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Elaboration of a contextualized event for teaching eigenvalues and eigenvectors in the control and automation engineering course

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Mathematics Division (MATH) Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

Mathematics Division (MATH)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43254

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43254

Download Count

181

Paper Authors

biography

Juliana Martins Philot Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia - Brazil

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I hold a B.A. in Mathematics from Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho - UNESP (2007), a M.Sc. in Mathematics from Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho - UNESP (2010) and a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo - PUC-SP (2022). I have experience in Mathematics Teaching for Engineering courses since 2009 and currently I am a professor at Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia (IMT). I am interested in research areas related to Teaching and Learning of Mathematics for Engineering courses.

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Barbara Lutaif Bianchini Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo - Brasil

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Barbara Lutaif Bianchini holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC/SP), a MSc in Mathematics Education from PUC/SP and a PhD in Education (Psychology of Education) from PUC/SP. Associate Professor of the Graduate Studies Program in Mathematics Education at PUC/SP, leader of the Algebraic Education Research Group and member of the research group Mathematics in Professional Training.

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Eloiza Gomes Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia - Brazil

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PhD in Mathematics Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in 2015. I Had been teaching Mathematics to Engineering students at Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia since 1989. Researcher with interest in Mathematics for engineering students.

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Gabriel Loureiro de Lima Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo - Brasil

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Gabriel Loureiro de Lima holds a bachelor’s and a MSc degree in Mathematics from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), and a PhD in Mathematics Education from PUC/SP. Professor of the Graduate Studies Program in Mathematics Education at PUC/SP. Leader of the research
group Mathematics in Professional Training and member of the Algebraic
Education Research Group.

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biography

Octavio Mattasoglio Neto Neto Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7812-8491

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Undergraduate in Physics (1983), master in Science (1989) and phd at Education (1998) all of them from Universidade de São Paulo. Professor of Physics at Mauá Institute of Technology, since 1994 and President of Teacher's Academy of the same Institute,

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Abstract

Research shows that engineering students have reported difficulties in understanding mathematics and applying it in the specific subjects of their courses, mainly due to the lack of connection between the mathematical content covered in the early years and the subjects covered during the courses. Similarly to this research, other studies mention the need to reconsider and restructure the mathematics subjects taught in engineering courses so that there are links between the areas, developing multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary activities, using, for example, the active methodologies, software, and relating practice with theory. Considering these points, the purpose of this article is to show which were the investigations that originated the necessary subsidies for the elaboration of a Contextualized Event, which, according to the Theory of Mathematics in the Context of Science, are problems or projects with the purpose of integrating mathematical contents with the specific ones of the course in which it is being acted upon, to teach eigenvalues and eigenvectors in Control and Automation Engineering courses. These investigations were based on the precepts of the curricular and epistemological phases of the theory mentioned before, since it aims to link mathematics to other disciplines that use it as a tool and to situations in the daily life of the professional being trained. These investigations consisted of curriculum analysis of the Engineering courses, interviews with professors of specific disciplines of the Engineering courses, analysis of didactic material (books, handouts and classes). After the investigations and the realization of the subsidies, a Contextualized Event was elaborated with the objective of teaching the eigenvalue and eigenvector contents through the study of the Covid-19 disease propagation using the SIR (Susceptible, Infected and Recovered) model and investigating the dynamics and stability of this model. This intervention was developed with the intention of motivating the second year students of the Control and Automation Engineering course to understand the link between the eigenvalue and eigenvector contents with the Control Systems II subject taught in the last year of the Control and Automation course, and also to engage them with a meaningful social context. During the work with the students that participated in this intervention it can be observed that they felt more motivated and also realized the importance of learning concepts studied in the initial years of the Engineering courses and that they could notice the involvement of mathematical content in contextualized problems in their area using an issue of daily life. It is expected that Contextualized Events structured this way may help students to link the mathematical knowledge acquired in other contexts of their education or even their professional life, helping them to have a holistic education as it is employed in the Brazilian National Curriculum Guidelines of Engineering courses and also provide students a more significant learning, once they have a better understanding of where and how the mathematical content being addressed is used.

Philot, J. M., & Bianchini, B. L., & Gomes, E., & Lima, G. L. D., & Mattasoglio Neto, O. (2023, June), Elaboration of a contextualized event for teaching eigenvalues and eigenvectors in the control and automation engineering course Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43254

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