Five Things I Learned at PCMI: Thursday 7/16/15

1. I learned a great deal from Dylan Williams. See the full post here: http://mrjanesmath.blogspot.com/2015/07/dylan-williams-at-pcmi.html

2. Chris introduced me to a question structure for inquiry. After students have become familiar with a problem, scenario, or task, they should be asked to generate at least one or two questions in each of the following categories. Level 1 questions are questions that they know the answer to, level 2 questions are ones that they don’t know the answer to but have an idea of how to approach it, and level 3 questions are ones that they don’t know how to approach. All three levels are important. It might seem trivial to write down questions that students already to know the answer to, but it is important to parse out what information is known and what is unknown. Besides, it also helps validate student thinking. Chris also noted that throughout the activity, questions should be moved from one level to another as they are answered, or more insight has been achieved.

3. We discussed “My Favorite No” today. I’ve seen this before, but I want to incorporate this in my class. Rather than boring you, let’s go straight to the source: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/class-warm-up-routine

4. We have also discussed 5-Practice Routines for the past two weeks, but now is a good time to bring them up. Again, the source a la Christopher Danielson: https://christopherdanielson.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/five-practices/

5. Marty talked to me about The SimCalc Project at UMass Dartmouth. The objective of the project was to create software that allows students to collect data on computer simulations relevant to algebra and calculus classes. The software and curricula are now available online for purchase: http://www.kaputcenter.umassd.edu/products/. However, Marty cautioned that other programs that used more hands-on simulations and data collection had more success. I’m not teaching calculus next year, but I’ll pass this one on to my colleague who is.

6. (Extra Credit) Beth A Herbel Eisenmann is a mathematics education researcher at Michigan State University who focuses on promoting student discourse. Her book Promoting Purposeful Discourse was recommended to be by a colleague at PCMI.