Abstract:

As a long-time teacher, I am aware that not only recently there has been a growing disconnect between the interests of teachers and their students in mathematics education. Teachers, who have a much greater grasp of the subject, want to explain to their students the themes in its entirety and with all its theoretical connections. Some students who have a practical interest in studying are not content with a purely theoretical view but have a slightly different perspective on the topic. They see the problems in terms of how they will use it in practise, how they will put it in the context of the important issues of the time, for example, the wider context of environmental problems, global warming, and the energy crisis. This article is an attempt to incorporate global and timeless issues into mathematics education and to seek sustainable features of mathematics education. An important topic in applied mathematics will be discussed, the extremes of functions search, in this case in order to emissions reducing. All examples will be solved using applied mathematics algorithms, will be accompanied by a Matlab script, and will also be presented graphically. All of the applications presented have been used in teaching mathematics at the Faculty of Transport Engineering, University of Pardubice, and can be an inspiration for teaching at other universities with the same or similar focus.

Keywords:

Optimization, Extremes of functions, Emission reduction, Applied mathematics, Matlab.