Rob Ely's March 2011 Talk
Time and Date: 4:10 pm Thursday, March 31st
Location: 5W Neill Hall, WSU Mathematics Department
Title: Conceptions of dimension loss and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus
Abstract: Calculus students often imagine objects losing a dimension entirely when a limit is taken, and this image serves as an obstacle to their understanding of the fundamental theorem of calculus. In the mid-1600s, similar imagery in the form of “indivisibles” was similarly un-supportive of the development of the fundamental theorem. With awareness of this research, we can provide students with imagery that is more helpful for understanding the fundamental theorem, such as infinitesimals, which historically replaced indivisibles, or the more modern quantitative limits approach, which relies heavily on quantitative reasoning.
Speaker Bio: Rob Ely is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Idaho, with a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. His research focuses on student conceptions and historical conceptions of the infinite and the infinitesimal, and he also researches the use of rich tasks in the secondary classroom for building reasoning and proof.
Background Information for Talk: Rob's website can be found here: http://www.uidaho.edu/sci/math/faculty/robely