Education Technology


Derivatives: Instantaneous Rate of Change

Activity Overview

Students investigate the derivative of the cosine function using various features of the graphing calculator.

Before the Activity

See the attached Activity PDF file(s) for detailed instructions for this activity.

During the Activity

Follow the procedures outlined in the activity.

Students will:

  • Use the average rate of change feature of the graphing calculator to investigate the derivative of the cosine function.
  • After the Activity

  • Review student results
  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary