A
great deal of important mathematics happens "inside the
box"
on sheets of graph paper. Unfortunately, many students have
difficulty recognizing that the relationships they master on
paper also apply to larger contexts.
In
this activity, students first program the Pointer Plane with
a mathematical function that aims the laser beam at any
point (x,y) in the first and fourth quadrants of the graph
paper.
They
next
extend
their function to work on another graph in which the pointer
is located away from the origin. They extend their function
further to objects beyond the graph paper, and they make the
function dynamic--designing a function which will scan the
laser beam from one location (such as the rock at x1)
to another location (such as the figure at x2).
The
system can be extended still further, for example designing
a function to make the beam follow a cart as it
accelerates down an inclined plane or follow an oscillating
mass on the
the end of a spring. With the addition of a Motion Detector,
the beam can even be programmed to follow a person who walks
across the front of the classroom. |
