Play Tech 4 - More Creativity Tools

Math Creativity Tools - Evaluation

There are several tools or manipulatives that I discovered this week.   They are virtual in nature which requires a computer, but the benefits are worth the effort.

How High (Link)

This tool allows students to predict how the contents in one size container would fill up the other container.   I like this tool because it really drives home the concept of the 3rd dimension which eludes so many middle school'ers.  Everyone that looks at the challenge can form an opinion and test if their choice was correct.  This can be done without the use of water and various sized containers.  It also has different sized bases.    

The students will have to do the math to have more accurate predictions and they'll also benefit from recognizing how "eyeballing" a solution is not as accurate as they think.  (more on eyeballing later)

What I dislike about the tool is that it does not allow for user input for different problems.   They are canned problems.  While I didnt see a patter or loop in the problems, this might indicate that there are enough problems programmed that the kids will not exhaust it's usefulness.  

Eyeballing (Link)

I enjoy this tool because it drives home the value in accurate measurement and calculation.  The student tries to place the spot, or square in the location to complete the type of shape depicted and described in the title.  It records their guess accuracy and the time it took to finish each shape.  It also shows a scale of other guesses.  

What I like is that it presents an appealing challenge to the student.  The task is easy to recognize and the statistics indicate to the student how well they did among other guessers which can lead to conversations of statistics.

What I dislike about the program is that it's too simple.  It's about a 10 minute exercise and wrap up and it's not something we can program with custom challenges. 

Probability, Statistics, and Plots (Selected for further reflection) 

Another set of tools from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives are Coin Toss, BoxPlot and ScatterPlot  While they all can stand on their own, they all possess some similar benefits so I'll combine them.

Coin Toss is often the first examples to explain probability.  This tool allows the action of flipping the coin to be generated by the computer.  What I like is that the tool simulates the process with the speed of the computer and the slowness of the human.  Whether you choose 100, 1000, or 9999 coin flips it processes the coin flips and charts the outcomes in about 10 seconds.   It uses the magic of the computer, but does not make it unbelievable that the coin is not being flipped in successive times. 

Scatter Plot is helpful because it allows you to enter data into the table and it maps the points and lines up the slope according to the points.   It provides an example of data that can be used to fill up the table and engages the students to collect the data.  The site asks for height and arm span which would be different for each student, but would also show a trend.  What I like is the ability to use our own data and it engages the students.   What I dislike about the tool is that it automatically plots the line which gives away a major concept of scatter plots.   While it could be useful, it should be an option and not a default.

Box Plot is another tool that students have to conceptualize rather than discover practically   It's a lot of work to create data sets and to plot them.  Often they get caught up in the process and miss the beauty of the "forest". What I like is that it comes with 3 data sets programmed and it allows the user to enter their own data.  It performs the calculations automatically which can be a down side, but it serves the benefit of seeing the data in a graphical format quickly. 

What I like about the 3 tools is that it provides great examples and explanation with a icon labeled Parent/Teacher at the top of each page.  It also has a link to the standards for the grade level for easy reference.  It also has instructions to help if it's needed.

These three objects fit within the TPACK model because it addresses the 3 areas of Content, Pedagogy and Technology.  Regarding content, it provides the framework and information regarding Data Analysis and Probability.  Pedagogy is addressed because the students interact with the manipulative and the provided question prompts to guide their learning. Technology is not a mere substitute because of the dynamic nature of the data table and automatic graphing.  The tool doesn't stand in the way of learning as paper and pencil might.

Will the students learn the standards using these tools?

Absolutely!  Below are the standards for grades 6-8:

• formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population;
• select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box plots, and scatterplots.

While each tool has questions and even extension questions to guide their learning, I would also provide some additional scenarios and/or data sets that they would need to determine which graphs or visual representations to use with the data.

What are some other ways the students might use the tools?

Perhaps they might use the tool to display a data set they develop and take a screen capture for a blog posting to illustrate how a prediction was proven.