I had a discussion last year about what the AP Calc teacher finds that he wishes the incoming students understood better. Among the topics he suggested was domain and range. Traditionally we do inequality form in Algebra 1 - Precalc, but in Calculus he needs the students to understand interval notation. Now I was better versed with Set Builder notation, but he said he preferred interval notation. (which I now admit that at the time I knew nothing about;-)
Last year I discovered that the students I had (and I started teaching the class late due to a teacher leaving) found domain and range confusing no matter the notation I asked them to use. This year I decided to do better and I wanted to get right into interval notation. So, I came up with a simple 3-window foldable.
First window is the definitions of Domain and Range. DIX ROY and the definitions of discrete and continuous in relation to domain and range.
Second window is primarily for (what they have seen before) Inequality Notation. It also includes when an open dot is used versus a closed dot and an example is given with the domain and range given using Inequality Notation
The Third window is for Interval Notation. Here we defined when parentheses are used as opposed to brackets. Another example is given with the domain and range in interval notation this time. (I think this window is a little sparse and would like any suggestions anyone has)
We did it by hand this first time, but I have now made a handout version to clean things up and make student copies more uniform (which should eliminate some of the errors I saw).
This was a success I would say, because I saw many students using their foldable over the next week+ until they didn't need it anymore.
Below you can see a student's hand-made foldable. I will add my new typed version for Made 4 Math Monday this next week Foldable inside
