Chapter 2 – Sequences and Recursion
Activities – Chapter 2
Activity 2a – Recursion and Abstraction
This activity encourages students to look for patterns and to describe a step-by-step procedure. This description should be done in words, and can also be used as an introduction to the mathematically notation for sequences. Students are asked to put results in a table, and may also be able to express formulas. Depending on the students’ familiarity with equations of lines, they may be adapt at writing explicit formulas. If so, students should be encouraged to learn how to express formulas recursively, and writing recursive formulas is a good outcome even for students that are unable to write the explicit formula.
Activity 2b – Arithmetic Sequences
This activity builds the fundamentals of arithmetic sequences by finding missing terms and then slowly abstracting the process. Explicit formulas are found and the connection between the explicit formula and the slope-intercept form of a line is emphasized.
Activity 2c – Geometric Sequences
This activity builds the fundamentals of geometric sequences by finding missing terms and then slowly abstracting the process. Explicit and recursive formulas are found.
