Mike's Web Page...Thanks for Stopping at EDUC464.  This Class Rocks!!!

 

This is a link to my school web page

 

Assignment #1 "EXCEL"

 

I actually used a spreadsheet for the first assignment in which my students were asked to search for past Superbowl statistics.  All of the stats were arranged in the spreadsheet and data was collected, compiled, compared, contrasted, concocted, configured, contested, and comprehended to the best of each students ability.  The sky was definitely the limit with this particular assignment because there are endless amounts of data for each Superbowl.  Finally, and most importantly, we completed this assignment to determine a wise mathematical choice to collectively make the "best" possible wager in Vegas!!!

 

 

 

 

I Wanna Be a Bookie, Superbowl Stats Research Project
Teams	Score	Spread	Beat the Spread	Over/under	Over or Under?	Who won coin toss	Superbowl Winner
Patriots vs. Giants	Giants 17, Pats 14	Pats by 13.5	No	55	Under	Giants	Giants
Colts vs. Bears	Colts 29, Bears 17	Colts by 6.5	Yes	48.5	Under	Bears	Colts
Seahawks vs. Steelers	Steelers 21, Hawks 10	Steelers by 4	Yes	47	Under	Seahawks	Steelers
Pats vs. Eagles	Pats 24, Eagles 21	Pats by 7	No	46	Under	Eagles	Pats
Pats vs. Panthers	Pats 32, Panthers 29	Pats by 7	No	38	Over	Panthers	Pats
Bucs vs. Raiders	Bucs 48, Raiders 21	Raiders by 4	No	44	Over	Bucs	Bucs

 

 

 

 Assignment #2 Power Point Presentation

 

 

 

The Men that Made Math 2.ppt 

 

Assignment #3 Virtual Tour

 

For this assignment, I visited many, many, many, sites claiming to have a "math" virtual tour, but none were what I thought they would be.  I finally came across PlaneMath  and I thought it was a pretty cool page....and the first real virtual tour that actially had some mathematical significance.  I would use this in an elementary or middle school class to introduce distance, geometric shape, general problem solving, and pilots licensing.  Overall, I don't think it would take any more than 15 or 20 minutes of class time to use this tour, and students would think it is pretty cool to use, other than having the teacher draw shapes on the board and write out all of the definitions etc.

 

Here is my webquest, enjoy!

 

 mp webquest.doc

 

Assignment #4  Inspiration

Finally an easy assignment here in EDU464 for a math teacher.  For my assignment to the students, I would have them collect data....it could be anything, but for the sake of this assignment, I will be more specific and ask the students to compare number of days they were absent and their grade point average.  Once they have collected enough data, then they could used the InspireData site to input their data and visualize the results graphically.  I would then ask them to make conclusions based on the data to determine relationships, if any exist.  This would be an awesome tool to use for students to visualize data graphically and also for them to see data represented in different ways.  My main areas of interest for the students would be to demonstrate their ability to load data into the InspireData program and analyze the results; especially in the areas of scatterplots, linear regression, and data correlation.  This is just one example....with the inspiration program, educators only limits are their imaginations.

 

Assgnment#7 Chatrooms

 

 

 

 

I think chat's can be utilized my teachers in a variety of different ways; however, I think teachers must be careful as to the age level in which they are used.  For my academic area of math, I would specifically use it for homework review or homework assistance.  For the most part, I would only allow upper level students, in my case Calculus students to use the chat's(for me its all about maturity level).  I think as students attempt their homework and become frustrated or "stuck" other students could attempt to assist, other than only me as the teacher.  We as a group could also discuss different ways of doing the problem.

 

I would also be very careful to establish a strict educational setting.  Sure students could be a little bit more casual, but any sexual references, harsh, or degrading language would absolutely not be tolerated.  For any math class, this could be quite useful....with only one drawback.  The notation(s) that are used in upper level mathematics are not easily typed into a computer, so some sort of "code" could be used, unless students want to type everything out.

 

Assignment #8  Blogs

Here is my blog site for 21 classes.  Again I would use this to monitor homework issues that have arisen in my classes.  All students would be required to access the site at least once a week during a specified time in the evening(unless they have no computer access).  Not only would this be used for homework or study issues, but I would also ask my more academically minded students more indepth questions to be solved for extra credit.  Again, an issue here would be typing specific math code quickly...but overall I think it could work in math classes.