Teaching the Basics [Oct. ’23 BHS PD]

Professional Development | BHS

[Friday, October 6, 2023]

Introduction

Welcome. The following is our tentative agenda. Please note that the agenda is a guide and is subject to change based on our real-time experiences.

Morning Session

Words Game: Taboo.

Directions:

Creatively give your team or partner clues. You may speak, act, sing, color, mold, or anything… do NOT say any of the “taboo” words (including the keyword at the top of each card).

Taboo Cards – Units of Time

Units-of-Time-Warm-Up-and-Taboo-1 Download

Taboo Cards – Numbers, Variables, Expressions, and Equations

Variables-Expressions-Equations-PreAL-Taboo-1 Download

Vernier Sensors and Curvy Graphs.

Directions:

We will use the Vernier sensors and software to make curvy graphs like the one below.

Below is the material that my daughter, Rosaleigh, used to make her curvy graph (shown above).

What do you think or wonder about the graph and the materials? Which aspects could you explain or describe in writing or speaking?

Vernier Thermometers

Vernier Motion

Desmos, Turtles, and Curvy Graphs.

https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/5ddbf9ae009cd90bcdeaadd7?collections=featured-collections%2C5da6476150c0c36a0caf8ffb

Desmos, Dr. Walter Stroup, Elevators, and Delta Blocks.

Delta Area with Position

Results from Our Professional Development

Below are the graphs we generated using the Vernier app and temperature probe.

This graph is generated from the data points collected in Vernier and analyzed in Excel.

Below are data points collected manually from the group using a digital meat thermometer, a stopwatch, and a paper/pencil data collection paper. One participant entered the data into an Excel spreadsheet and generated a visual using the data points. Which representation below is more faithful to the experiment?

Vernier-Graph-temp-time-curvy Download

Afternoon Session

Words Game: Which doesn’t belong?

Quantities – Intensive and Extensive

#density #ratio #intensive #quantity — Describe and visualize density as an intensive quantity related to mass and volume.

#momentum #extensive #qunatity #ratio #rate #rateofchange #teachingthebasics #qualitativecalculus #calculus #algebra #physics — Visualize and describe the extensive quantity: momentum.

#elasticity #modulus #intensive #stretchy #extensive #phsyics #algebra #calculus #teachingthebasics — Visualize and describe elasticity as an intensive or extensive quantity that is context-dependent.

Scatter Plots and Regression Lines

We will use Google Sheets and Desmos as tools to build visualizations of data and regression lines. These visuals are signifiers that can elicit words, routines, and stories from and amongst students and teachers.

#density #coordinateplane #data #scatterplot #regressionline #lineofbestfit #intensivequantity #rateofchange #slope #linear #algebra #teachingthebasics #qualitativecalculus #calculus — Plot mass over volume to visualize density.

#density #desmos #proprotional #linear #origin #coordinateplane #data #scatterplot #regressionline #lineofbestfit #intensivequantity #rateofchange #slope #linear #algebra #teachingthebasics #qualitativecalculus #calculus — Plot mass over volume to visualize density.

Teaching the Basics Using Density in Eco-Bricks and The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

03.1 Classroom resources – sixth grade mathematics by Samantha Flynn

Possible Driving Questions

What are the basics of mathematics?

How may teachers, students, parents, mathematicians, and AI realize such “basics” in mathematics? …in life? …in communities? … in communication?

In what ways [if any] are the basics spoken about in the classroom and elsewhere?

Which visuals facilitate communication about the basics? Which visuals interfere with communication about the basics of mathematics?

Are there routines that emerge from repeated actions associated with the words and visuals that mediate communication about the basics of mathematics?

What stories do we tell about mathematics so that we are thinking within the framework of mathematics as a shared discourse that transforms over lifetimes and across generations?