Electronic Proceedings of the 12^th Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics

Abstract for 12929

The Dynamic Geometry Software as an Effective Learning and Teaching

Tool

Authors: Zhognhong Jiang

Affiliations: New York University, NCTM, SSMA

Keywords: Undergraduate Level

This article describes how the use of dynamic geometry software has

helped pre-service teachers develop their abilities in three aspects:

1) challenging problem solving; 2) mathematical modeling; and 3)

constructing student-centered teaching projects. The examples given

indicate that for some of the challenging problems that are

presented to students, it is almost impossible or very hard to

manually make correct drawings. To overcome this difficulty, the use

of dynamic geometry software seems to be critical, or at least very

desirable. In addition, the use of the software can stimulate

students’ insight of problem solving and provide an easy and

convincing way of verifying the solution. Moreover, students can

construct accurate visual representations to model real world

situations very efficiently by using transformations in dynamic

geometry software. This can save time significantly so that students

can concentrate on more conceptual oriented tasks. Good teaching

projects that take advantage of dynamic geometry software can also

effectively enhance school children’s’ mathematics learning.