Teaching Ordered Pairs Using Technology
Posted by: Elizabeth Redmond in Education, Educational Technology, Middle School MathTechnology can help you teach math more efficiently. Too often students engage in paper and pencil tasks when they could be actively engaged with math concepts.
Recently, I observed a middle school math lesson. Students were sitting quietly, following the directions of the teacher. They were drawing a coordinate grid on a piece of graph paper. It took 15 laborious minutes for the completion of this one coordinate grid. Here are the steps they took:
- At first, students were confused on the direction their paper should be in…..horizontally or vertically (the teacher did give directions about this).
- Then students were meticulously counting the number of squares on the graph paper to find the
exact middle (both horizontally and vertically) in order to draw the x- and y-axes. - The teacher needed to work with many students in order to correct the placement of the axes…
the counting took place again. - Once the grids were finally set up, students began plotting ordered pairs.
- The last step of this “activity” was to connect the ordered pairs to find out what picture resulted.
The purpose of this activity was to practice locating points on a coordinate grid (as a review to get ready for work with scatter plots and transformation of shapes). But, why spend 15 minutes drawing one coordinate grid and then using paper and pencil to locate the ordered pairs? What’s the better alternative?
Many teachers might say, “Well, just print out the graph paper with the coordinate grid already drawn.”
Yes, this will save time, but when you really think about it, does this solution allow for maximizing instructional time with meaningful activities and learning?
Take a look at these options:
December Lites using the TI-73 Graphing Calculator
In this activity, students will graph ordered pairs in order to create a picture of a candle. I particularly like the activity because of it connection to the timeless connect-the-dots activities so beloved of younger children! But, here, technology, through the use of a TI-73 graphing calculator, enhances the experience. Once created, students are then challenged to recreate the picture by changing the ‘rule’ of the ordered pairs.
Teaching Coordinate Graphing with Microsoft Excel
This lesson plan idea provides teachers a way to use technology to create meaningful activities that connect to the real world. Step-by-step directions are given on how to import an outline of a state (or country) map into an Excel spreadsheet that serves as a coordinate grid. Student can be asked to identify certain map features or draw in features using coordinate locations.
And for something cute…
Flies move along a coordinate grid and settle down in one location. Students identify the fly’s location and when correct, a frog releases his tongue to capture the fly.
Students have 90 seconds to locate as many aliens as possible on Planet Algebra.
Entries (RSS)
September 21st, 2008 at 11:59 am
I am currently studying for my teaching license and MAT to teach secondary mathematic. I have been substituting in various grade levels for several years and have noticed quite a dependency on calculators. While I completely agree with incorporating the use of technology in the classroom as much as possible for many reasons, I feel it is essential that the students still know and understand how to do the basics by hand and in their head. This would include being able to draw a quick graph for reference on a piece of paper with a pencil, and this does take practice. How do teachers know when to allow the use of calculators on a regular basis and how do you suggest a teacher make sure the students know the basics before depending on the calculator?
Thanks for any suggestions!
September 21st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Catch the Fly was very easy to use. I imagine that students would much rather be graphing on-line as opposed to on paper. However, the stress of the time limits on Locate the Aliens was very intimidating! The boxes should be identified as x and y for better understanding. Also, I would like to see an icon to click your answer as opposed to press enter. Again, much more fun than identifying coordinates of a point on paper!
September 25th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
NA:
As Pete Seeger sang, “To everything … there is season … and a time for every purpose under heaven.” As so is true with calculators. As a math educator, one of the decisions we have to make is how and when to use technology in our lessons.
Calculators (and other technology) enhance and speed up the learning experience. They can eliminate the time spent on long and sometimes complicated series of computations and allow students to focus on the problem solving.
Here two articles that explore this topic further:
http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/research_therole.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080819160203.htm
The article from Science Daily discusses current research about the importance of children needing to learn how to calculate answers on thier own, but that the calculator is also a good tool for the basic facts.
My friend and colleague, Rusen Meylani, made a post today on the use of calculators in the classroom…..you might consider reading his thoughts too!
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for us teachers to know when exactly to employ the use of a calculator. We need to consider the lesson or task we put before our students and ask ourselves what role the calculator would play.
Best of luck in your studies! Hope to see you back on the blog soon!
-Elizabeth