Integration using chocolate
Charlotte Fonseca of Year 11 who is in the accelerated class studying Year 12 Mathematics a year ahead of time, writes about applying the concept of integration in real life:
The concept of integration allows us to understand and solve problems involving area and volumes of unique shapes and solids. This can be applied to real life, as many engineers and designers require this type of information in exact values. However, as high school students, it is difficult for us to gain an understanding of how the problems in our workbook relate to real-life issues. Hence, this activity allowed us to implement our newly learned skills in a hands-on investigation. In Mrs Stirling’s class, we were required to measure a chocolate egg and apply this data to determine its volume. The activity allowed us to incorporate additional skills, such as using the equation of an ellipse, and applying it to the discovered information. From this, we were able to establish the volume of the egg, providing it were a solid. To conclude the lesson, we extended ourselves to investigate the volume of the hollow egg. Thankfully, our chocolate eggs enabled us to understand the problem visually. This experience gave us both an appreciation of how integration is applied in real life and a delicious chocolate!
