THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INQUIRY BASED LEARNING UNIT FOR INTEGRAL CALCULUS: THE CASE OF VOLUMES OF SOLIDS OF REVOLUTION

Year 2014, Volume: 1 , 117 - 123, 31.05.2014

Çiğdem Özdemır Erdat Cataloğlu

Abstract

The latest official national
curriculum published by the Turkish Ministry of Education, now formally
requires high-school mathematics teachers to actively incorporate computer
software in their teaching. The primary purpose of this study is to demonstrate
the development of an inquiry based learning unit especially geared for high
school mathematics students and teachers for the general concept of integral
calculus. The main theme chosen as a case for this proposed inquiry unit, is on
volumes of solids of revolution of real life daily objects. As a result, the
primary purpose will provide a report about a practical example of using
pedagogically driven mathematics software, 3D digital modeling coupled with
hands-on real life examples all embedded in a constructivist learning
environment. A secondary goal of this study is to expose pre-service
high-school mathematics teachers to this inquiry unit as a teacher and student.
Finally, the shared experiences about the interconnected nature of knowledge
construction through a double “lens”, that is as a teacher and students through
collaboratively building, testing and reflecting on their learning process will
be reported.

Keywords

Mathematic Education, Inquiry, Modeling, Teacher Education

References

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