PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
Students’ Emerging Understandings of the Polar Coordinate System
Page: 2-226
The Polar Coordinate System (PCS) arises in a multitude of contexts in undergraduate mathematics. Yet, there is a limited body of research investigating students’ understandings of the PCS. In this report, we discuss findings from a teaching experiment concerned with exploring four pre-service teachers’ developing understandings of the PCS. We illustrate ways students’ meanings for angle measure influenced their construction of the PCS. Specifically, students with a stronger understanding of radian angle measure more fluently constructed the PCS than their counterparts. Also, we found that various aspects of the students’ understandings of the Cartesian coordinate system (CCS) became problematic as they transitioned to the PCS. For instance, mathematical differences between the polar pole and Cartesian origin presented the students difficulties. Collectively, our findings highlight important understandings that can support or prevent students from developing a robust conception of the PCS.