Elementary pre-service teachers in an upper-division algebra mathematics content course explored graphing through the use of Calculator-Based Rangers™ (CBRs). This study explores how they used the "Distance Match" feature of the technology to engage in algebraic thinking. Operating CBR technology, pre-service teachers' perceptions…

This study aims to explore how undergraduate students in mathematics and engineering professions make sense out of graphs representing periodic and repeated but non-periodic motions. In this study, making sense out of graphs means interpreting graphical features and describing a situation that could be represented by them. The data was collected…

Discusses the teaching of vectors and the inadequate and inappropriate examples given in many textbooks. Suggests using the motion of a sailboat or the motion of a car moving on the Earth's surface as possible examples. Details a proper vector teaching example. (MVL)

Several studies have shown the difficulties students encounter in making sense of situations involving rate of change. This study concerns how students discover errors and refine their knowledge when working with rate of change. The part of the study reported here concerns the responses of four precalculus students to a task which asked them to…

In this article we describe a mathematical microworld for investigating car motion on a racing course and its use with a group of grade 12 students. The microworld is concerned with the mathematical construction of courses and functions which describe car motion. It is implemented in the computer algebra system, Maple[R], which provides the means…