torquetum | Vectors - Barniol and Zavala, 2016

Barniol, P., & Zavala, G. (2016). A tutorial worksheet to help students develop the ability to interpret the dot product as a projection. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 12(9), 2387-2398.

Following their earlier work (2013, 2014) on determining frequent errors in vector problems, the authors developed a tutorial carefully designed to address the conceptual difficulties students experience with vector projections. The tutorial is presented in an Appendix to the paper. It consists of six sections, requiring the students to determine projections geometrically as well as using the mod(A)mod(B)cos(theta) definition, using a range of theta values. The final section of the tutorial explicitly addresses the observed confusion students experience between the scalar product and vector addition. The paper closes with an open invitation to teachers to use their tutorial. I am tempted to do just that.

Do not treat this blog entry as a replacement for reading the paper. This blog post represents the understanding and opinions of Torquetum only and could contain errors, misunderstandings or subjective views.