The Effects of Mathematical Modelling in Mathematics Teaching of Linear, Quadratic and Logarithmic Functions

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study aims to acquaint high school students with the process of modelling in mathematics teaching. The research lasted 5 weeks with a group of (N=36) high school students of Zenica-Doboj Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Students had an opportunity to learn about functions and their properties, and subsequently about mathematical modelling with linear, quadratic, and logarithmic functions. Examples in the research were related to real-world phenomena and processes. The problems were composed of the following subtasks: creating or testing a model, explaining the results, finding the domain and range, and critical thinking about the model. The research identifies the importance of mathematical modelling in teaching. The results display a positive impact of such an approach on students, their thinking, attitude towards teaching, understanding of the materials, motivation and examination scores. The experiences that both students and teachers may have in a mathematical modelling framework could be extremely important for the academic success. A control group of 36 students took the final exam as well. The students of the experimental group got much better results than the students of the control group. Indeed, learning through mathematical modelling has been shown to contribute to all the aspects of students' expected development.</p>

The Role of Representations in the Understanding of Mathematical Concepts in Higher Education: The case of Function for Economics Students

the case of higher education most studies were conducted at pedagogical departments for prospective teachers and mathematical departments. The present study concentrates on university students who attend a course on mathematics as part of a program at the Faculty of Economics and Management. It examines students’ affective and cognitive behavior in solving representation tasks concerning their understanding of exponential and logarithmic functions. Results confirmed the existence of a comprehensive model with significant interrelations among general beliefs, self-efficacy beliefs and cognitive behaviour about the use of representations in general and, in the case of the specific concept. Regression analysis indicated the predominant role the self-efficacy beliefs play in the use of representations in defining the concept of function and solving recognition and translation tasks. Implications about the teaching of mathematics in higher education are discussed.

Development of a Digital Model of a Beta Function Based on Mellin’s Integral Transforms

The implementation of a digital model of the beta function for use in computer algorithms is a time-consuming task. This is due to the complexity of the high-precision representation of its integrand functions, which require a large number of intermediate operations, which entails a large load on the computational power. Purpose: Development of the basic theoretical provisions of the integral Mellin transform in relation to the theory of signal processing against the background of noise and research of their discrete representation. Results: It is shown in the paper that the beta function can be considered as a special case of Mellin’s integral transforms. Based on this statement, a mathematical model of the beta function was developed. Using the properties of parametrically periodic oscillations belonging to the class of trigonometric-logarithmic functions, it was possible to create a digital model for representing the beta function. Practical relevance: Based on the established digital model can be realized a high-speed algorithm for calculating the beta function with a given accuracy. Such algorithms can serve as a basis for creating signal processing programs in order to detect wideband phase-shift keyed signals against a background of noise with an unknown phase sequence. An example of using such algorithms is the search for Wi-Fi bugs.

Effectiveness of GeoGebra towards Students’ Active Learning, Performance and Interest to Learn Mathematics

The present study explored the effectiveness of GeoGebra in enhancing students’ active learning, performance and interest to learn mathematics. Much emphasis was put in teaching and learning exponential and logarithmic functions. The general intention was to investigate whether the use of ICT be used to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in Rwandan Secondary Schools. The present study is an experimental research design that employed Grade 11 students of one secondary school within Kayonza district of Rwanda. Thus, sample of 34 Grade 11 students were taught exponential and logarithmic functions with the use of GeoGebra from 19 August 2019 to 30 October 2019. Before the intervention, a short group discussion with Grade 11 students was conducted to see the students’ attitudes about learning mathematics using ICT tools. Besides, a mathematics teacher was asked a challenging topic to teach within conventional classroom. After learning with the use of GeoGebra, an attitudinal survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data about the effectiveness of GeoGebra in learning mathematics. Data were analyzed descriptively using Excel 2016. It was found that students acquired more knowledge. The study showed that students can learn independently through interactive dynamic software. The results, therefore, showed that students’ interest to learn mathematics increased. There is a need to strengthen one laptop per student program to enhance students’ independent learning of mathematics

Kinematic numerators from the worldsheet: cubic trees from labelled trees

In this note we revisit the problem of explicitly computing tree-level scattering amplitudes in various theories in any dimension from worldsheet formulas. The latter are known to produce cubic-tree expansion of tree amplitudes with kinematic numerators automatically satisfying Jacobi-identities, once any half-integrand on the worldsheet is reduced to logarithmic functions. We review a natural class of worldsheet functions called “Cayley functions”, which are in one-to-one correspondence with labelled trees, and natural expansions of known half-integrands onto them with coefficients that are particularly compact building blocks of kinematic numerators. We present a general formula expressing kinematic numerators of all cubic trees as linear combinations of coefficients of labelled trees, which satisfy Jacobi identities by construction and include the usual combinations in terms of master numerators as a special case. Our results provide an efficient algorithm, which is implemented in a Mathematica package, for computing all tree amplitudes in theories including non-linear sigma model, special Galileon, Yang-Mills-scalar, Einstein-Yang-Mills and Dirac-Born-Infeld.

Analysis of a criterial examination of integral calculus: the case of a public university of Mexico

This research analyzes the quality and results of a criterial and large-scale comprehensive calculus test in the school cycles between 2014 and 2019 to a total of 5367 second-semester students of the engineering careers of a mexican public university. With the results obtained it is observed that the criterial examination of integral calculus is a valid, reliable test with satisfactory power of discrimination and with a majority load of procedural reagents. The results of the research show that the greatest difficulty for students is focused on integration techniques, especially when trigonometric functions are involved. It was also found that the success of students in the ECCI is due to the ability to resolve integrals with hyperbolic, exponential and logarithmic functions, as well as the proper application of the fundamental theorem of calculus and the technique of variable change.

DEFINITE INTEGRAL OF LOGARITHMIC FUNCTIONS AND POWERS IN TERMS OF THE LERCH FUNCTION

A family of generalized definite logarithmic integrals given by $$\int_{0}^{1}\frac{\left(x^{ i m} (\log (a)+i \log (x))^k+x^{-i m} (\log (a)-i \log (x))^k\right)}{(x+1)^2}dx$$built over the Lerch function has its analytic properties and special values listed in explicit detail. We use the general method as given in [6] to derive this integral. We then give a number of examples that can be derived from the general integral in terms of well known functions.

Definite Integral of Logarithmic Functions in Terms of the Incomplete Gamma Function

In this article we derive some entries and errata for the book of Gradshteyn and Ryzhik which were originally published by Bierens de Haan. We summarize our results using tables for easy reading and referencing.