Spreadsheets in Education (Apr 2015)
A Romberg Integral Spreadsheet Calculator
Abstract
Motivated by the work of Richardson’s extrapolation spreadsheet calculator up to level 4 to approximate definite differentiation, we have developed a Romberg integral spreadsheet calculator to approximate definite integral. The main feature of this version of spreadsheet calculator is a friendly graphical user interface developed to capture the needed information to solve the integral by Romberg method. Users simply need to enter the variable in the integral, function to be integrated, lower and upper limits of the integral, select the desired accuracy of computation, select the exact function if it exists and lastly click the Compute button which is associated with VBA programming written to compute Romberg integral table. The full solution of the Romberg integral table up to any level can be obtained quickly and easily using this method. The attached spreadsheet calculator together with this paper helps educators to prepare their marking scheme easily and assist students in checking their answers instead of reconstructing the answers from scratch. A summative evaluation of this Romberg Spreadsheet Calculator has been conducted by involving 36 students as sample. The data was collected using questionnaire. The findings showed that the majority of the students agreed that the Romberg Spreadsheet Calculator provides a structured learning environment that allows learners to be guided through a step-by-step solution.
