IEP-Part 2

Laron Thomas

Ed 632 Internet Resources Management Class

IEP-Part 2

               

 IEP Lesson 5-Pythagorean Theorem 1

 IEP Lesson 6-Pythagorean Theorem 2

              The second portion of my Individual Education Project incorporates much more technology than the first. However, the main thing I wanted to incorporate into the project was the website www.mathdisk.com, which I did manage to incorporate. When I taught these lessons in Algebra 1 a couple years back, I knew that I wanted to give my students something hands-on to help them remember the Pythagorean Theorem. So, we did an intricate cut and paste job using rulers and such to verify and even prove the Pythagorean Theorem in class. The project went well enough, and I may continue to use it but probably not at the beginning of a sequence of lessons on the subject. Instead, I think that students will initially get a lot more out of it if they use Mathdisk’s “worksheet” on the Pythagorean Theorem to verify it in Lesson 1 and then to make simple calculations in Lesson 2. The use of Mathdisk as an integral part of this lesson allows students in a sense to play around a bit with the site and still learn by doing some calculations and changing up the triangles. Using paper and scissors, such a project would be next to impossible. At the least, it would take insidiously long.

                There are a few more comments I need to make about these lessons. First, I would have to modify the existing Mathdisk worksheet to make it suit our purposes. This means that I would have to do some creating on the website, which I still have to work at learning. Second, I want to point out that I use two other web tools. The first one is MovieMaker about Pythagoras in Lesson 1. I could have groups of students make a simple film or I could make one myself depending on what I wanted to do. However, I think that biographies would be great opportunities for students to do the same story project I did earlier in this course. There are various ways I could design such a lesson and I’m not sure I know how I would accomplish such a lesson right now. The easiest way would be to make the biography myself with the help of the students. We could piece it together and watch it as an introduction to the Pythagorean Theorem. Also, notice how I use Quizlet in these lessons as well. It offers a great opportunity for the students to solidify their understandings of the vocabulary terms on day 1. On day 2, it serves as a filler at the end of class for those who finish early.

                Finally, I would probably piece together at least two more lessons on the Pythagorean Theorem before I would consider my direct teaching on the subject to be complete. However, the objectives would basically be the same. Perhaps, I may add the objective of using the theorem for real world problems as well, thus making the lessons about a week long. I think that one week is a good length of time given the importance of the Pythagorean Theorem as well as the algebra and geometry necessary to work with it, which serves as a wonderful review.