Creative Representation of Learning

Jarrett Beck
For my creative representation assignment I want math students in the
pre-calculus stream to create art using functions. I feel this is a novel way to
have students develop their skills at graphing functions, identifying
functions, and using set notation.
For the assignment I will have students graph a variety of the familiar
mathematical functions in a way that creates some sort of picture. The
students will then colour in the areas that are bound by the function. The
goal is to have students use multiple functions in a way that represents some
sort of mathematical painting that they can ascribe meaning too. I feel that
an assignment like this will be a way to appeal to the students who
appreciate visual art, a group that is often not catered too in the math
classroom. The students will also be required to explain the meaning of their
picture in a few paragraphs.
The assessment of this assignment will be based on a rubric that will
include:

Does the student

Does the student
Does the student
Does the student
representation?

include a variety of mathematical functions?

properly label the functions?
correctly label the areas bounded by the functions?
effectively explain the meaning of their artistic

During the creation of this assignment I was worried that any pictures I
made would look like a garbled mathematical mess. After some tinkering I
realized it was not difficult at all to create an interesting picture from
functions. Although I used computer algebra software to construct this I
would also allow students to draw the functions by hand. I will use this
assignment when teaching pre-calculus and even calculus students as
some parts of the functional analysis are immediately applicable to higher
level mathematics.