PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Using a dynamic geometric context to support students’ constructions of variables
Page: 576
Using Thompson and Carlson’s (2017) definition of a variable and the results of teaching sessions with two preservice secondary mathematics students, I describe the role of quantitative and covariational reasoning in constructing a formula with variables to describe a relationship between covarying quantities in a dynamic geometric context—the Parallelogram Problem. I report that although each student reasoned with a dynamic situation, their symbolic representations of that situation did not necessarily entail variables. I conclude that providing students with dynamic situations with which to construct formulas provides them opportunities to construct formulas with variables representing covariational relationships between quantities.