A inserção da ideia intuitiva de infinitesimal no ensino médio a partir de sua construção histórica

Abstract

The Brazilian educational scenario has been challenging for mathematics teaching. Eva-luations show a gap between the prescribed content and student learning in mathema-tics, which brings consequences for those who enter college. Considering this challenging reality, the present research presents an alternative to the introduction of the idea of in-finitesimal in the teaching of mathematics in basic education and points out ways that can support and expand the knowledge of high school students. The development of the research is based on a bibliographic analysis of the history of intuitive ideas until the 17th century, the fundamental problems of Calculus and the methodological resources for teaching the area in question. Having as a reference the Common National Curricular Base, we try to contribute to the search for a viable approach to introduce the idea of infinitesimal in basic education. We propose activities related to this historical research for use inserted in the contents of high school. The research allowed us to know the genesis of the concepts that are part of a traditional Calculus course and to develop activities inserted in the mathematics contents of high school.