The Cartesian plane in fifth grade students: Its re-signification on a specific situation

Abstract

We report the results of a research on the re-signification of the Cartesian plane in a group of fifth-grade students of a Chilean school. The corresponding mathematical school discourse lacks meaningful teaching situations to introduce and to understand the use of that plane, and rather fosters a prescribed mathematics, that you do not need to build. That re-signification was evidenced through the design of a specific situation promoting the need of building the Cartesian plane. In the arguments and discussion held, the group evidenced building orthogonal axes, and the notions of distance, origin, and location of points considering rectangular coordinates.