Introduction to differentiation and finding the gradient of a curve

The presentation and accompanying worksheet introduces the topic of differentiation by considering the gradients of progressively smaller chords that are used to estimate the gradient of the curve/tangent at the point. Students use this method to find the gradient at some points on the y=x^2 curve and then on the y=x^3 curve - from these results they should be able to guess at generalising the method for differentiating x^n and then ax^n. This presentation and worksheet take a while to work through so this may take up a whole lesson.

The worksheet starts by reminding students how to differentiate and what dy/dx represents. In section A there are 18 examples of finding dy/dx to work through as a class, and then 30 questions for students to complete on their own. In section B there are a few examples of finding the gradient of a curve at a given point (to do as a class), then 10 questions for students to complete on their own. All answers are provided for the students' questions.

Note that this resource was designed specifically for the Level 2 Further Maths qualification, so only covers differentiating functions with positive integer powers such as y=5x^3-4x+2, but can still be used an introduction to differentiation in general.