In regards to my audience, as I've mentioned before, I will be teaching a brand new course this fall. The head of the math department was aware that I'd be taking grad courses this summer, therefore my chosen audience will be the math chair and the rest of the math department (with the understanding that I did work for the Applied Math class in my MSU grad course). The intent is to convince them that this particular project will be beneficial to engaging students through researching math professions that interest them. In addition, I stressed that a goal of mine was to establish a community of learners right from the beginning, and I believe this project will help foster that. I'm excited to implement this project in the fall and hope you enjoy listening about my progress in creating it this summer!
The problem:
This fall I will be teaching a new course entitled “Applied Mathematics” which is intended for high school students who demonstrate a need to reduce the Algebra II requirement in the Michigan Merit Curriculum due to academic difficulty in Algebra I and/or Geometry. Understanding the daily applications of math in real world settings is a challenge for many students, and unfortunately, many high school students feel a disconnect between their math courses and their real lives due to a lack of real world examples and activities in the classroom. The opportunity presented in this situation is to engage my students by making concrete connections through a pre-assessment/personal inventory activity to encourage more positive attitudes toward learning mathematics.
The solution:
To address this educational issue, I’ve created a WebQuest in which students will explore the role mathematics plays in various professions. In this WebQuest, students will select one profession of interest to them and complete short 1-2 minute 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.
In order to promote authentic student engagement, students need to feel motivated and connected to the course material. The WebQuest and video blog aim to engage students by encouraging them to take a personal interest in the course. 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.
TPACK Model
TP: What is the TP knowledge for the solution?
In preparation for my new students who have shown an academic need for careful planning and extra support, I believe that the 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.
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.
TC: What is the TC knowledge for the solution?
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.
PC: What is the PC knowledge for the solution?
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.
Amanda - your videos ended up looking great! I was impressed with the Prezi and how it turned out when you recorded it. It's so great that the project you did in this course is (hopefully) going to be used right away in your new class. The view you have of student interest, or lack of interest, in math can be solved. Using technology to engage students and motivate them by showing the videos in class are great strategies. I'm also still excited to use knol.com with webquests that I hope to do this year. Great job!
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