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Combinatorics – competition – Excel
427-435Views:129In 2001 the Informatics Points Competition of the Mathematics Journal for Secondary School Students (KÖMAL) was restarted [1]. The editors set themselves an aim to make the formerly mere programming competition a bit more varied. Therefore, every month there has been published a spreadsheet problem, a part of which was related to combinatorics. This article is intended to discuss the above mentioned problems and the solutions given to them at competitions. We will prove that traditional mathematical and programming tasks can be solved with a system developed for application purposes when applying a different way of thinking. -
On the legacy of G. Pólya: some new (old) aspects of mathematical problem solving and relations to teaching
169-189Views:99In this article are given some new aspects of mathematical problem solving. A framework is presented by three main resources: (1) Pólya's studies about mathematical heuristics are augmented by information drawn from a study of the history of mathematical problem solving. (2) Connections are presented between mathematical problem solving and mathematical beliefs. (3) Experience with a special program for mathematical talented students is sketched. On this background a new textbook-series has been developed and some teaching examples are taken from this context. An outlook is given on some new research on teaching of problem solving, including possible relations to modern brain research. -
Regula falsi in lower secondary school education II
121-142Views:213The aim of this paper is to investigate the pupils' word problem solving strategies in lower secondary school education. Students prior experiences with solving word problems by arithmetic methods can create serious difficulties in the transition from arithmetic to algebra. The arithmetical methods are mainly based on manipulation with numbers. When pupils are faced with the methods of algebra they often have difficulty in formulating algebraic equations to represent the information given in word problems. Their troubles are manifested in the meaning they give to the unknown, their interpretation what an equation is, and the methods they choose to set up and solve equations. Therefore they mainly use arithmetical and numerical checking methods to solve word problems. In this situation it is necessary to introduce alternative methods which make the transition from arithmetic to algebra more smooth. In the following we will give a detailed presentation of the false position method. In our opinion this method is useful in the lower secondary school educational processes, especially to reduce the great number of random trial-and-error problem solving attempts among the lower secondary school pupils. We will also show the results of some problem solving activities among grade 6-8 pupils. We analysed their problem solving strategies and we compared our findings with the results of other research works.
Subject Classification: 97-03, 97-11, 97B10, 97B50, 97D40, 97F10, 97H10, 97H20, 97H30, 97N10, 97N20
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Über die Verwendung von Maple für die Simulation von Mechanismen
21-39Views:100Maple is used to do numerical computation, plot graphs and do exact symbolic manipulations and word processing. This paper demonstrates how Maple can be used for the simulation of mechanisms. This offers the possibility for students to become familiar with this particular section of mathematical modelling. The mechanism under consideration is a so-called F-mechanisms, i.e., a planar parallel 3-RRR robot with three synchronously driven cranks. It turns out that at this example it is not possible to find the poses of the moving triangle exactly by graphical methods with traditional instruments only. Hence, numerical methods are essential for the analysis of motions which can be performed by an F-mechanism. -
Algorithmics of the knapsack type tasks
37-71Views:121We propose a new kind of approach of the teaching of knapsack type problems in the classroom. We will remind you the context of the general knapsack-task and we will classify it, including the two most popular task variants: the discrete and the continuous one. Once we briefly present the solving algorithm of the continuous variant, we will focus on the solving of the discrete task, and we will determine the complexity of the algorithms, looking for different optimizing possibilities. All these issues are presented in a useful way for highschool teachers, who are preparing students in order to participate in different programming contests. -
Report of Meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, April 1-3, 2022 Baja, Hungary
135-155Views:268The meeting Researches in Didactics of Mathematics and Computer Sciences was held in Baja, Hungary, at Eötvös József College, from the 1st to the 3th of April, 2022. It was organized by the Doctoral School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences of the University of Debrecen and by Eötvös József College. The 62 participants - including 18 PhD students - came from 8 countries and represented 26 institutions of higher and secondary education. There were 3 plenary and 40 session talks in the program.
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Interactive web portals in mathematics
347-361Views:201Many of the recent problems in higher education (less contact seminars, the heterogeneity and the increasing number of our students) call for new instructional methods. At University of Szeged we have developed a mathematical web portal which can offer a solution for such problems among the changing circumstances. This freely available, easy-to-use web-surface supports interactive mathematical problem-solving and student self assessment. Our computer program cooperates with a lot of free software (computer algebra systems, formula parsers, converters, word processors). WebMathematics Interactive has been available for the public since June 2002 on its web page http://wmi.math.u-szeged.hu.
