Computer-based materials will be created to enable high school students to develop specific concepts in advanced mathematics and trigonometry through guided exploration of sound and hearing. The novelty of this approach lies in its integration of science and mathematics to promote active, situated learning and in its use of computer-generated manipulatives to foster the development of physical intuition as a precursor to mathematical abstraction. Computer generated sound waves are audible and displayed graphically and as an equation. Changing the either the sound or the graph or the equation will produce appropriate changes in the other representations. Operations are performed on the waves in various "rooms", so that waves van be manipulated, added, multiplied, etc. Mathematics of trigonometry, vector addition, logarithmic behavior and Fourier series can be studied. The materials will be field tested in area high schools and used in preservice and inservice teacher education projects under a subcontract with UC Irvine.
