Technology and Maths Exploration

20151008_110555 - Copy (450x800)It is always good to get the chance to actually teach real kids in a real school. I have always said that if you are going to teach students about linear functions, it would be a crime to do it without any technology. So, up comes the topic and in I go with the technology. We have organised a class set of HP Prime handhelds for the school and my job was to get students started using them, so they would be sufficiently familiar at the start of the linear functions topic.

My argument is that if we have a device that speaks mathematics, then we can ask open mathematical questions and then students can explore. So we started with the obvious ‘tell me some interesting calculations that make …’ (e.g. 27 or 3115 or 5.2). Clearly the purpose is to get used to the calculator but when students are allowed to use any function, they really start exploring.

Next, to find the correct app and enter functions, I simply told them the format (something x plus or minus something) to enter in the symb screen on the function app, then asked them to create pairs of functions that matched some pictures I gave them (different slopes, parallel or not).

The exciting thing is to note how quickly students feel comfortable with the technology. The teacher is nervous and not keen to become familiar on their own, but kids feel no fear. The trick for the teacher is managing the classroom in this setting. Make sure the students write down in their note books the outcomes they find (otherwise they will be lost when they need to feedback and so we can see that they are progressing). They are fun to touch, so whenever we had some spoken feedback time it was essential that all students placed the HP Prime face down on the table. Changing mode from paired investigation to class plenary needs some clear management.

It was clear that the students liked the machines and that is nice, but mostly they felt comfortable to explore and try stuff out without fear of being ‘wrong’. The next lesson(s) got students to explore the details of relationship between the functions and their graphs and emphasised the technical mathematical vocabulary used to describe them. I’ll tell you more about this soon.

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