The study of calculus plays an important role when it is necessary to quantify or measure any phenomenon. However, in general, in the educational system, formal construction processes and algorithmic aspects have been prioritized. Seeking to answer this problem, an investigation addressing the study of the derivative was started. The work was framed from the perspective of Variational Thought and Language, which studies the relationship between research and social practices that rules the mathematics of change and variation in educational systems. In a didactic engineering context, a sequence was designed and presented in a Mathematics II class attended by Agricultural Engineering students. The activities made it possible to analyse different scenarios of variation (which magnitudes change, how and how much they change), characterize variations between magnitudes, through the calculation of rates of change, and explore how the slope of a curve is related to the rate of change. Its presentation from different representations contributes to the development of one of the cognitive processes involved in mathematical thinking: visualization. In this article, the theoretical and methodological aspects that support the design of the sequence are briefly described, and some results of its implementation from the observation of the activities developed by the students are presented. The proposal managed to motivate students. The discussion of the results will contribute to the optimization of the sequence.
Variational Thinking; Derivative; Teaching; Learning