Lesson Plan: Critical Points and Local Extrema of a Function Mathematics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to find critical points of a function and check for local extrema using the first derivative test.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recall the definition of a critical point of a function,
- find the critical points of a function,
- understand that critical points can be classified as minima, maxima, and points of inflection,
- classify a critical point as a local minimum or maximum using the first derivative test.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- differentiation (including the chain, product, and quotient rules),
- the concept of continuity (not necessarily the formal definition).
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- absolute extrema,
- infimum and supremum,
- second derivatives.