December 2016, Vol. 110, Issue 5
Investigating Functions with a Ferris Wheel
Heather Lynn Johnson, Peter Hornbein, and Sumbal Azeem
A computer activity helps students make sense of relationships between quantities.
What might students think when they hear the term function? A “machine” that takes in inputs and spits out outputs? Perhaps a symbol string, such as f(x) = x2 + 1? A graph shaped like a U? Going further, what might students think when they hear that one quantity is a function of another quantity? For example, how might students interpret a statement such as “height is a function of distance”?