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Monday, December 19, 2016

"Undoing" the Chain Rule- Intro to Integration by U Substitution

This year I've revised how I'm going to introduce u substitution to my Calculus kiddos. It's an intimidating topic the first year teaching the course, knowing that it's an area in which students can sometimes struggle. Take 2 and I'm much more ready to let my kids do the directing. I'm using the chart below as a discovery activity for students to being to piece together the pieces (u and du) that will be integral to our future study:


After that, we're doing the following activity to practice identifying useful u's and du's. I know I got this activity from somewhere, but can't for the life of me remember where. If you know where it originated, please let me know! 

My kids are taking a quiz next class on basic integration and we'll start u sub as our send off to winter break. Do you have any ways that you love introducing u subs? Any tips or tricks from years of experience I'm in the process of acquiring? 

Happy Monday! 

3 comments:

  1. This is a great FREE activity from Teachers Pay Teachers. I've used it for several years in my classes (although I tweaked the directions a bit). Kids really enjoy it and get a lot out of it. A few of the questions are really challenging. :-)

    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/AP-Calculus-Integration-by-Substitution-Four-Colors-Activity-455855

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  2. Another fun one is this "Zombie Attack" game-- good practice, good fun.
    http://mrscookkhs.blogspot.com/2014/03/zombie-attack-integration-using-u.html

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