Recitation 7

Recitation 7 (Interpreting the Derivative)

Objectives:

• Students will be able to interpret the derivative of a function in real-world terms using units.

Lesson Plan

• [ (5 minutes)] Welcome the class to recitation. Ask students if they have filled in the notes section of the packet. Tell students that they should be filling in the notes section before coming to recitation.

• [ (10 minutes)] Have students do Problem 1. Units are really important here and you should emphasize to students that units are a powerful tool for making sense of the derivative. The Table method may be something you are unfamiliar with. To use the table method you want to form a table of $\frac{f(x_h)-f(x)}{h}$ values for smaller and smaller $h$.

• [ (15 minutes)] Have students do problems 2-5, Reiterate that students will need to have the table of increasing, decreasing etc. committed to memory. However, they don't have to memorize the table, they just need to be able to recreate the ideas in the table.

• [ (5 minutes)] Go over problem 5 with your entire recitation.

• [ (10 minutes)] Have students do problem 6-8.

• [ (15 minutes)] Have students do problem 9. This is a hard problem, and not all parts are always possible on an unrestricted domain. Work with students and encourage students to share their answers and double check their neighbors answers.

• [ (10 minutes)] Have students do problem 10.

• [ (10 minutes)] Use remaining time to have students do problem 11 and then share their answers with the rest of the class.