Integrating: mathematics, technology, pedagogy, problem solving
July 7, 2017
This activity was created for two purposes: as a genuine real-world mathematical analysis of data activity and to create social awareness of issues that are confronting many people in the United States and especially in Ohio.
January 30, 2017
Idea: the scores of the first 50 Super Bowl football games will be placed into lists on the calculator. On the TI-83/84, the data is easily placed into the proper lists with the ease of running a supplied program. On the TI-Nspire, the data is already in the tns file. The students are then asked questions about the data and will need to perform either 1 Variable Statistics to answer them, or to create a box plot to answer them. We encourage the use of groups of 4 to do the activity in class. See the Teacher Notes for either calculator.
The Teacher Notes also contains 10 fun trivia facts about the Super Bowl, including how it got its name. Enjoy…
Super Bowl Scores Activity 2016 Student Activity
January 2, 2017
This activity can be used at grade 7 or beyond through grade 12. It can be done with either a TI-83/84 or the TI-Nspire. There are two links below – one for doing the activity with a TI-83/84, and one for doing the activity with a TI-Nspire.
Each link contains the student version, the teacher notes, the answer key and other files.
Link to my dropbox with all files to use with a TI-83/84.
Link to my dropbox with all files to use with TI-Nspire.
Link to a video that explains the activity.
Idea: the scores of the first 18 championship college football games will be placed into lists on the calculator. On the TI-83/84, the data is easily placed into the proper lists with the ease of running a supplied program. On the TI-Nspire, the data is already in the tns file. The students are then asked questions about the data and will need to perform either 1 Variable Statistics to answer them, or to create a box plot to answer them. We encourage the use of groups of 4 to do the activity in class. See the Teacher Notes for either calculator.
The Teacher Notes also contains 10 fun trivia facts including some about the history of the College Football Champions since 1869. Enjoy…
Number of football championships since 1869:
May 3, 2016
A math graphing gift for Mother’s Day.
This is designed to be used for any student that has:
TI-83/84 (greyscale), Download the MOMFLR84 program.
TI-84 CE (color), Download the MOMFLWRS program.
or a TI-Nspire CX. Download the Flowers_for_Mom.tns activity.
Download the 3-page pdf (see below) for all 3 platforms here.
April 27, 2016
Epidemic! Prescription Drug Deaths
Kate Snow did a report about the Opioid Addiction (painkiller) epidemic in the United States on the Today Show, April 25, 2016. The content of her story was sad but compelling. Over 50 people die every day in the U.S. as a result of prescription drugs.
I decided to create a math activity about the content of her report – hoping that education is the best medicine – to combat this epidemic. This activity can be used in middle grades through high school. The mathematics is mostly percent increase. The purpose of the activity is to do some mathematics with real world data and at the same time become aware of this major problem and what the solutions can be. The last part of the activity is optional – dealing with regression equations in piece wise functions.
Here is the link to the TI-83/84 files and the TI-Npsire files for this activity, along with pdf’s of the student version and the teacher notes and solutions: http://bit.ly/epidemic2016
Link to teachertube video that is an overview of the activity: teacher_tube_epidemic!
The student activity is shown below, followed by the teacher notes and solutions.
March 25, 2016
http://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/
The following activity is designed to use in grades 7 through 12 math classes, with varying levels of difficulty. Pdf’s of this activity – student and teacher – can be downloaded here.
Link to a short video explaining this activity.
March 16, 2016
Click on the links to go to a website to view/purchase the books.
What’s Math Got To Do With It?
Jo Boaler
Professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, formerly the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Sussex in England. She is the author of seven books and numerous research articles.
Both of these books are based on recent brain research and the findings of Carol Dweck, world-renowned Stanford University researcher and psychologist, about Mindset – The New Psychology of Success.
“… that everyone has a mindset, a core belief about how they learn.
People with a growth mindset are those who believe that smartness increases with hard work, whereas those with a fixed mindset believe that you can learn things but you can’t change your basic level of intelligence.
… math was the subject most in need of a mindset makeover.”
Brain research shows that:
< there is no such thing as a math gene
< mathematics, more than any other subject, has the power to crush students’ spirits.
“That single belief – that math is a “gift” that some people have and others don’t – is responsible for much of the widespread math failure in the world.
So where does that damaging idea – an idea that notably is absent in countries such as China and Japan that top the world in math achievement – come from?”
This question is answered throughout the book.
“The idea that only some people can do math is embedded deep in the American and English psyche. Math is special in this way, and people have ideas about math that they don’t have about any other subject.”
Solution: “Relatively small changes in teaching and parenting can change students’ mathematical pathways, because the new knowledge we have on the brain, mindset, and mathematics learning is truly revolutionary.”
“Studies of successful and unsuccessful business people show something surprising: what separates the more successful people from the less successful people is not the number of their successes but the number of mistakes they make, with the more successful people making MORE mistakes.”
She then goes on to tell the story of Howard Schultz who made several mistakes before finally coming up with his successful brand – Starbucks.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” –Thomas Edison
Also Jo Boaler explains how students do learn more from making mistakes that by doing problems correctly.
Jo Boaler’s Math Education website: youcubed.org
Contains “tons” of free information. One idea in particular: How to Learn Math is a free course for learners of all levels of Mathematics.
Mindset (The New Psychology of Sucees)
Carol Dweck
< parenting < business < school < relationships
(I ordered this book and one of Jo Boaler’s books while I watched her speak for the first time – within 15 minutes!)
Cathy Seeley
Former president of NCTM, K-12 Director of Mathematics for Texas, Senior Fellow at the University of Texas.
Contains 40 messages (3 to 6 pages of essays) that can be read either individually or following an order based on themes, messages about:
Cathy also cites the Mindset ideas of Carol Dweck.
Embedding Formative Assessment
Dylan Wiliam
A leading authority on the use of assessment to improve education.
He taught math and physics in urban schools for seven years, head of the School of Education King’s College in London, and was senior research director at ETS, Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. ETS creates the SAT, AP exams, GRE, Praxis, among others.
Wiliam explains why we need formative assessment and how to implement it. His book applies to all subjects, however, since he was a math teacher, many of his examples cite mathematics teaching and learning.
My comments
I have seen all of these amazing people speak, except for Carol Dweck.
Some of them several times. I also was able to attend a 3-hour workshop with Jo Boaler and her methods are outstanding. She puts into practice what she preaches.
I highly recommend these books to you.
I also strongly encourage you to hear any one of these speak whenever you are able to do so.
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