The area that I would like to investigate more in my TechQuest would be the idea behind using factoring to solve quadratic equations. In my math setting, I have found that many of my students seem to struggle with factoring. This becomes a greater issue when it comes time to solve a quadratic equation because factoring is the quickest way to solve these types of problems, if possible. I want to find a way for students to use this idea so that they can better handle these quadratic equations and really get a better understanding of what it means to actually use this factoring to solve these problems.
I think this would make a meaningful difference because if students have an easier time solving these problems, it will give them an opportunity to focus more on the big ideas when working with quadratic equations. Not to mention, I think that when students can compare the similarities of solving these equations using other methods and understand the different non-linguistic ways by setting up a visual table representation to help them factor to find the solutions to these problems, as the Brabec, Fisher, and Pitler article states, they have a much greater opportunity to grasp the concepts of solving these equations. Another reason I would like to investigate this using some facet of technology is that I think it aligns with Brophy's ideas of getting an opportunity to learn. I believe that by utilizing some aspect of technology, this will get the students fully engaged in learning about solving quadratics by factoring and ultimately give them a better understanding of the topic at hand.
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Don -
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea, and I struggled to decide what to pick as I was unsure if I should pick an actual math related topic, as we all know students struggle with many of the main concepts OR something more related to the educational processes in our classroom. It will be interesting to compare as we work together through our TechQuests.
Unfortunately, I don't have much teaching expertise in factoring, because I have not taught it. However, I'm sure once you start researching, that you will find some very cool tools to help your students grasp the concept.
Thanks for the ideas from my post!
Don, I tried to comment the other night but I obviously was sure how to do everything yet! Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI too struggled with quadratic equations and think that breaking it down into factoring??? using technology to help explain the process seems to would.
Great problem of practice! A lot has been done with using Web 2.0 tools for math - Blogs and wikis comes to mind! You might want to check out http://am40s.pbworks.com This wiki has been designed by the teacher to be "a place for students to help each other learn by writing a collaborative solutions manual! This counts for marks. You must make at least two edits/contributions to the wiki. One must be a significant contribution and the other must be a constructive modification." A second site is http://adifference.blogspot.com the students have to solve the problems and show how they solved them by including annotated calculations and interpretations. Here is another: http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com/ Looking forward to learning more about your project=8-)
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