Cálculo de volúmenes de sólidos de revolución, mediante modelación matemática para mejorar el aprendizaje de estudiantes de la Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Facultad de Mecánica, periodo abril-septiembre 2021.

Abstract

The objective of this research work was to calculate the volume of solids of revolution through mathematical modeling, in order to improve the learning of students at the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Faculty of Mechanics, from April to September 2021. Considering that integral calculus and its applications represent one of the main perception challenges for engineering students, a survey was conducted with a quasi-experimental design involving a group of 172 students, where the existing difficulty in solving problems related to this topic was determined. The results obtained demonstrated the situation in which the students found themselves: the combined percentage of those students who considered their level of understanding regarding volume calculation as satisfactory and very satisfactory was 47.5%. Despite 55.9% of the total respondents stating that they frequently use technological tools, only 27.1% actually employ them. Furthermore, 72.9% mentioned that they do not have any tools that facilitate this calculation, and 54.2% indicated that the most problematic aspect is the 3D graphical visualization. The analysis of survey results allowed the development of a learning proposal, and an application in MATLAB was designed for calculating volumes of revolution through mathematical modeling. After implementing the software, it was evident that 84.7% of the students considered that their level of understanding in the subject of calculus had improved, and they found the presented interface satisfactory and very useful, resulting in a 95% acceptance rate. It is recommended to have a knowledge base on the calculation of volumes of revolution so that when implementing the program, students can use it properly and enhance their understanding of this topic.