Using Technology to Understand Rate of Change

Abstract

The following series of learning activities are from an afterschool math club called Go Go Gizmos that focuses on modeling mathematics with the use of technologies. This account describes how a classroom teacher and a math educator taught and assessed students' understanding of the rate of change using a variety of technologies. In particular, we chose data collection probeware called Go!Motion, which is a stand-alone motion-data-collection device from Vernier that sends data to the computer for analysis and simulation applets from http://explorelearning.com. The Go!Motion device can be connected to a computer and displays an interactive real-time spreadsheet with graphing capabilities. The objectives in the unit were for students to investigate physical representations of slope as a rate of change in mathematics and as velocity in science and the y-intercept as the initial condition, or starting position. In these investigations, students and teachers become partners in developing mathematical ideas and solving math problems (NCTM 2000).