Instrumental genesis: a study of the instrumentalization of the geometrical condition of the ellipse

Abstract

We present a research dealing with the instrumentalization processes of the geometric condition of the ellipse. In this research we developed activities aimed with architecture students at a private university in Lima. As a methodological basis we used aspects of didactic engineering and to analyze the activities developed by students, we used the Instrumental Approach. Actions showed by students allowed identifying possible schemes of utilization which were built and mobilized progressively while interacting with the ellipse device. In this paper we show a sequence of activities that allows observation of the emergence of the geometric condition of the ellipse as a means for understanding other properties of this mathematical object.