Grant
Liz
Berlinger, Chris Copeland, Janie McMillin, Meagan Vickers
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Proposal We are requesting funding for a sundial project for our Pre-Calculus
mathematics classes. Educational
researchers at the University of Texas have linked instruction in critical
thinking at the high school level to high enrollment and performance in
college-level math courses.
Students that participate in higher math courses go out into the job
market with a profitable skill and a competitive edge. These students go on to choose jobs
in research, engineering, medical, and financial fields, fueling these
industries with prepared, well-educated individuals with innovative
ideas. Educational studies show
that the best way to teach critical thinking is by having students construct
items that embody a mathematical concept, creating real world situations in
the classroom. Hands-on projects
that teach the ideas that students are learning in lecture greatly increase
their understanding of mathematical concepts and their ability and
willingness to continue on to higher math classes later in life. Our group has devised a project that
will help students to grasp the illusive concept of trigonometry by building
sundials. The students would be
working in groups, first designing their sundials on Geometer’s SketchPad,
and then building working models of their ideas. This project is both enjoyable for the students and
excellent at teaching them both problem-solving and group work, in addition
to the primary objective of teaching critical thinking. These projects have the ability to
make a difference in the way that students approach mathematics and in fact
any problem they may come across, it changes their thought processes will be
of benefit to them for the rest of their lives. Description Our project will foster a rich learning environment in which students
will be using inquiry-based methods to learn how to create a sundial. In doing so, they will be learning about
the development of math as a necessity and they will be connecting
mathematics with real world applications in such a way that it will ignite
interest in math. In some cases,
students will be doing math without even knowing it, which when they reflect
upon these experiences, they will see a greater relevance of math in their
lives. Students will soon become
very interested in the project when they discover that they will be building
their own sundial. This will
motivate students to learn because they know that they will have to use the
information in class to design and build their sundial. When students use the Sketchpad
program and are physically designing and constructing their sundial, they
will be excited to be learning because it provides a new, unique experience
and there are a lot of opportunities for the students to be creative. Students will develop an
understanding in geometry and trigonometry that will allow them to make
connections between real world applications and concepts in math. The project will consist
of a wide variety of activities that aim to provide unique insight into
mathematics. Initially students
will be learning the history of the sundial and how certain mathematical
advances were necessary to even make telling time via the sun possible. Then students will engage in online
activities and resources that will aid them in their understanding and
learning of the concepts essential to making sundials work. Once a thorough knowledge of the
content has been established, students will start to see the newly learned
mathematical concepts put into practice in designing a sundial in the
Geometer’s Sketchpad program.
Using their work from this as a blueprint, students will finally begin
to construct their own well thought-out sundial after being properly trained
in safety for building. By the
end of the project, students will not only have a working knowledge of
concepts in trigonometry, geometry, and astronomy, but they will also have
had directly applied mathematics to real world scenarios. More than just the mathematical
knowledge, this project offers a chance to spark interest in learning and
will hopefully inspire the students involved to see the endless possibilities
behind math, science, and education. Rationale Knowledge of our past helps us move into the future. Often times, teachers in the
classrooms hear students ask “When am I ever going to use this?” or “How does
this apply to the real world?” For most teachers, these nagging questions are
hard to respond to until the students are able to independently explore and
discover the connections for themselves. Current teaching methods such as lecture style and textbook
instruction, have shown to be effective for a small number of students and
sufficient for exposing the students to a breadth of knowledge in the subject
area. While these techniques adhere strictly to the curriculum and can be
beneficial to student understanding, there is much to be said for a
project-based mathematics classroom. In such a classroom, curriculum will
focus more on depth instead of breadth. This method also falls within the
guidelines of the curriculum and NCTM standards/recommendations, but
encourages and allows students to develop higher level thinking skills. The
consensus among educational researchers has been that problem based
classrooms force the students to make stronger connections, creating a
lasting impact. Funding for the startup costs of this type of classroom will
allow the students to leave their footprints on the community and enhance the
world they live in. Important to the creation of a project-based classroom are computers,
software programs such as Geometer’s Sketchpad, and program licenses.
Students will be constructing sundials, which will require building materials
ranging from plywood to power tools. Educational researcher Morris Kline lays
“total blame for the downfall in mathematics education on the separation of
mathematics from science through axiomatic training of mathematical
researchers.” Thus, we are working to bridge disciplines amongst math,
computer science, history, and shop class that will create for the students a
rich understanding and deep appreciation for math and its applications in
real world settings. Students will also be writing journals to sort out
thoughts, possible solution methods, and preliminary designs for their
projects. As educators, we need to raise interest in mathematics. Research shows
that students who are more interested in math and the sciences are prone to
enter levels of higher education. Having more students in those fields leads
to higher capabilities for conducting research which will propel the
community to an overall higher level of education and advancement. This grant
will enable us to help students move into those fields so that they can learn
to apply mathematics to everyday life through research and exploration.
Students will be able to create answers to problems that, prior to intense
investigation, had no answers. Not only will our students learn important
math skills, they will learn leadership, teamwork, and other
character–building skills. Potential Impact Our
goal when creating this unit was not just to impact the students involved,
but to also impact the study of effective project-based mathematics in the classroom. We strongly believe that until we, as
educators, can move away from the traditional methods of teaching and towards
the use of problem-based systems, that the potential of our students to
become investigative thinkers will continue to be limited. With
said theory in mind, we have designed this unit to help students bring
mathematics into a real-world setting.
In this way we hope to increase our students’ abilities to make
connections and think about mathematics in ways that are useful them. We want students to learn, and more
importantly understand mathematics on a deeper level than we feel they do
currently. We hope to bridge
disciplines, and show students that mathematics can be learned through history
and English as well as science. Through our studies of how people learn, we
have found that students benefit most when they are forced to make
discoveries and think for themselves. These skills are not limited to the
mathematics classroom, and will affect how our students learn for the rest of
their lives! In
this way, we believe that our unit will not only affect those of us involved
in the short-term aspects of the project, but then go on impact the community
and the education system as a whole.
Parents can learn from their children’s problem-solving skills and
then coworkers can learn from each other. The skills taught in the classroom
will have an outreaching and all encompassing effect as the number of
interactions between investigative thinkers grows exponentially. If we can
change the way that people learn to think about problems and challenge
themselves, then we have been successful and that success will continue to
snowball into greater things. Evaluation Plan Throughout this unit, we teachers have very high expectations for our
students. We want them to perform at their highest level of ability and be
able to articulate that which they have learned to others. Each week, students will learn important mathematical procedures that
can be drawn from textbooks and then will use those procedures and other
vital information to begin the construction phases of their group sundial.
Students will be responsible for creating blueprints and templates that will
be used to create their sundial. Since the each phase of the building has an
important mathematical concept tied to it, there are many assessments
teachers will perform each calendar day to assure the students’
understanding. Modifications to project and student expectations can be made
along the way to ensure understanding of concepts and incorporate optimal
learning strategies. With techniques ranging from Misconception/Preconception
Checks to Concept Maps to Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys, students
will be held accountable for not only their building progress, but for the
accumulation of knowledge they are expected to gain from this project and the
real world applications that follow. To
a large extent, students’ final grades will be a result of their functional,
final sundials as well as a test of their knowledge of the math concepts.
Students are expected to understand the fundamental concepts of the project
and be able to apply them. Success will be measured by determining that the
students have a deeper understanding for math concepts when they are able to
apply them to activities. Project-based mathematics classrooms are built on
this idea. Evaluating the students’ progress along the way through the
aforementioned strategies will provide educators with data to compare with
traditional teaching methods. In order to assure successful mastery of
concepts, teachers can use the ongoing assessments to make changes to meet
students’ needs. The goal of this project is to instill the importance of
mathematics in our students, as well as the drive to further their competence
in the field. We will consider
ourselves successful when students make connections between math concepts and
other disciplines through the use of project-based mathematics over
traditional teaching methods. BUDGET
Total:
$2,439.33 RESUMÉS |
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