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When coming up with the project, I wanted it to be on limits because we had been doing limit

problems for a month before I assigned the project and we would be continuing to use limits for the
next few weeks after. At this point students should be comfortable enough with limits to do a project on
the topic. Also limits were the start of Calculus. Before this topic, students were doing pre-calculus so I
wanted the project to be from calculus.

When I first started coming up with the project, it was designed to be more challenging as I was
told it would be counted as a test grade by my cooperating teacher. After I was told it was only to be
counted as 5 extra credit points on an exam, I had to change the project to make it less time consuming
because it was optional and I didnt want students to dismiss it right away. When constructing this limit
project, I knew I wanted a part that contained piecewise functions. Students in this class still struggle
when they see piecewise functions or feel intimidated by them. I wanted students to come up with their
own piecewise function that contained 3 different pieces originally. After the changes, I made it 2 pieces
minimum and went from having 2 criteria on what I wanted the piecewise to contain to only one.
Originally I wanted students to create a piecewise where the limit as x approaches 2 does not exist and
the limit as x approaches 6 exists. Since I decided I wanted students to create a piecewise function, I
then had to decide what limit concepts that I wanted students to use or show their understanding of. I
decided that I wanted them to use the continuity test to show that the function was discontinuous at
x=2. I first wanted students to graph their function. Graphing piecewise functions and interpreting them
from a graph is still difficult for them so I wanted them to show that they knew what the function looked
like. Also I wanted something visual for this project so the graph was perfect for that. We also talked
about different discontinuities. By having the function graphed, they would be able to see more easily
what type of discontinuity they had.

For the next part, I wanted to include something that dealt with limits as x approaches infinity. I
decided that I should have students come up with their own functions where when x approaches
infinity, you got each of the 3 answers (infinity, 0, and a constant) we discussed in class. To get an
answer of infinity, students must create a polynomial or even do something simple such as a function of
x. To get the answer of 0, students could create a rational function or say g(x) = 0. The later was
discussed when I gave out the project. I told student to not simply take the limit of 0 and to write it
down in that part as I forgot to add it into my project handout. For the one with the answer of a
constant, students can be creative and create a rational function or be very lazy and just do a constant. I
decided I was okay with them doing a constant as i wanted to see how they would explain that the limit
of a constant is that constant.

For part 3, I decided it should be research on limits. Students should be able to explain why
limits are important. I want to make sure students understand why we spend so much time doing limits
in class so that they can appreciate them better. I also wanted them to see the real life applications of
limits, so I decided to have students find 2 examples and write about them for this part of the project.
Its important that students have an understanding of the math they are doing and how they can use
that math in different jobs or in their everyday lives. When I originally constructed part3, I had the
following:
Instantaneous Rate of Change!
For this part you are to gather real data that can be plotted and graphed. The data can be whatever you
want as long as the data doesnt follow a specific function. There must be at least 10 data points to plot
and such that there are no data plots that share the same x-value. An example is the number of wins a
sports team has made each month, where the month is the x-value and the number of wins for that
month is the y-value. Another example is the outside temperature each day for 10 days, with the x-value
being the day number and the temperature being the y-value. Try to plot data that is of interest to you!

For this part of the project, you must:

1) Plot your data and provide a table of the points. Connect the data points on the graph.
2) State where you got your data from. If you found it from a website, provide the link.
3) Determine the linear regression line or the line of best fit for your plots and write down the
equation of your line. Then graph this new equation on a separate graph. Your calculator can
determine the equation for you. (Note to self: change wording to: Use the appropriate
regression line with the greatest correlation)
For a Casio calculator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPEEVdkA7Wk
For a TI-83: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyEBNptWQZY
For a TI-84: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vytEFKXZVcI
4) Determine the instantaneous rate of change for the equation you wrote down for any point.
5) Explain what instantaneous rate of change is.

This part was to be the research part and was to make the project a bit more personal. It also dealt
with instantaneous rate of change which I wanted to make sure that students fully understood. Due to
this project not being counted as a test, I decided to make it easier for students and came up with what I
have on the final copy instead. I do think that having students write about why limits are important was
good however because students still didnt understand why we were spending so much time on them.
By them finding 2 examples of real life applications, they can appreciate what they are doing more. With
my original idea, I think students would have struggled with the regression line as that was something
they hadnt seen in a while. My original plan was to go over how to do it during class as well as provide
the links so that the project would have shown a bit of the students likes.

The last part was to add an artistic side to this project. I wanted students to put it all the parts
together and present it in a creative way. I thought that this part would be most fun for students since I
didnt put any restrictions on how I wanted the project. They could do whatever they wanted, as long as
it is appropriate and contains the 3 previous parts.

For grading, I decided that each part would be worth one point each. As long as they answered all
the questions, they would get 4 out of the 5 points. To prevent students from simply answering them
without looking over their work, I decided the 5th point would be given if there were no more than 2
conceptual errors. I decided on 2 because I felt that if it said one conceptual error that it would make
students feel that if they made one mistake they would already only get 4 points and dissuade them
from doing the project. Also I didnt want the underperforming students to be dissuaded.

The amount of projects that I received from my 2 classes was only 9. While the number is few, I
was happy to see that a majority of the work I received was from the students who were
underperforming in the class. I was glad that these students took advantage of the opportunity to get
extra points as some of those students (3 students) failed their last exam. Many students when I gave
this project complained that the amount of points allotted was too low and that they werent going to
do it. One asked if they could work with someone and I decided to tell my classes that they could work
with up to 3 students total (including themselves) in a group so that more students would be willing to
do the project. Thus, I received 2 projects, one in which 2 students worked together and another with 3
students, making a total of 12/68 students that did the project. I also told students that we would hang
the projects up in class as extra incentive for them to be creative. My cooperating teachers were glad to
have a project to hang up as the AP spoke to them about putting work up in the classroom before the
superintendent was to come in and they had to use projects from years prior. I didnt tell students this,
but my cooperating teachers and I agreed that any student that turned in a project would get the 5
points. The reasoning for this was that students were not used to doing projects as this school
(according to my cooperating teacher) which is also why he didnt want it counted as a test grade. We
didnt tell students they would get the full 5 points so that they would actually work hard on it. While I
was glad to receive projects, I was disappointed by how many mathematical and conceptual errors there
were on these projects as well as the lack of creativity of some projects.

One thing I noticed on a few of the submissions was that students are still struggling with
piecewise functions. There was one huge submission by 3 students which was entitled Fun with Limits. I
was told that each student in the group did one of the 3 parts. Visually it looks very nice but if you look
at part 1, the piecewise function graphed is completely incorrect. They still arent understanding how to
read piecewise functions. Same issue happened with the orange brochure project. The student didnt
know how to graph the function. One student (dark green project) didnt even attempt to create a
piecewise function and decided to define each of the discontinuities we discussed in class. There were
some minor issues with part 1 as well, such as with 2 students, they graphed the piecewise but had
written the wrong inequalities for the function. Also some students didnt do the continuity test for part
2 or missed some steps that we discussed in class on how it should be done or written. If I were to redo
this project when I become a teacher, I would edit part 1, question 2 to tell student to use the continuity
test directly. For the second part, I received some very odd and conceptually incorrect answers. For
example, on the Fun with Limits project, the student did the limit that evaluates to a constant
incorrectly. They didnt realize that what they wrote actually evaluated to 0. Another thing I would
change on my project that I realized with this issue is to write that the constant the limit evaluates to
cannot be 0. There were a few issues with coming up with an h(x) for number 3 of part 2. Two students
created a piecewise and created some c in the piecewise in which they would solve for to make the
function continuous. They thought that they were supposed to find the constant that would make the
function continuous. Another student (light green project) did something that doesnt make sense and
he somehow determined the limit to be infinity which isnt even a constant. For part 3, I got some very
interesting responses. For instance, the project with the 3 colored papers, the girl gave an example
involving her sister, trying to explain what a limit is using a real world situation. While there are some
issues with her scenario, I appreciated how she was thinking about limits and her creativity in her
response. She made it personal which I thought was great. I think for this question I would rewrite my
project so that I tell students to give specific real-world examples on how limits are used and provide an
example of what Im looking for to avoid students doing something similar to what this girl did. Another
change would be making each part due by a specific date. This would allow me to see how students are
doing and tell students what they should look over or redo. As for the creativity, I was disappointed that
some students simply typed it up, with one typing it up and changing the background color only, and
another 2 not even doing that. I loved the creativity that went into the project with the 3 colored
papers. Her writing made it seem fun and you can tell that she gave the project a lot of thought. While
there are errors, creativity wise this was my favorite.

Overall, I thought that given it was extra credit and for not very many points that I got a
considerable amount of work. It was eye-opening as I got to see some errors students are having and am
now considering to include questions on their next exam that spirals some of these concepts. I plan to
implement some of the changes as mentioned above, if I were to do this again, and I would definitely
like to have this as a graded project as opposed to an optional one.

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