PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
Building Models of Students’ Use of Sigma Notation
Page: 661
Summation notation is a widely-used standard that can represent all kinds of sums. Despite its utility, the literature on this topic points to the notation being difficult for students. Our research project gives insight into how students think about summation notation and why it is so challenging. This report builds off of the first phase in our project, which proved the existence of students’ uncertainties with elements of the notation. Survey data from 285 undergraduates suggested that uncertainties are common amongst students. We also found that the act of encoding a sum in sigma notation is more cognitively demanding than interpreting a summation notation expression. In this paper we present models of students’ ways of thinking about summation notation.