| The Profi project aims to develop and test a new national mathetmatics course for students with an interest in the physical sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics) in the last two years of pre-university education. The principle we have adopted for this new course is that the material should pay attention to modeling, abstraction and reasoning in a balanced way. In its first phase the Profi project has produced eight booklets on calculus and four on geometry. Some of the striking features of these books include the integrated and didactic use of IT (from graphic calculator to Cabri), the use of contexts from the physical sciences, the references to the history of mathematics and the build-up from discrete to continuous concepts. In the geometry series there is a surprising interweaving of modern applications (Voronoi diagrams) with classic subjects (theory of cyclic quadrangles, conics). In these classic subjects a lot of attention is paid to the process of obtaining a proof and the heuristics thereof. In the second phase of the Profi project, the emphasis is on the development of more or less open research tasks for small groups of students. IT also plays an important role in this part of the program. It is the intention that students finish off their research tasks by writing a report or giving a (verbal) presentation. |
