Comments on: Watch Students Watch The Answer To Their Math Problem

By: Shaun Errichiello

Shaun Errichiello — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:39:16 +0000

You are right that GeoGebra can’t be entirely constricted (which is why I love it!) However it can be restricted for classroom use if it is embedded in a webpage. I made a quick video tutorial: http://youtu.be/F2D7d0e7N0M

You can download and play with the worksheet here: http://tube.geogebra.org/material/show/id/27042

Does anyone have a collection of these types of problems? I am making more but wanted to see other ideas as I tinker with this stuff.

By: Andrew Stadel

Andrew Stadel — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 22:36:25 +0000

Giddy up Sadie!
When I first saw this 3Act at Dan’s Palm Springs conference, I immediately became excited because I know I’d be using it with my Algebra kiddos this year. Thanks for sharing you students responses. I love how you now your students will remember calculating the slopes and y-intercepts. In the end, I think the teacher has an opportunity to create those moments in class where students will have belief in the math they are doing. Keep it up!

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 03:59:25 +0000

I don’t think video is necessarily better than Geogebra or vice versa but their different constraints are interesting. With video, you don’t need computers for everyone. With Geogebra, if you don’t have computers for everyone, you lose what is IMO its best feature, which is that students can scrub the slider around to orient themselves to the context. They can go backwards and forwards in time. If you’re able to fully lock down the system (in a way that’s irreversible by the student) so that the student can’t get the answer to the question in advance, I’d prefer the GGB approach. (All other things like 1:1 laptops being equal.)

I’m not sure it’s possible to lock down a GGB file that tightly, though. Please send it along if it is.

By: shaun

shaun — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 01:40:41 +0000

Good question, I don’t have enough working computers or a projector (yet) to run the demo in the classroom, but I imagine that restricting the slider to a small number of steps (like 10 or 15) would help them think about the problem.

Until I am able to run it in the classroom, I will assign it as a homework with the slider cut to about 15 steps or so. Then I can assign a follow up home work assignment asking a question like, “how would you change the dimensions so that that the pattern will hit the left and right sides first? Each leg at the same time?” Then I might follow up with some other problems that are similar, but perhaps are enclosed in different shapes and perhaps grow in different ways. I would create matching GeoGebra simulations for some, but certainly not all. I eventually want them to visualize without help. That was my orignal goal: to create a variety of pixel patterns that grow in different ways.

What are your thoughts?

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:26:12 +0000

That's great, Shaun. Really dazzling Geogebra work. So how does the lesson change now that students can just drag the slider to answer the original question? How do you envision the task unfolding now?

By: shaun

shaun — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:37:21 +0000

I had some fun finding a way to make this work on GeoGebra. It was a big learning experience for me, but I wanted students to be able to tinker with the problem and I wanted to open up the possibility of setting up animations for similar pixel patterns.

I made a quick video showing the Pixel Problem on GeoGebra: http://youtu.be/ON6qcvBdchg

You can also download or use this program here: http://www.geogebratube.org/material/show/id/26401

I will make videos explaining the programming behind it so that other teachers can expand on the idea.

I hope this helps and thanks again for the great problem.

Also, I tried to give appropriate credit to you in the video and program. Let me know if there are any issues.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:56:13 +0000

shaun:

Can AfterEffects actually animate the sequence or did you copy and scale the image with each step?

The latter, which was a miserable, miserable pain. AfterEffects includes ActionScript, a pretty powerful scripting language, which probably could have automated the process, but that's a bit beyond me.

By: shaun

shaun — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 04:27:57 +0000

thanks, my main editing tool has been screenflow, but I love the pixel effects. I am going to try out AfterEffects and attempt to create some similar pile pattern problems. Can AfterEffects actually animate the sequence or did you copy and scale the image with each step?

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:10:42 +0000

Hi Shaun, my standard toolkit includes Adobe Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and Adobe AfterEffects (which did most of the heavy lifting in Pixel Pattern). They aren’t tools I recommend for every math teacher, but they do allow us to create some interesting mathematical experiences for students.

By: shaun

shaun — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:49:54 +0000

I really love this lesson design and wanted to ask what software you used to animate the shape and was interested in exploring similar types of questions. Any suggestion for similar problems? I am not sure how to find other examples like this or how to design problems like this for my students.

I am also going to attempt to construct this sequence with GeoGebra.

Again thanks for the lesson design. Great stuff!