Proof Writing Across the Curriculum
Presented at:
ABSTRACT:
The practice of proof writing is too often restricted to rigid two-column format and limited to the one-year experience know as upper school geometry. In this session I will make a case for teaching proof writing, the composing and presenting of convincing mathematical arguments, in a variety of formats across the mathematics curriculum. Then I will present the following series of proofs/mathematical arguments accessible to middle and upper school students: deriving the formula for the area of a circle; proving the infinitude of primes; two proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem; proving the irrationality of the square root of two; visualizing the derivation of the quadratic formula; and proving the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
TAGS:
Mathematics Teaching Upper School
Andrew Elizalde earned a B.A. degree at Depauw University where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa
and Magna Cum Laude, earned a mathematics major, physics minor, and religious studies minor, and received the H.E.H. Greenleaf Award as the most outstanding graduate of the school’s mathematics program. His teaching experience includes work in both public and private schools as well as private tutoring in subjects ranging from elementary mathematics to advanced calculus and physics. Andrew is currently Dean of Academics, at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, Texas. Andrew also regularly offers consulting services to Classical schools. Andrew and his wife, Brooke, have three daughters.
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