rich maths activities using applets - presentation notes
DESCRIPTION
Workshop presentation from CMA E-Learning in Mathematics conference on Thursday 23rd October, 2014. Using virtual manipulatives (aka interactive applets) for rich maths investigations.TRANSCRIPT
WorkshopRich activities using applets
Stephen McConnachie
Action Research Project
Ran a trial with my Year 9 classDesign:
◦Made a quick applet with Excel◦Wrote investigative questions◦Stuck it in a forum on Moodle
The Applet
The Questions
What do you notice? What combinations work?
If you have three sets of three numbers (eg 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3) what rules do the numbers have to follow?
If you have one set of three numbers and then three pairs of numbers (eg 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4), what rules do the numbers have to follow? Is this even possible?
If you have one set of three numbers and six different numbers (eg 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), what rules do the numbers have to follow? Is this even possible?
Other combinations? What about 9 different numbers?
Anything else you notice?
The Feedback
“Make an extension level, where there are certain rules you have to use which makes finding things harder, or a problem which we can use the magic square to help us.” – year 9 student
The Feedback
“I think it was a good design because it wasn't too complicated and I would've been able to understand it even if it hadn't been explained before we started doing the activity.” – year 9 student
The Feedback
“The Excel tool… was easy to use and really easy to pick up even if you weren't very good with computers. It wasn’t hard so everyone could use it.” – year 9 student
The Feedback
The FeedbackToo easy Too hardPerfect
Applets
Where can I find them?!NLVM – National Library of Virtual
ManipulativesNCTM – National Council of Teachers of
Mathematicsnrichlearnalberta.caInteractivatecalculusapplets.comWolfram Demonstrations Project
How to do it:
Take / Embed / Create an applet
Write investigative questions
Go
Ideas
Adapt an existing lesson plan from Nzmaths
nrich already has interactives embedded into lessons with investigative questions◦Use these as-is◦Use these as a guide / template to build your
ownGet students to write investigative
questions
Your turn
Find an appletWrite some investigative questionsShare it