Assignment One
A) Choose one mathematics course you teach and find 5 applications for some concepts in the “real world” from the internet.
The class I teach is Elementary Algebra.
Graphing Equations
Graphing equations is used in the business world when tracking the performance of stock. Stock prices can be found on this website:
Graphing Equations
Students can learn how to plot points and create graph based on the statistics of their favorite sports players or team.
http://www.amstat.org/sections/sis/
Graphing Equations
Students can track various weather conditions or temperatures over time for various states or regions. This information can be gathered to create graphs and regressions.
Graphing Equations
Students are very interested in movies and the entertainment industry. Students could find information on how much money their favorite movie made over time. They could also find out how much money the DVD made when it came out.
http://www.allmovie.com/mov_stats.html
Graphing Equations
Students in my introductory classes are very interested in their future career or deciding which careers they want. The salaries of these careers and the education required for those careers are very important. Students can find how much a career earns and find out how much the career can earn over time.
http://jobsmart.org/tools/salary/sal-prof.cfm
B) Find 5 web sites that can be used to enhance a traditional course. Explain how you would incorporate them into the course.
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/kiaschko/490netmp.html
This web site uses real life applications for linear equations. This web site also contains activities for students to complete and learn about linear equations.
http://www.nsa.gov/programs/mepp/hs/alg66.pdf
This website has some nice activities for learning how to graph linear equations. The best part is it also implements technology. The technology used is the graphing calculator and it teaches the students how to create program for table of values using the TI 82 or TI 83.
This website offers a detailed tutorial on how to use the TI 83 graphing calculator. The website has a step by step explanation and has pictures of all of the TI 83 screens. This website would a great resource for students to learn how to use the TI 83 at their own pace and allow those who are more advanced to learn new features of the TI 83.
http://www.illuminations.nctm.org/imath/912/LinearRelationships/student/index.html#first
This website allows to students to understand what a linear regression is. The students can plot various points and then the applet will give the linear equation for the best fitting line. This gives the students a visual representation and allows the students to try a linear regression quickly and easily.
http://www.algebrahelp.com/index.jsp
This website is a valuable resource for students to get help with Algebra. This website offers study tips, Algebra lessons, worksheet, and other aids in learning Algebra. This website offers various forms of technology like many types of calculators from basic to a 3D graphing calculator and calculators that find prime numbers and factor.
I would incorporate these websites into my course by using them for out of class activities and as a resource for students who need extra help or want to learn more. I would make an assignment where the students would go these sites and create something based on what they learned. For example, I would have the students go to the TI 83 calculator to learn how to graph certain equations, and then I would have a lab or quiz that asks them to graph similar equations. Another example, is would have a lab where the students need to use the technology found in the website to solve certain problems. The other way I would incorporate these websites into my course is to have them on my webpage under titles of, “If you need help factoring click here and then click….”, so the student have a resource outside of class.