Simulations: How are they useful in an educational setting?

I think that simulations are useful because they can allow you to do things that you might not otherwise be able to do. I remember doing simulations in history class without technology but it allowed me to really understand what it was like for the people during the time period we were studying. I think that simulations can be very helpful for my math classes, especially since I can use technology to create simulations. Many times it is difficult to illustrate properly concepts on the board, especially if it involves three-dimension objects. If I am able to simulate concepts on a computer I think students can get a better grasp on a topic. For instance with integrals, I can draw rectangles of different numbers to illustrate that the more there are the closer to the actual area it is, but if I have a computer program that can more accurately illustrate that concept, more students might be able to understand integrals. I think that simulations are also helpful because students learn in so many different ways. The more ways you can use to teach a subject the greater possibility you have of reaching all the students and helping them understand the information.

Tech Autobiography Update:

I wanted to start by apologizing that this is almost a week late. Things have been so crazy and I just plain forgot to check to see if something was done for the reading break. But here is my update....

The main thing that has stuck out to me so far in this class was the day that we learned how to make a website. I had used excel before so that was not new but I was intrigued by making websites. I am really excited to use them in the classroom and make websites that my students can acces at home to do work and understand the concepts in new ways. I know that I would have to get a program like "Dreamweaver" or another program that makes it easier because I could not spend the time looking up how to write everything out in code. That we make me frustrated and I would end up not making websites at all. It has also been interesting to learn about probes. It made me think back more on my middle and high school experiences and think how my teachers might have been incorporating technology by using probes but I may not have even noticed. One thing I remembered was when we used a special piece of equipment that could hook into a TI-83 calculator and display everything onto a screen. Not only were we learning how to use our calculators more but our teacher was also about to help us learn more complicated concepts in math.

Do you think using probes are helpful?

I think that probes are very helpful and useful for the classroom. When we were learning about them we did a probe that involved using a motion detector. This was something I did in two different math classes, once in middle school and once in high school. I didn't realize until we learned about them exactly what the purpose of it was; I just knew how much I enjoyed it. I think probes are useful because it makes it relatable to the students. In my EDLF 501 class we learned that students are about to learn better when it is something they can connect to and relate to. When I heard this I thought that it was very smart but also very difficult to implement in math. But after going through the probes exercise I realized that math can be made much more relatable to the students. It's been six years since I first used a motion detector and I still remember the lesson that we learned that day. Probes bring the subject from something on a page to something used in every day life. I think probes are especially useful in classes like math or PE where it is hard to see, especially at the more advanced math levels, how what they are learning has any connection to their every day lives. With math I think there are times where it is difficult to find a direct connection but by using probes the teacher is able to put the information in a context that is more understandable. I am excited to think about different ways to bring probes into the math classroom. Using a motion detector is the only first hand experience with a probe I can recall from high school so I think it is going to be more of a challenge for me but I feel very strongly that it is worth it.

Webquests:

http://www.esc2.net/TIELevel2/projects/roller/ -- This was a Webquest that combined math and science by having the students design their own roller coaster. I thought it was good because it used something that most students would enjoy. It also challenged the students to think in ways that they might not normally by having them become different members of a building team. I thought it was smart of the teacher to give the students some links to help them begin their research to get imformation in their different "jobs". I did think though that the teachers may have given the students a few too many links so that they were not challenged enough to do their own research but rather just go to the pre-chosen websites. The whole webquest would take about 6 days which I thought was smart because it gave the students plenty of time to really invest in what they were doing and learn about the math and science behind a roller coaster. Although this may seem somewhat trival, I thought that the fact that the page the webquest was on interesting and eye-catching so that the students would not be bored from the beginning with what they were doing.

http://www.crosslink.net/~branham/webquest.htm -- This webquest had the students looking at different college tuitions, making a spreadsheet on different financial information, and then picking three schools they might want to attend. I did not think that this webquest was as good as the previous one I had found. I thought there was a lot of information that the students were supposed to gather with not a lot help. Although most of the students who would be involved in this webquest are probably looking into colleges, I did not think that the idea was as stimilating as designing a roller coaster. Overall I did not get the feel that this would be as much as a mathematical help but more helpful in just thinking about where they might want to go to school. I did like the conclusions at the end that made the students think about how math was involved in their decision. That was the only thing that I thought really challenged the students to think and use math in a way that they may not have before.