Document Type
Proceeding
Publication Title
Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings
First Page
355
358
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Students use a variety of resources to make sense of integration, and interpreting the definite integral as a sum of infinitesimal products (rooted in the concept of a Riemann sum) is particularly useful in many physical contexts. This study of beginning and upper-level undergraduate physics students examines some obstacles students encounter when trying to make sense of integration, as well as some discomforts and skepticism some students maintain even after constructing useful conceptions of the integral. In particular, many students attempt to explain what integration does by trying to interpret the algebraic manipulations and computations involved in finding antiderivatives. This tendency, perhaps arising from their past experience of making sense of algebraic expressions and equations, suggests a reluctance to use their understanding of "what a Riemann sum does" to interpret "what an integral does.”
Recommended Citation
Wagner, J. F. (2015). What the integral does: Physics students' efforts at making sense of integration. In A. D. Churukian, D. L. Jones, & L. Ding (Eds), 2015 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings (pp. 355-358). College Park, MD. Available at http://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=13906 .
