Toy Car (Calcul différentiel)

nom de cours/ name of the course :    Calcul différentiel

ton nom / your name : Véronique

nom de l'activité/ name of the activity : Find the speed of the toy car depuis combien de

temps cette activite existe-t-elle/  how long has this activity been in use: 4 years

la durée de l'activité / duration of the activity: 30 min to an hour depending on groups

description de l'activité / description of the activity: I draw a big arrow on the board, then I push a toy car on the little shelf at the bottom of the board. The car passes in front of the arrow and stops somewhere close to the end of the board. There are measuring tapes at the front of the class. I tell them that in X minutes I will push the car again, and I will them ask them to tell me the speed of the car as it passes in front of the arrow. They decide what measurements to make. Then I push the car, they measure their thing, we share answers. They have usually measured the average speed of the car. We discuss how it's not what we want. So they try again. We do the "experiment" a few times and discuss. Eventually they "discover" the definition of the derivative.

l'objectif de l'activité / the goal of the activity: Learning the definition of the derivative, learning the meaning of the derivative, learning about the difference between average speed and instant speed.