Education Technology


Integration

Activity Overview

This Computer Algebra System (CAS) activity encourages students to investigate the use of CAS to integrate a function.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print the page from the attached PDF file for the class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the page to the class.

    Follow the Activity procedures:

  • Use CAS to calculate the definite integral of a function
  • Subdivide the range into intervals of unit length and form rectangles with heights determined by the function values from the left endpoint of each interval
  • Determine the sum of the function using the new interval and verify the results manually
  • Divide the interval into smaller intervals
  • Find the left and right end point approximations
  • Observe that as the number of subdivisions increases, the approximation approaches the true value
  • After the Activity

    Students' answer questions on the Activity sheet.

    Review student results:

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