1998 Prof End Of Year Memo
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In his self-evaluation, A. Jorge García reviews his goals of helping students communicate mathematical reasoning effectively. He incorporated cooperative learning activities and extended tasks. As a result, students learned to communicate fluently in mathematics and explain their work to each other and him. García also tried to use a Computer Algebra System (CAS) for mathematical reports but was limited by time constraints. He proposes adding a math lab period to allow more CAS exploration and benefit both AP Calculus AB and BC students. For next year, García plans to include more lab time and start self-paced Mathematica notebooks to further students' mathematical learning.
1998 Prof End Of Year Memo
- 1. To: Leslie Kellner, Dept of Math Chair at Baldwin SHS From: A. Jorge Garca, Teacher of Calculus and Comp Sci Date: 6/8/99 Re: SelfEvaluation My goal was to help students effectively and fluently communicate mathematical reasoning. I endeavored to achieve this goal departing from the premise that a student learns a topic best when required to teach it to another person. In order to reinforce this experience, we incorporated several cooperative learning activities (group review sessions, team tests, study buddies) and extended tasks (take home exams, board work). As a result, my Calculus BC class learned to communicate fluently in mathematics as a language. They instructed each other in the cooperative activities and explained their results to me via extended tasks. We emphasized the importance of making mathematical arguments graphically, numerically, analytically and verbally. We also tried to learn to use a Computer Algebra System (CAS) to write mathematical reports. It was very difficult to include lab time, however. With the demands of the AP Calculus BC curriculum, we were only able to do lab work one or two periods a month. What little we did was very beneficial. If we could have had an additional lab period every other day as in science classes, we would have been able to exploit the full potential of Mathematica, our CAS, as an educational tool to explore many more applications of The Calculus. Perhaps a MathLab for 4H students could be team taught by myself and the AP Calculus AB teacher. Students in both AB and BC classes could then benefit from a lab experience. Logistically, the AB students could have the additional lab period days 2&4, while the BC students would have lab days 1&3. In addition, 4HAB and 4HBC teachers would both be present to help students during every lab session days 14. I believe that I have attained most of my goal as shown above. However, next year, I will try to include more lab time and at least start the selfpaced Mathematica notebooks downloaded from the University of Illinois. As these software courses are quite extensive, it would help to have Internet access in the computer lab (room 429) so students could download the notebooks and tutorials themselves. The University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign and Ohio State University, under the direction of Dr. Uhl from Illinois and in association with NSF, has developed a notebook course for Differential Calculus I, Integral Calculus II, Vector Calculus III, Power Series and Approximation Theory IV, Differential Equations V and Linear Algebra VI. These Calculus&Mathematica materials (please see attached) are available in printed form from: AddisonWesley at www.awl.com or directly from the web at: wwwcm.math.uiuc.edu/ Professional End of Year Evaluation