The DYME project: Developing Students' Thinking of Dynamic Measurement

Dr. Panorkou's design study is exploring a dynamic approach to teaching and learning measurement, which seems to be a promising approach to developing conceptual images of area and volume formulas. Dynamic measurement (DYME) involves engaging students in dynamic experiences of generating 2D surfaces and 3D shapes by iteratively composing lower-dimensional objects. A dynamic way to visualize the meaning of the area of a rectangle, for example, is to view it as a 'sweep' of a line segment of length a over a distance of b to produce area ab. Likewise, the volume of 3D figures can be visualized as sweeps of area over some distance. DYME points to the significance of dimension in defining and measuring objects in ways that resonate with concepts underlying the definite integral of differential calculus. The project is exploring a) the nature of tasks and tools that may be used for developing students' DYME reasoning, b) the forms of DYME reasoning that can be seen to develop as students engage with these tasks, c) how students' DYME thinking may support the development of meanings for the area and volume formulas, and d) how DYME can be integrated into the existing teaching and learning of measurement.,