TY - CHAP
T1 - Mathematical Modelling for Engineering Diploma Students
T2 - Perspectives on Visualisation
AU - Kotze, Hanti
AU - Jacobs, Gerrie J.
AU - Spangenberg, Erica D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - This inquiry aims to determine the influence of mathematical modelling on engineering diploma students’ visualisation when solving differential equations (DE) with a computer algebra system (CAS). In CAS environments, students usually struggle to interpret numerical tables and computer graphs derived from symbolic DEs and often leave interpretative questions unanswered. Participants comprised 80 second year vocational engineering diploma students at a comprehensive university. Students’ abilities to make contextual connections between different representations through a model-eliciting task were assessed using content analysis. By reversing the curricular approach, most participants constructed a meaningful DE that deepened understandings of the world in which they modelled. The modelling environment stimulated development of adequate schema through experimentation with paper-and-pen and CAS technologies.
AB - This inquiry aims to determine the influence of mathematical modelling on engineering diploma students’ visualisation when solving differential equations (DE) with a computer algebra system (CAS). In CAS environments, students usually struggle to interpret numerical tables and computer graphs derived from symbolic DEs and often leave interpretative questions unanswered. Participants comprised 80 second year vocational engineering diploma students at a comprehensive university. Students’ abilities to make contextual connections between different representations through a model-eliciting task were assessed using content analysis. By reversing the curricular approach, most participants constructed a meaningful DE that deepened understandings of the world in which they modelled. The modelling environment stimulated development of adequate schema through experimentation with paper-and-pen and CAS technologies.
KW - Computer algebra system
KW - Differential equations
KW - Engineering diploma students
KW - Mathematical modelling
KW - Multiple representations
KW - Visualisation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101983804&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-62968-1_45
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-62968-1_45
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85101983804
T3 - International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling
SP - 541
EP - 551
BT - International Perspectives on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematical Modelling
PB - Springer Science and Business Media B.V.
ER -