A Calculus Laboratory course is being designed to supplement the traditional calculus course with more interesting and challenging exercises. The laboratory exercises are designed to improve understanding of important concepts and to provide an introduction to mathematical modeling. The students meet once a week for an extended period (up to three hours) to work on these exercises. This allows them to work on problems in substantially more detail and depth than is usually possible in a first year calculus course. Written reports on each exercise emphasize clarity and style as well as content; teaching students to write clearly about technical topics is a major goal of the laboratory course.