Calculus Teaching Based on Steam Education Philosophy Taking the Teaching of Limit Concept as an Example

STEAM education philosophy is based on mathematics. It is particularly important to promote and develop STEAM education philosophy through the wide application of mathematics. Calculus is an important course offered by university. With the implementation of popular education, the level of college students is uneven and the problems in calculus teaching are increasingly prominent. Taking the teaching of limit concept as an example, many college students can carry out limit operation, but they do not understand the philosophy contained in the limit concept and they can’t innovate the application of limit. Therefore, it is the key to teaching reform to find the cognitive difficulties of students in the concept of limit. Using Geogebra as teaching tool, the mathematics culture and mathematics history are integrated into the teaching design, so that students can experience the fun of mathematics course and feel the application value of interdisciplinary. In this study, questionnaire survey, interview and experimental comparison are used to study the teaching practice by 2 teachers and 80 freshmen. The result shows that teaching content integrating into the history of mathematics and mathematics culture, teaching with Geogebra improves the students' enthusiasm, their learning achievement and promotes the professional development of teachers. The following conclusions are drawn: 1. The understanding of limit concept is one-sided, some even wrong. 2. Based on STEAM education philosophy, new teaching design can improve students' 4 learning stages based on APOS theory and then cultivate students' habit of lifelong learning. 3. The teaching design based on STEAM education philosophy can promote the professional development of teachers.