The challenges of basing a full mathematics course entirely on realistic examples

The authors, with the first author as primus motor, undertook to create and teach a 15 ECTS points mathematics course (calculus, differential equations and basic statistics) almost entirely based on realistic examples, i.e., problems extracted from engineering practice, supplemented where necessary with equations from the natural and social sciences, as well as economics and various crafts. This endeavour generated a 6-volume set of highly structured notes and exercises, organized in learning objects and prepared for the further development of e.g., e-learning modules comprising the whole course or cherry-picking relevant parts. To the best of our knowledge, the course is unique in its kind, so we try to identify the challenges posed by such an undertaking and to explain how me met them.