to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics ( NGA Center and CCSSO 2010 ) standard for modeling: “Choose trigonometric functions to model periodic phenomena with specified amplitude, frequency, and midline" (CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.TF.B.5). In
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Mara G. Landers
A measurement-based activity can help students struggling to understand trigonometric functions.
Sheldon P. Gordon
In the climactic scene in The Wizard of Oz, Toto draws back the curtain to expose the Wizard of Oz, and Frank Morgan admits, “I am really a very good man but just a poor wizard.” This statement is reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke's famous third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (Clarke 1962, p. 36). For almost all students, what happens when they push buttons on their calculators is essentially magic, and the techniques used are seemingly pure wizardry.
Emily Sliman
Chalk Talk and Claim-Support-Question are two routines for developing students' ability to use multiple representations and encouraging classroom discussion.
Christopher V. Cappiello
A high school student reflects on ways to use function composition to explain some interesting transformations.
S. Asli Özgün-Koca, Michael Todd Edwards, and Michael Meagher
The Spaghetti Sine Curves activity, which uses GeoGebra applets to enhance student learning, illustrates how technology supports effective use of physical materials.
Students analyze a photograph to solve mathematical questions related to the images captured in the photograph. This month, transformations of trigonometric graphs is the topic.
Raymond LaRochelle, Lauren Stewart, Kari Koch, and Sara Feiteira
This article describes a scientific investigation about pendulums that can be used to support students' understandings of variables, graphs, and relationships between quantities. Contributors to the iSTEM department share ideas and activities that stimulate student interest in the integrated fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in K–grade 6 classrooms.
Anna F. DeJarnette
In support of efforts to foreground functions as central objects of study in algebra, this study provides evidence of how secondary students use trigonometric functions in contextual tasks. The author examined secondary students' work on a problem involving modeling the periodic motion of a Ferris wheel through the use of a visual programming environment. This study illustrates the range of prior knowledge and resources that students may draw on in their use of trigonometric functions as well as how the goals of students' work inform their reasoning about trigonometric functions.
