation, animal classification, graphing and genetic sequences. (MS)