Abstract

In this article we focus on the impact of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics courses preceding calculus. Our goal is to describe a framework (page 3) that allows instructors and students to explore mathematics in technology-rich settings. To this end we first identify four skill levels for mathematics students:

Antonio Quesada is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Akron. Michael Todd Edwards is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Education at John Carroll University.

• data analysis-based strategies,
• dynamic geometry-based strategies,
• functional model-based strategies,
• calculus-based strategies.

Then we illustrate that technology greatly broadens the group of students who have access to the ideas, by showing how students at all levels can successfully solve the same optimization problem when the appropriate technological tools or other techniques are incorporated.

Published June, 2005

© 2005 by Antonio Quesada and Michael Todd Edwards