ExploreLearning News

Case Study: Gizmos Help Interpret Real-Life Math Concepts

Honora Rainville, a mathematics teacher at Abington High School in Abington MA, uses ExploreLearning Gizmos in all her classes. Rainville appreciates how Gizmos give her students an opportunity to explore challenging math topics from a visual perspective and also likes how the Assessment Questions accompanying the Gizmos provide for student accountability.

“ The interactive approach of the Gizmos really helped the students grasp the concepts. When I teach I like to touch varied learning styles and I think ExploreLearning helps to connect those aspects of teaching and learning. ” – Honora Rainville

In the Computer Lab with an LCD Projector and Screen

Rainville had success using Modeling Linear Systems - Activity A with her high school geometry students.

“ I find it very important to be able to relate slope and y-intercept to real life concepts rather than just the mechanics of writing and graphing equations. [The students] also needed to ‘see’ what I had been talking about when I taught the solution of systems of equations, rather than just hearing the mantra ‘the solution of a system of equations represents the point where the two lines intersect. ”

After using the Modeling Linear Systems Gizmo to introduce the concept via her LCD projector, Rainville then had the students work individually at their own computer in the lab. Discussion among students was encouraged.

Rainville's approach is supported by the research that finds that students learn effectively and efficiently when new concepts are first introduced directly to them, and they are allowed to then explore and practice applying the concepts on their own.

“ The Modeling Linear Systems Gizmo, both Activity A and B, gave the students a good opportunity to see the relevance of slope and y-intercept of a graph to speed and starting points as well as actually seeing the point of intersection as being the solution to the system of equations. In this case, it was where the cat caught the mouse. It was fun! ”

Gizmo Exploration Guides and Assessment Questions: Mindful Student Interaction

After allowing her Geometry students to "play" with the Gizmo and familiarize themselves with its workings, Rainville turned to the Exploration Guide that accompanies the Modeling Linear Systems Gizmo to better focus their interaction with the Gizmo.

“ I always have the students do the Exploration Guide before doing the assessment questions. I found that otherwise many of them missed a lot of what the gizmo had to offer. ”

Thumbnail above of a typical Assessment Results screen.

Additionally, Rainville incorporates the Gizmos' Exploration Guides and Assessment Questions into homework assignments:

“ … when giving Gizmos for homework, the students had to pass in a copy of answers for the Exploration Guide and also submit their answers to the Assessment Questions for me to view. They knew they would see some of these things on tests, as well. ”

And to make it that much easier for students to see mathematical concepts from the Gizmo represented on a test, Rainville made use of the screen capture feature built in to all Gizmos.

“ I also used a screen capture to put two questions on the test of this topic. I really liked that! [The screen capture feature] gave me the opportunity to really assess what the students had learned from the Gizmo. ”

Using Gizmos with Different Kinds of Students

At Abington High School, Rainville has found that Gizmos are equally effective with struggling students as they are with advanced students.

Making use of her high school’s computer lab, Rainville had success using several of the integer-based Gizmos with a class of low ability pre-algebra students.

After introducing the Gizmos with the projector, Rainville and her co-teacher in the math lab worked individually with students using the integer-based Gizmos. The students, previously struggling to understand the abstract concepts first encountered in pre-algebra, found the hands on approach helpful to understanding.

For example, when studying the adding and subtraction of integers, the pre-algebra students use the Gizmos to manipulate the sliders and see a real-time number-line representation of their of the the addition or subtraction. the results of their actions as each of the multiple representations updates in real-time.

“ I found it interesting that some of the students who did not do well in the classroom setting (be it lecture or hands on activities), did well with the Gizmos. That is why I try to bring in varied teaching activities so I can grab as many kids as possible. ”

Likewise, Rainville's more advanced students in her upper level Pre-Calculus course found the Gizmos helpful.

Gizmos provide teachers with a ready-made path for harnessing the power of visual imagery in instruction. (Stock photo)

Rainville expects her more mathematically advanced Pre-Calculus students to "be able to grasp abstract concepts," and "emphasized that the gizmos were meant to give them an alternate approach to topics … and to have some fun [with the new] topics."

“ The interactive approach of the gizmos really helped the students grasp the concepts. ”

Resources

• The Modeling Linear Systems - Activity A Gizmo
• The Modeling Linear Systems - Activity B Gizmo
• Site Tour: A Teacher's View
• Why Gizmos Work: Research Evidence
• Using the Gizmo Screen-Capture Feature
• Sign Up for a 30-Day Free Trial

Do you have a Gizmo success story? Let us know: support@explorelearning.com

District Administration Magazine: NCLB & Science in the news

In District Administration magazine's cover story last month, writer Rebecca Sausner focuses on the "next wave" of No Child Left Behind requirements for states and districts in the coming year: those related to science. In the article titled "Ready or Not," she emphasizes the challenge states face in developing and administering large-scale assessments that effectively measure students' scientific abilities. The story explains why science is different from reading and how states are working to create challenging standards and methods to test for true conceptual understanding.

The article goes on to say that

Educators from the Secretary of Education on down say inquiry-based learning is probably the best way to teach science, and it follows that hands-on experiments may also be the best way to assess students' understanding of concepts and the scientific process. And while hands-on science testing can be done on a small scale, it's cost prohibitive for an entire state...'But by using simulation you can simulate those experiences and give students the chance to demonstrate what they know,' says Assistant Secretary of Education Susan Sclafani...Aside from testing students on a deeper level of science understanding, computer-based simulations will generate zettabytes of data about how students solve problems, another boon to the science education community.

"From an assessment perspective, anything you do on a computer you can keep track of--how people solve problems, how many times they rotate an object, how they collect data," says David Kumar, professor of science education at Florida Atlantic University. "You can collect a lot of that kind of data, which would be useful psychometrics."

District Administration notes that most of the money for research in this area comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF). We at ExploreLearning should know because we have a Phase 2 SBIR grant from the NSF to develop a new approach for assessing learning in math/science courses. We are currently designing a revolutionary new product that uses Gizmo-like simulations to measure conceptual understanding and the ability to reason in a scientific manner -- using this product, we are confident that precisely the kind of assessment envisioned in the "Ready or Not" article can be scaled to large student audiences in a cost-effective manner.

To read the article, which includes quotes from NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler, go to http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=832.

Virginia Science SOL's

During the summer we created quite a few new science Gizmos, and continue to work on more! We have also begun correlating the science library to a variety of national and state learning standards, as well as several major textbooks.

Today we posted the correlations to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL's) for science. Stay tuned for additional correlations as fall settles in, and the leaves start falling from the trees (at least here in Charlottesville).

Quick Response to User Feedback

When we say we appreciate user feedback, we mean it.

On Tuesday we received a support email regarding one of our Gizmos:

I was going through Gizmos and found one that is hard to use just because the coloring is poor. I figured you would want to know.

The Gizmo is Comparing and Ordering Rational Numbers.
The problem is that the blocks in the red fraction that represent the negative values are shaded so lightly when selected that they can not be seen -- it makes it confusing.

We looked at the Gizmo and agreed. Shortly thereafter an updated Comparing and Ordering Rational Numbers Gizmo with a better shading (we hope) was loaded to the site.

So if you see something in a Gizmo or elsewhere on the site that doesn't look quite right, let us know and we'll do what we can to fix it ASAP.

Scheduled Update

ExploreLearning.com will undergo a scheduled update on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 15, at approximately 5:30 p.m. EDT. For a period of about 20 minutes, the site may be unavailable to users. Thanks for your patience as we work to improve ExploreLearning.com.

New Support for Safari 1.2

We're pleased to announce that ExploreLearning.com now officially supports the Safari 1.2 Web browser!

Fans of Safari probably know that our site has functioned quite well for some time now in Version 1.2 of the browser. This announcement simply marks our completion of formal testing in Safari 1.2 on our new servers.

Please note that we only support Safari 1.2 or higher. Go to our online help system to see our full system requirements.

If you have any questions or concerns about Safari and ExploreLearning.com, or about our support for browsers in general, write to us at support@explorelearning.com.