The Modernity of the Meraner Lehrplan for Teaching Geometry Today in Grades 10–11: Exploiting the Power of Dynamic Geometry Systems

Abstract

In 1905, at the meeting of the Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung in Meran, the “Meraner Lehrplan,” a mathematics syllabus, was proposed. This docu- ment, which contains many of Felix Klein’s ideas on teaching geometry in school, proposed approaching geometry via intuitive geometry, which is the ability to see in space, in order to provide elements for both interpreting the realworld and developing logical skills (see Treutlein in Der geometrische anschauungsunterricht als unterstufe eines zweistufigen geometrischen unterrichtes an unseren höheren schulen. Teubner, Leipzig/Berlin 1911). Klein’s ideas still hold today: An intuitive approach to geome- try can be facilitated using information technology. Some activities related to a space geometry approach based on the analogy among figures and on the use of a dynamic geometry system will be presented in this chapter.