Introduction to integral calculus at high school through calculating area and volume with spreadsheets

Abstract

This paper gives an account of an experiment in which 33 high school students of age 16–19 acquired the principles of the integral calculus through applying the rectangle method in spreadsheet to calculate the area of a planar figure bounded by the graph of a function and the volume of a body created by the rotation of the graph. A questionnaire survey was carried out to find out whether the students found the lesson interesting, contributing to their mathematical and technological knowledge and motivating to continue with more complicated tasks.

Keywords:

• excel
• numeric modelling
• rectangle method
• definite integral

Acknowledgements

I thank Mgr. Alžbeta Danielová, the headmistress of Gymnázium Šurany, for her kind permission to carry out the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The applications are free at https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbuxcq14r0zacec/benacka_area_volume. xlsx?dl=0 and https://www.dropbox.com/s/fp30xbvw4eebex2/benacka_area_volume_divided. xlsx?dl=0