Ron Armontrout

Calculus Explorations with Geometry Expressions Ron Armontrout

Teachers know the difficulties in motivating many students to develop the habits of mind and critical thinking skills necessary to thoroughly understand the concepts of calculus. The purpose of this book is to use Geometry Expressions software in order to facilitate and enhance the calculus syllabus by allowing students to ground calculus concepts in a geometric way. The 29 student explorations in this book cover the major topics of a standard course of calculus, and are completed with the help of the constraint-based dynamic software package, Geometry Expressions. Using Geometry Expressions in learning calculus, students have the opportunity to develop general investigation skills, make connections between geometric and algebraic representations of major calculus ideas, interpret analytic problems visually and geometric problems algebraically, and develop facility with using a computer to prove general mathematics statements. Geometry Expressions enables more extensive calculus investigation than is possible in a traditional course of calculus. Open-ended explorations and investigations reinforce students' intellectual development. Students appreciate challenges and enjoy taking ownership in the problem solving process. This book, together with Geometry Expressions enables the student to do just that.