The new “Applied Math” course I will be teaching this fall was designed for students who need an alternative to Algebra II because they struggled academically in Algebra I and/or Geometry. In preparation for my new students who have shown an academic need for careful planning and extra support, I believe that introducing an online WebQuest will provide a structured research project for students who might otherwise feel overwhelmed by the task. In addition to the WebQuest, including video blogs will also encourage the blending of technology and pedagogy (TPK) by providing an opportunity for students to work with technologies they will most likely encounter in a professional realm later in their lives. It also encourages students to take advantage of a creative outlet for sharing what they learned from the project. I believe that incorporating the WebQuest research with the video blogs supports the objective of engaging students by making concrete connections to encourage more positive attitudes toward learning mathematics.
As I mentioned in a previous post, in order to promote authentic student engagement, students need to feel motivated and connected to the course material. Choosing to create a WebQuest and having students create their own video blogs encourages them to take a personal interest in the course. For this particular project, my pedagogical objective is to engage students in class material through focusing on their own personal investment in their learning. Throughout the course of the year, I plan to cater to the unique interests of my students (in homework sets, project proposals, etc.) in the hopes that I can help them make real-world connections to their future ambitions. For example, I may have a student who does not believe he/she will attend college, but will focus on working in construction instead. Knowing this as the teacher, I can utilize examples that are pertinent to a specific profession/interest.
The content of this course will feature interwoven strands of algebra and functions, statistics, and probability, with a focus on applications of mathematics. Students will learn to recognize and describe important patterns that relate quantitative variables and develop strategies to make sense of real-world data. The course will develop students’ abilities to solve problems involving chance and to approximate solutions to more complex probability problems by using simulation. As previously mentioned, the initial goal is to create a community of learners by encouraging positive attitudes toward learning math. I believe that providing an opportunity for students to research (math-related) professions in greater depth (TCK) will encourage a greater understanding of math in the real-world and will be valuable resources for students when looking for relevant, real-world examples to support more complex mathematical concepts.
The overall goal of this project, with consideration and application of the TPACK model, is to capitalize on students’ personal interests by providing a structured, well-organized research opportunity in which they explore the role mathematics plays in various professions (PCK). Through this assignment, students will select one profession of interest to them and complete video blogs that share one or two mathematical concepts that are important for that particular job/profession and one or two interesting points they learned about the selected job/profession from their research.
You have some great thoughts about how TPACK fits into your project! I really like that you're thinking about the individual interests of your students, engaging them to think about how math really will fit into their lives after school. Have you thought about a way to display the video blogs so others can look at them and be more excited about learning math? It would be a great way to display work the students should be proud of as well as allow others to share in the excitement for math your students (hopefully) have after completing their assignment.
ReplyDeleteGreat job so far!