UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

COLLOQUIUM

 


FALL 2016

Thursday,  September 1, 3:30-4:20 pm, room TLC 022

Refreshments in Brink 305 at 3:00 pm


Registers for Reasoning with Definite Integrals


 

Robert Ely



Department of Mathematics

  University of Idaho


This Spring at Oregon State University I taught an experimental Calc I class, using an (informal) infinitesimals-based approach. I examine two notational registers students developed for reasoning with definite integrals: Adding-Up-Pieces and Multiplicatively-Based-Summation. Research indicates that these two registers are much more beneficial for modeling with integrals and reasoning with the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus than are the more common ``antiderivative" and ``area under curve" registers.