THE MATHEMATICS OF URBAN TRAILS FROM THE TAXIST GEOMETRY: AN INVESTIGATION THROUGH GOOGLE MAPS
Geometry Taxi. Geometry teaching. Non-Euclidean geometry
This work results from a research carried out during the professional master's degree of the Postgraduate Program in Teaching Natural Sciences and Mathematics (PPGCENM) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The present research aims to discuss possibilities to work in Taxi Driver Geometry in the classroom, a non-Euclidean Geometry that adapts very well to the urban environment, through activities that use Google Maps to simulate and analyze urban routes. We also discussed the use of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICT) in Mathematics classroom, both for teaching mathematical content, and also as a way of promoting citizenship. As required by the professional master's degree, we developed an educational product - a didactic sequence - that allows teachers to approach Geometry Taxi through the analysis and simulation of urban displacements through Google Maps. The educational product developed was applied in a state school, with a third grade class in High School, which allowed us to test and analyze the activities we developed. Data collection occurred through written and audio records collected during the didactic sequence application. Data preliminary analysis indicates that the use of Euclidean Geometry concepts in Taxi Geometry allows students to understand better the concepts that were studied, and also indicates that simulations carried out allowed students to have a meaningful learning. The following question guided our research: how to approach Taxi Geometry in the Mathematics classroom, based on the analysis of urban routes using Google Maps?
|