Graphing Sines and Cosines

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Graphing Sines and Cosines

• By
• Dan Penner

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My name is Daniel Penner. I teach at Enterprise
High School in Redding California. My lesson is
for a Trig-Pre-calculus class. This class is
predominantly a junior and senior level class.
In my lesson the students will start to become
familiar with the basic shape and properties of
sine and cosine waves.
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Graphing Sines and Cosines

• Students spent some time viewing applets getting
  familiar with the patterns of these basic
  trigonometry graphs.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines
Expectations

• In taking this class I was hoping to learn how to
  quickly create lessons that students can access
  from home. Specifically this would be a tool for
  me to become more engaging in my instruction, but
  also more organized. As a significant byproduct
  students that miss class would be able to catch
  up more easily.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines
Outcomes

• I actually learned a great deal in this class.
  The type of page we designed was actually quite
  easy.
• How to create links
• How to set targets
• How to find many interesting gifs.
• How much of a time vacuum this process is.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines
successes

• Overall I felt that the project was successful.
  Many students seem naturally drawn to anything
  that utilizes technology, so using the Internet
  as an instructional tool helps to make learning
  more engaging. I think that in the future to
  make this lesson work better I need to have
  students working in a lab environment and I also
  need to have many more lessons in a similar
  format so that they are used to this style of
  teaching.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines success

• Students experienced math in a new format.
• Students learned that the Internet is a valuable
  tool for learning mathematics.
• Students could use site to help study for their
  exam.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines failure

• Students needed better computer access.
• It took a fair bit of time.

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Graphing Sines and Cosines Data
The chart reflects each students growth in their
understanding of the topics covered. Most
students showed marked improvement. (Granted
most had no previous experience with this topic.)
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Graphing Sines and Cosines Revisions

• Students did not have sufficient individual
  access to computers.
• The lesson took a significant amount of time.
• I had to link to other sites. I would like my
  site to be self sufficient.

• I plan to cover this lesson in the future in a
  lab.
• I will be more patient. Sometimes good things
  take time.
• I plan to learn how to impart Java applets into
  web pages.