Play Dough and Tangent Planes

Using Play Dough to Explore Tangent Planes

Students discuss the concept of tangent lines and planes using play dough and tooth picks in a Calculus 3 class. They grapple with the idea how the tangent plane changes for different points on the surface.

The class had 25 students and met two times a week for 75 minutes each and one time for 50 minutes.

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