| Discussion: | Roundtable |
| Topic: | "Graphing Calculator" Software |
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| Subject: | 2nd. Fundamental Theorem |
| Author: | Gene |
| Date: | Dec 9 2003 |
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particularly helpful--at least the ones I know about. Always happy to hear of
new ones!
I ended the semester with the 2nd. Fundamental Theorem. There are several
applets out there, all seem to work only for the built-in function, none did
exactly what I want. I ended up using the following two:
http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/4/ftc.2/
This uses one period of the sine and the resulting graph of the cosine isn't
enough to be able to clearly identify it, but it is good for talking about what
is going on.
http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/research/mathtech/java/FTCProject/ftcprojectpage.html
This gives several peiods of the sine, although not in the detail of the first,
but it did allow the students to guess the function being generated by the area
under the curve.
I felt the experience helped students understand the meaning of the theorem.
Wish I could have determined what they thought ...
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Writing about the software I've used in 1st. semester calculus has been an
interesting experience for me, causing me to examine more carefully which
applets to use for demonstrations and assignments. I hope it will prove useful
to current and future readers. I'll ask to teach the same course next fall. I'll
likely try to use Geometer's Sketchpad, which should allow more flexibility
since students could modify the applets.
Next semester I'll be teaching integration and series, for which there don't
seem to be many applets. Please send me favorites! I look forward to Math Tools
developing to the point where lots of calculus teachers are involved and this
can be a real dialog.
Happy end of courses, Gene
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