This activity is designed to help students gain 3D visual intuition for the meaning of the first and second partial derivatives of a function of two variables.  We taught students about the geometric meaning of these partials before having them complete this activity.

View PDF for student activity: Partial_Derivatives_Activity-v5.pdf

Download Microsoft Word version: Partial_Derivatives_Activity.docx

View Instructor Notes: Partial_Derivatives_Activity Instructor Notes

Files for the 3 mountainous surfaces used in this activity (and in the activity for contour plots):

Click here to download the STL files for the three corresponding mountainous surfaces as a .zip file:
  Download the Mountains-SeparateSTLfiles .zip file

Click here to download the Cura .3mf files for the three corresponding mountainous surfaces as a .zip file:
  Download the Mountains-3mf-CuraFiles .zip file