The use of nonstandard problems in an ODE course for engineering students

We report on the design and use of 'nonstandard' problems in an ordinary differential equations (OD Es) course for engineering students. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the development of students' mathematical discourse and conceptual un­derstanding of Existence and Uniqueness Theorems (EUT5i) from a commognitive theory perspective. Our analysis so far shows how students use familiar mathematical routines in new situations furthering their knowledge and understanding. Nonstandard problems have been a useful tool to gain insights into students' learning of mathe­matics.