Group items tagged

Interactive protractor with many practice activities. Great for IWB

A lovely flash-based whiteboard resource to practise measuring angles using a virtual protractor. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/maths

3 activities to support developing number sense with children. All can be used across KS1 or KS2 with differentiation and difficulty all adaptable by the teacher.

From the abstract (full text requires subscription or purchase): "Though cooperative learning has been a topic of considerable interest in educational research, there has been little study specific to learning in the mathematics content area of geometry. This paper seeks to address that gap through a design experiment featuring a novel small-group computing environment for supporting student learning about quadrilaterals. In this design, each student controls a unique point in a shared geometric space, and those points are linked such that a group of four students collectively forms a quadrilateral. We first present results from pre- and post-measures to show how the students learned from the activities and developed in terms of geometric reasoning. We then present three episodes, elaborated with the notion of appropriation, to explain how students took up ways of using the technological tools and of talking about geometric concepts from one another in the interactive environment. Our study found that students achieved learning gains in this novel environment, that the environment provided rich opportunities for peer interaction around geometric objects, and that student learning opportunities and interactions were characterized by processes of appropriating ways of talking about and using software features."

Abstract: "the researcher attempted to investigate how to better measure engagement and refine the measurement of engagement in this study. To frame the engagement, three domains of engagement - behavioral, cognitive, and emotional- are analyzed in detail to be able to examine the qualities of each type. Moreover, three game attributes -clear goals, immediate feedback, and balance between challenges and skills- are presented and discussed as fundamental features of virtual manipulatives and educational games used in this study to make an impact on students' engagement. To measure effects of educational games and virtual manipulatives on three domains of engagement, the researcher designed an engagement survey that examines each domain separately with their sub-domains. The Cronbach's alphas for engagement pre-test and post-test were found .89 and .91 respectively. In this pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design, four fifth-grade classrooms (N=86) from four schools in southwest Virginia were assigned as three experimental groups and one control group. In the first experimental group, participants played an educational game called Candy Factory and in the second experimental group, the students played another educational game called Pearl Diver on iPod Touch for eight days consecutively, for 20 minutes each. In the third experimental group, participants performed activities with virtual manipulatives, whereas in the control group, participants did paper-and-pencil iii drills for the same duration. All of the groups studied on the same topic, fractions. According to the results of ANCOVA, experimental group students' engagement scores were found significantly higher than control group students', F(1,80)=11.568, p=.001. When three domains of engagement were analyzed, significant differences were found among all three domains between experimental and control groups. When the researcher conducted separate analysis for educational games group and vir

Here is where you'll find the course content for Spring, 2009. Assignments are here. Syllabus is here. GEOGEBRA: Throughout the notes, you will find many GeoGebra applets.  These are interactive Java applets.  To activate them, just click on them, and wait for the applet to load.  If you're using Internet Explorer, you may have to click on the "Allow ActiveX control" warning bar at the top of your browser, for the applet to load.  I encourage you to download GeoGebra yourself, or use the "Web Start" option, over at http://www.geogebra.org .  It's very easy to use, and a lot of fun!

Several sample activities

Flash place value activity

Rangoli based symmetry exercise - An activity based on Rangoli Patterns to provide opportunities for illustrating reflective and rotational symmetry of order 4.

9-12

Abstract: "Australian pre-service teachers have to acquire layers of knowledge as school classrooms are multicultural in composition. To what extent does the experience of an overseas professional experience tour contribute to the development of pre-service teachers in meeting recognised professional teaching standards? This paper describes the perceptions of Australian preservice mathematics teachers who participated in educational and cultural activities during planned tours to Malaysia. The data set was collected through the use of questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions."

Abstract: "The purpose of this study is to propose a design principle and framework of educational control (in particular, method for collaborative learning support) that induces and activates interaction between learners intentionally to create a learning opportunity that is based on the knowledge understanding model of each learner. In this paper, we explain the design philosophy and the framework of our game-based learning environment (GBLE) called "Who becomes the king in the country of mathematics?". In addition, we describe the method of collaborative learning support control that incorporates a "learner support agent" to support each learner and a "game control agent" to control the game into the learning environment."

"This National report examines the way in which teaching, learning and assessment is conceptualised in Welsh policy for early years science and mathematics, and the role for creativity. This report is one of 13 European national policy reports that are contributing to the Creative Little Scientist Project deliverable (D3.2 Report on Mapping and Comparing Recorded Practices) mapping and comparing policy approaches across Europe. In order to map the key messages in Welsh policy, as well as allow comparisons with other nations, this report draws upon a survey instrument used to rate the extent to which certain approaches, and the role of creativity is emphasised across relevant policy documents in this area. In the case of Wales, this was largely based upon the Framework for Children's Learning for 3 to 7 year olds in Wales, Play/Active Learning: overview for 3 to 7 year olds, the National Curriculum documents for Key Stage 2, associated assessment documents and inspection reports. "

"Fascinating Mathematical People is a collection of informal interviews and memoirs of sixteen prominent members of the mathematical community of the twentieth century, many still active. The candid portraits collected here demonstrate that while these men and women vary widely in terms of their backgrounds, life stories, and worldviews, they all share a deep and abiding sense of wonder about mathematics."

Abstract: "How can smartphones apps enrich the learning of mathematics in vocational education? This article examines how mathematics teaching can be enriched by apps using smartphone sensors such as gyroscope, compass, camera, and touch screen in a gaming context. An iterative and participatory design process involving two classes of carpentry students from different vocational colleges resulted in two highly successful and course-relevant games based on trigonometry. Each game consists of quests and missions whose successful completion unlocks more theoretical multiple-choice exercises for the classroom. The combination of competition to unlock exercises, competition for placing on the high-score list, and physical activity proved very motivating for the students and was also approved by their teachers. In this article we describe our design principles, the overall game architecture and the games themselves. We talk about our experience in implementing our design process and subsequently summarize the pros and cons of the application and the smartphone platform and how the app developed contributes to vocational mathematics teaching"

" The use of logarithms, an important tool for calculus and beyond, has been reduced to symbol manipulation without understanding in most entry-level college algebra courses. The primary aim of this research, therefore, was to investigate college students' understanding of logarithmic concepts through the use of a series of instructional tasks designed to observe what students do as they construct meaning. APOS Theory was used as a framework for analysis of growth. APOS Theory is a useful theoretical framework for studying and explaining conceptual development. Closely linked to Piaget's notions of reflective abstraction, it begins with the hypothesis that mathematical activity develops as students perform actions that become interiorized to form a process understanding of the concept, which eventually leads students to a heightened awareness or object understanding of the concept. Prior to any investigation, the researcher must provide an analysis of the concept development in terms of the essential components of this theory: actions, process, objects, and schemas. This is referred to as the genetic decomposition. The results of this study suggest a framework that a learner may use to construct meaning for logarithmic concepts. Using tasks aligned with the initial genetic decomposition, the researcher made revisions to the proposed genetic decomposition in the process of analyzing the data. The results indicated that historical accounts of the development of this concept might be useful to promote insightful learning. Based on this new set of data, iterations should continue to produce a better understanding of the student's constructions. " (from the abstract)

relationship between "puzzle-solving and mathematical skills"

Abstract: "This research seeks to look into the design process that promotes the development of an educational computer game that supports teaching and learning processes. The research specifically looks at the design of an educational computer game for teaching and learning of the topic of functions. The topic is essential in the teaching and learning of Mathematics courses such as Discrete Mathematics, Real Analysis and Calculus among others at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Kenya. The computer game was developed using the Basic Unified process (BUP) which is a streamlined version of the rational unified process (RUP). This is an object oriented methodology mostly used for small projects with few end users. Due to the few numbers of end users we used interview method of data collection to gather requirements for the computer game. A paper prototype was used to validate the requirements. Use cases were used for both analysis and design of the game while Class diagrams and activity diagrams were purely used for the design of the game. Owens' six top level design anatomy aided in the design of the computer game. The overall computer game design was based on Crawfords' computer game design sequence model. The well designed and developed game met all its user requirements and was able to facilitate the teaching and learning of functions to Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science students who were taking Discrete mathematics in their first year of study at JKUATs' Taita/Taveta campus. Development of heuristics for measuring interest, fun and motivation are recommendations given to aid in the evaluation of user satisfaction of educational computer games."