The Research On Aiding Conic Teaching With Geometer’s Sketchpad

With the application of modern information technologies, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) has a profound effect on learning and teaching mathematics. As is stated in The Mathematics Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools Education in China (Trial Version), mathematics education should be integrated with computer technologies in order to illustrate the teaching content which was ever hard to present.As a major part of mathematics curriculum in senior high school, the definition and properties of conics comprise both the important and difficult points of the teaching content. On one hand, their conceptual similarity and considerable abstractness result in the fear of difficulties for high school students. On the other hand, the definition and properties of conics challenge the students whose cognitive level is transiting from visual thinking to abstract thinking. Therefore, dynamic mathematical software is widely used in mathematics education due to their advantages in visualization visualized and dynamic presentation. Due to its capability in visualizing the hidden rules and characteristics, the application of CAI software called Geometer’s Sketchpad to the teaching of conics is deemed as one of the most effective ways of mathematics education due to its capability in visualizing the hidden rules and characteristics.Our study is explored from the perspectives of theory and practice.In terms of theoretical exploration, the characteristics and functions of the Geometer’s Sketchpad are reviewed. Next, based on the learning theory of Multiple-Representations we discuss the principles of CAI in senior high school educations, including The Principle of Information Packaging, The Locality Principle in time, The Locality Principle in space, and the Consistency Principle. According to the principles mentioned above, we design some cases of integral wares for teaching conics, which are selected from the important and difficult points which call for CAI teaching. The integral wares are designed from aspects of teaching analysis, manufacture creation process, and basic principles and application.In practice, the case of integral ware is applied in the research on teaching practice. We examine and analyze the practical effects of teaching conies aided by the Geometer’s Sketchpad (Version 5.06) in teaching conies. Teaching experiments are conducted as the major research methodology, and with results detection as the supplementary approach. Overall, we try to apply combine modern information technologies to with teaching conies in senior high school organized way. It is hopeful expected that our study provides insightful practical instruction for mathematics teaching education.