One-sided limits of a function at a point in a drug metabolism context as explained by non-compulsory secondary students

Abstract

We present the results of an exploratory and descriptive study performed with Spanish students in Non- Compulsory Secondary Education focusing on how they explain the meaning of both one-sided limits within a temporal phenomenon (drug metabolism) given by a graphical non-authentic model. We organised the given explanations according to the following options: Only calculation; interpretation in a neighbourhood (locally); meaning of the value (pointwise); direction of approaching in time with regard to right-sided limit. We also highlight a particular attention to other elements of the model apart from limiting notions and some difficulty to give sense to right-sided limit, possibly because the direction of approximation is contrary to the natural progression of time.