By David Bressoud   @dbressoud As of 2024, new Launchings columns appear on the third Tuesday of the month. FDWK refers to Ross Finney, Frank Demana, Bert Waits, and Dan Kennedy, the team of authors who for many years and multiple editions updated Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic , one of the most popular textbooks for the College Board’s Advanced Placement Calculus. Last month I talked about joining FDWK in 2013. This month I want to talk about changes that I helped initiate for the opening chapters of the 6th edition, with further changes for the 7th edition that will appear next year. For me, there are two poor ways to begin a first course on calculus. These are either an extended review of precalculus material or launching into an extended study of limits before giving students any idea of what calculus is all about. Older editions of FDWK recommended 11 lessons on precalculus topics followed by 11 lessons on limits.…