Tuesday, July 7th

I enjoyed the lab that we did this morning over velocity and acceleration. I teach a lot of Math classes, and my undergraduate major was Math, so I enjoyed working with the derivatives. I really enjoyed using the Excel spreadsheets to come up with the derivatives for the functions that Dr. Keller gave us. Actually, I have done a similar activity in my Pre-Calculus class, with a few slight differences.


In my class, we go throught the discussion of what a derivative is, and then we look at the definition of a derivative. I go through a few example problems where the students and I use the definition to find the derivative of some functions. Then I give each student a different function such as f(x)=x^2 or f(x)=4x^3, and they have find the derivative of their functions using the definintion. Then each student writes their function on the board next to its derivative. Then we look at the different derivatives, and try to come up with the rule that can be used to find the derivative of a function. I realize that the way I do it, we aren't using Excel, but it sort of uses a similar method to come up with the rule for finding derivatives.


I also enjoyed the labs that we did this afternoon dealing with electricity and circuits. I could see how those labs could be used in a Physics or Physical Science class. I think that students would enjoy at looking at the parallel and series circuits, as well as how voltage and current are related to each other.


Have a good evening everyone! See you on Wed.!!