Activity 1D
C&I 335
Summer, 1998
Karen J. Bennett
Glenwood High School
Chatham, IL
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PROJECT 1D
Subject Appropriate Computer Resources
I really enjoyed surfing and looking for interesting Math-related web-sites. It seemed as if one good site led to two others!!
SITES OF INTEREST TO MY CURRICULUM:
The company that makes Cliff's Notes, makes tutorial study ware to prepare students for testing in Mathematics as well as in lots of other subject areas. This web-site was really fun. It was written to appeal to high school age kids. The graphics were modern and kid-related. The jokes were entertaining. It was very impressively creative!!! They supply CD-ROM material for just about everything. You can almost be overwhelmed by all the material there is to sift through. If you want the math-related info, be sure to click on the StudyWare square early on.....
Another site that would be very helpful for my upper level courses, is the Logal Software, Inc. site. This site offers software for both science and math. They had available a CD-ROM for a Probability Constructor, (which could be useful in our probability unit in Analysis), as well as a Geometry Inventor (which sounds a lot like the Sketchpad program we currently use). This site is very high-brow.
Craig Williams has a page with information on different brands of graphing calculators, including the TI-82 (which is required for use in our Calculus course at Glenwood), Hewlett Packard and others. He gives the locations of this information. He also has a reference to the Mathpert programs listed below in software of interest.
The best place of all I saw was the site of the MATH FORUM. It has tons of resources in internet news, a corner for interactive Geometry software, some type of newsletter you can subscribe to keeping you up-to-date. It even has a Geometry Forum question of the week or month with solutions submitted by kids attached!! Neat stuff my fellow teachers may be interested in .
SOFTWARE TO CONSIDER:
The most exciting software I saw was made by Mathpert. They offer an Algebra Assistant, a Pre-Calculus Assistant, and a Calculus Assistant module. What made this so cool, is that the programs do a step-by-step solution to problems, rather than just providing the answers. It teaches STRATEGY for problem solving. It would be a great asset to our department. One thing that is really a problem for us is dealing with student absences, and getting them caught up when they are gone. This program looks like an excellent tutor!!
The other software that appeared to be useful was by Future Graph, Inc. They have a graphing calculator Simulator, (which may be useful in our courses that use them!). Also offered are trigonometry and geometry lessons software. These products are part of a Home teacher Series and contain self-paced lessons. All of these topics apply to the courses I teach.