Mathematical modeling in an undergraduate course: problems of a process

Abstract

The present work arose from two hypotheses about the difficulties that Mathematics-Licentiate scholars would encounter to work with Mathematical Modeling; this is, therefore, the result of a research developed with academics of the last semester of the course during the first classes of Modeling Mathematics. The objective was to verify how academics would produce models to solve activities involving notable products and analyze the difficulty in observing second order regularities and state the observed pattern, although such objectives are also expressed in hypothesis form. It was based on the theory of obstacles (both epistemological and didactic), and it was concluded that the ability to observe regularity and model formulas is not developed at this level of education.