My Comrade, Technology

1
My Comrade, Technology

• Pam Losinski
• Michigan State University
• Masters of Arts in Educational Technology
• CEP 805-Learning Mathematics with Technology

2
Overview

• Success in todays classrooms demands assistance
  from technology.

Student
Technology
Teacher
Technology
Teacher
Student
Technology
Teacher
Student
3
Objective I

• Technology needs to be readily available for
  education.

Technology is essential in teaching and learning
mathematics it influences the mathematics that
is taught and enhances students'
learning. -NCTMs Technology Principle
4
The Argument

• Allow teachers the ability to determine
  appropriate technology for their classrooms.

5
Instances of Technology at QMS

• Calculators
• Scientific to TI-83 graphing calculators
• Computers
• Teacher desktops
• LCD projectors
• Document Cameras
• Computer lab equipped with 30 student desktops
• Laptop carts equipped with 24 laptops, wireless
  printing capabilities
• Data Collection Devices
• CBR and CBL

6
Blocked Technology at QMS

• Internet Resources
• Online Communities
• Course Management Sites
• Programs Simulations available for download

7
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratories

• Computers make possible experiences and
  representations that cannot take place in the
  real world, providing new experiences and
  improved understanding.

8
Objective II

• Networking within Quincy Middle Schools
  Mathematics Department will provide students with
  the most effective education possible.

9
Existing Networking

• Department Meetings
• Teachers gather once a month
• Agenda sent via email prior to meeting
• Minutes recorded and posted on middle school
  collaborative drive
• Web Based Bookmark Manager
• Collection of math websites available to entire
  department, annotated for easy searching

10
Proposed Networking

• Teachers prepare brief presentations to
  introduce new technology.

11
A Sample Presentation

• SimCalc

• Research and development in technology and
  curriculum dedicated to democratizing access to
  the Mathematics of Change and Variation,
  including ideas underlying Calculus.

12
SimCalc Curricular Vision

• To democratize access
• to the big ideas of mathematics

13
SimCalc Project believes that technology provides
essential means to restructure this curriculum in
order to

• Democratize access to important and powerful
  ideas.
• Build much more longitudinal coherence between
  early and later years.
• Focusing on the growth of big ideas, and their
  roots in everyday human experience.
• Crack the formalism barrier by providing multiple
  ways of working with mathematical ideas, using
  the full range of human linguistic, visualization
  and cognitive capacities.
• Increase efficiency by teaching several important
  ideas simultaneously.
• Make room for more modern mathematics, moving out
  of the 19th century and into the 21st.

14
SimCalc Sack Race Performance Activity

• Focus
• Slope as a rate of change
• Positive Slope
• Negative Slope
• Zero Slope
• Systems of Equations
• Intersection of Linear Equations

15
SimCalc Sack Race Performance Activity

• Students manipulate Actor A and B to simulate a
  sack race that ends in a tie
• PDF links
• Introduction
• Teacher Instructions
• Student Instructions

16
SimCalc Sample Race

• Actor A, Big Red, and Actor B, The Green Giant,
  both start off strong as the race gets underway.
  Unfortunately, at 4 seconds into the race, Actor
  B gets sidetracked when he sees a friend standing
  beside the path. Not wanting The Green Giant to
  lose the race, he quickly reminds him to keep
  running!. Distracted, The Green Giant starts
  running back toward the starting line. Realizing
  his mistake, he quickly turns around and runs as
  fast as he can to catch up to his rival, Big Red.
  As his poor physical condition gets the best of
  him, he slows slightly, but still manages to
  finish the race in a tie with Big Red.

17
Classroom Follow Up

• Presentations of individual graphs stories
• Discussion of slope
• When they equal?
• What that means?
• What positive/negative slope means for the racers.

18
Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations

• Sixth Grade Standards
• A.PA.06.01 Solve applied problems involving
  rates, including speed, e.g., if a car is going
  50 mph, how far will it go in 3 1/2 hours?
• A.RP.06.08 Understand that relationships between
  quantities can be suggested by graphs and
  tables.
• A.RP.06.10 Represent simple relationships between
  quantities using verbal descriptions, formulas
  or equations, tables, and graphs, e.g.,
  perimeter-side relationship for a square,
  distance-time graphs, and conversions such as
  feet to inches.
• Seventh Grade Standards
• A.PA.07.01 Recognize when information given in a
  table, graph, or formula suggests a directly
  proportional or linear relationship.
• A.RP.07.02 Represent directly proportional and
  linear relationships using verbal descriptions,
  tables, graphs, and formulas, and translate among
  these representations.
• Eighth Grade Standards
• A.FO.08.11 Solve simultaneous linear equations in
  two variables by graphing, by substitution, and
  by linear combination estimate solutions using
  graphs include examples with no solutions and
  infinitely many solutions.
• A.FO.08.12 Solve linear inequalities in one and
  two variables, and graph the solution sets.

19
Additional Ideas for Networking from CEP 805

• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• Connections between math and technology
• The Jasper Series
• Geometers Sketchpad
• An alternative from Cabri Geometry

20
Sources

• http//www.quincyschools.org/Demographics.cfm
• http//www.nwrel.org/request/june01/
• http//www.simcalc.umassd.edu/
• http//www.mi.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-28753_33232---,
  00.html