Just a note on applications. I have found that in 38.5 years of teaching that the rate of student appreciation of applying the subject learned is inversely proportional to the complexity of the course. That is in many extremely difficult, complex and challenging courses, students will often get engaged just because of the difficulty of the material. It is in the basic courses where students often have to take it just because it is mandated or a "gen. ed" course using applications can increase interest, show relevancy, etc. Therefore teaching a basic easy course should inspire us to do even… >>>