Education Technology


Programming to Find Area Under a Curve

Activity Overview

Students will learn how to program the TI 83/84 Plus graphing calculator to approximate the area under a curve using Left,Right,Midpoint Riemann Sums, and Trapezoid Rule, and Simpson's Rule.

Before the Activity

Students will learn how to approximate the area under a curve via Riemann Sums, Trapezoid Rule, and Simpson's Rule by hand using the following attached notes.

During the Activity

Teacher guide the students' through the programming of the Right and Left Riemann Sums.
Students' then are challenged to write programs to replicate the Midpoint Riemann sum, Trapezoid Rule, and Simpson's Rule.
Students' must complete problems by hand first to check that the programs are accurate.

After the Activity

Have students share their programs that they wrote on their own. You should see that there are little differences in how they approach the Trapezoid Rule and Simpson's Rule.