Derivative Dance by Dave Reid Willow Glen High School
Bursting onto the scene during my 3rd period AP Calculus class today, my inner choreographer connected aspects of differentiation in a unique and memorable way.
An encore presentation followed during 4th period. Students seemed to enjoy my moves. More importantly, they left class with a high-level understanding
of how the graph of a function and the graphs of its derivatives relate to one other.
To what do I owe this burst of inspiration? In a phrase, "Oppan Gangnam style."
While two weeks ago I could not tell you what that phrase meant, I now not only know, but thanks to our school's dance team director, an ed school classmate of mine, I can
dance like PSY. Yesterday, during our homecoming week rally, the dance team, a few dozen more students, and twenty or so teachers, including yours truly, danced
to Gangnam Style. Several students and the principal complimented me on showing my moves on the gym floor. Thankfully, the dance took all of two minutes
and is now history. Setting the stage for today, the moves from yesterday unleashed the creative side of a near fifty-year old enabling my calculus choreography to emerge.
I doubt I will find several dozen students to do my derivative dance at the next rally, even though I bet a few of my students are game. However, it's a nice
discussion topic for the next AP professional development session.
The following images illustrate Mr. Math Teacher's "Derivative Dance." Using an online animation tool, I have code I can embed at some point that brings to
life the following shots. Until then, while gazing at the stick figures and listening to PSY get his Gangnam groove on, imagine a calculus teacher using
these moves to show his students how derivatives of functions relate to one another.
