Devin+Carlson

A 16-year-old schoolboy has solved a mathematical problem which has stumped mathematicians for centuries, a newspaper report said. The boy put the historical breakthrough down to “schoolboy naivety.”

[|http://www.thelocal.de/education/20120523-42687.htm]

Assignment #1 - Scavenger Hunt

__Reflection__

When I first heard that we would be spending Wednesday afternoon doing a scavenger hunt I was pretty frustrated and annoyed. Mainly because Wednesday happened to be my 33rd birthday and I didn't want to spend that time off goofing around in the city. I was hoping for the tried and true predictability of class from 4:30 to 8 and then a mellow evening at home.

Instead of working with the group of teachers from Cotopaxi I opted to meet up with just one other student to try to tackle the scavenger hunt quickly and efficiently. Rebecca and I planned to meet in the park around 4:30 which meant that I would have time to walk there from work and take pictures along the way. At first I didn't really know what to look for but as the blocks passed by I became attuned to the hunt and started to really get into it.

Maybe the weather helped out but I ended up surprising myself at how much fun I was having during the activity. I hadn't spent much time in Quito with a camera in a long time so I was very happy to see the results on screen. The clear air up here is so perfect for capturing some amazing afternoon light.

Rebecca and I fed off each other and were able to capture some pretty inspiring photos of scenes that we wouldn't have thought to be all that conducive to creativity. I hope that the presentation goes well and that people see our vision and understand why we chose the images that we did. WISH WE WOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY!! YOUR REFLECTION GAVE AN INTERESTING ACCOUNTING OF YOUR ADVENTURE. I DO WISH YOU HAD CONNECTED THE EXPERIENCE TO BARRON AND EISNER AS INDICATED ON THE ASSIGNMENT. MORE ON THE HUNT IN THE EMAIL TO YOU DIRECTLY.

Assignment #2 - Lesson Plan One (The one that I'm going to implement next week) ** Discipline and Topic ** Mathematics - Algebra 2 - Final Summative Project ** Learning outcomes for lesson in relationship to unit goals ** Students will apply the skills of data analysis, modelling, and project design as a final project for the end of the year

** Strategy and rationale for strategy use ** This project will begin with a brainstorming activity during which students will come up with a variety of ideas that could be expanded into this project. It is this list of ideas that will serve as the seed for the project design that students will undertake. The reason that brainstorming was selected is because students often have a hard time selecting their project and we want them to actually come up with something novel instead of me handing them the parameters for a project. Come on people, divergent thinking here!

** Description of strategy that includes outlining the steps involved ** Begin with a sample brainstorming idea such as, //how many ways can you pop this balloon//, //if your parent's car broke down on the way to school//, or //what would you do if it started raining and you had a big paper bag full of flour//? FUN WARM-UPS

After students have warmed up introduce the basic idea of the project.

Students will form groups (no more than 3) to design a physical activity that can produce data that can be modelled by one of the classes of functions that we have studied this year. The possible function classes are linear, quadratic, exponential, logarithmic, sinusoidal, polynomial, rational, or irrational.

Implement the project, collect data, and create a model that could be used to predict the data that were collected.

Create some method of information delivery. This could be either a presentation, poster, video, photo essay, or anything else that you come up with as long as you clear it with me first.

Present your project to the combined group of our class and the other Algebra 2 course.

** Description of how you would implement and assess the activity ** The brainstorming activities will be done as a class (14 students) so that everyone can build off each other's responses and we get a solid list of possible projects to choose from.

Students will break into groups and choose one of the project of brainstormed ideas. Each idea can only be used once. They will then begin to design the procedures and data collection method. This time can also be used to decide how the project will be presented.

Students will be assessed on how the construct their project, the difficulty of the function class (linear can be much easier than quadratic which can be simpler than exponential growth), data collection accuracy and methods, and final presentation.

** Reflection ** How did the lesson help students’ be more creative. What did you notice? What would you extend or do differently next time. ---This will be filled in after I am able to implement this lesson next week--- I LIKE HOW YOU WILL HAVE THE STUDENTS GENERATE MANY POSSIBLE IDEAS BEFORE CHOOSING THE ONE THEY WILL USE. Lesson Plan - Number 2

** Discipline and Topic ** Economics - Microeconomics - Market Failure ** Learning outcomes for lesson in relationship to unit goals ** Students will understand how to find examples of market failure in the economy around them. Market Failure is essentially the failure of the capitalist experiment to provide people with what they really want and/or need. Oft cited examples are: health care, monopolistic behavior, under-allocation of resources towards parks, green space, or recreation, water projects, and security.


 * Strategy and rationale for strategy use ** I'm going to use brainstorming again here. I like the way that it allows us to break out of the common roles and routes that our personalities and brains put us in. This is especially useful when talking about economics because so many of the ideas and concepts are hidden behind government programs, advertising, and our own human nature.


 * Description of strategy that includes outlining the steps involved **
 * Warm students up with a simple brainstorming activity such as //If you're lost and alone in the woods and come across a bunch of mushrooms growing on a log, how could you test to see if they're edible?// or //How many ways could you wash the windows on the third-story of your house,// or //What could you use this for?// (while holding up some found object).
 * Once they're going, re-introduce the idea of market failure as explained in a previous class period. Give the most common examples that we study.
 * Divide students into groups and ask them to brainstorm at least 15 possible places where market failure could be found in Quito or Ecuador. If there are students from other countries then they can bring up examples from their home as well.
 * Bring the class back together and spend a few minutes discussing all the possibilities but not telling anyone if they're right or wrong.
 * Have students either pair up or work together to select one of the ideas and begin an investigation into whether or not that constitutes an appropriate failure of the capitalist system.
 * Students will then prepare a mini-presentation about their market failure and why or why it isn't a failure.

TBD - this will be implemented next year in my microeconomics course. THIS SOUNDS INTERESTING BUT YOU WERE TO USE TWO DIFFERENT STRATEGIES.
 * Description of how you would implement and assess the activity **
 * This will be assessed by looking at what students bring to the brainstorming activity (participation) as well as their finished market failure project that they will present.
 * Reflection **

Assignment #3 =Mini - Pre-Assignment= Summary of 5 main points that you find compelling

The big idea: rote memorization can stifle a student’s ability to think creatively. When we force students to simply regurgitate facts we eliminate their need to solve problems and really exercise their brains. It is not surprising that the school that taught problem solving saw an increase in their test scores. Problem solvers are flexible and when faced with a difficult problem, or simply a problem they’ve never seen before, they are able to at least try a little. Contrast this with students who are taught to memorize facts and regurgitate processes. Those little guys get pretty freaked out when faced with a problem that is outside the scope of what they’ve memorized.

The question of course is how to foster the sense of problem solving in a mathematics or economics classroom? How do we get students to stop searching for ‘the answer’ and start looking at the process. That is so much more exciting and fun. Sure we can setup ‘real-life’ projects and situations where students need to use multiple intelligences to come to some reasonable conclusions, but how do we instill a sense of wonder into those kids? Often I have come into conflict with students who just want me to show them how to do the problem and get incredibly frustrated when I ask them to try to figure it out themselves. Here are the tools, now you guys figure out how to do this. It’s easier for a student to just go through the memorization process and not have to use their creative powers at all. BY THE TIME YOU GET THESE STUDENTS IN YOUR CLASS THEY HAVE LEARNED TO SEEK THE ONE RIGHT ANSWER. HOW SAD.

The TED talk by Ken Robinson was very interesting and amusing. I particularly was impressed by one of his first ideas about how students entering school now won’t be retiring until 2065 (2071 if we adjust for the lag between the talk and today). He’s absolutely right that we have no idea what the world will look like 5 years from now. Think back to when this talk was published (2006) a time before tablet computers took off, before Facebook became the stellar hit that it is now (launched in 2004 with limited release), a time before the smart-phone enabled world that we’re in right now. Another very important idea that he had was that creativity is as important as literacy. Also, the idea that if we are not prepared to be wrong then we’ll never have the courage to be creative was an important point he made. I see this in my students here in Ecuador. There is a culture of imitation here and often it is incredibly hard to get students to try something new or something different. I rarely can give students latitude in how a project is completed. They need examples and suggestions. Once those suggestions are given or an example is provided then they will copy it exactly. I mean exactly.

Robinson mentioned that the education system is basically a protracted system of university acceptance and I believe that he is absolutely correct. In high school I have never seen anyone prepare students for anything other than university study. We have discussions in meetings about what skills these kids will need for university and nothing else. No mention is ever made of what skills they’ll need to succeed in the world beyond college. THIS IS SAD BECAUSE IT CAN LEAD TO LEARNING FOR EXTRINSIC REASONS AND NEGATES THE ROLE OF LEARNING BECAUSE OF CURIOSITY AND A SENSE OF WONDER.

Concrete examples of how I nurture creativity in my students

1. Open ended projects that ask them to use mathematics to solve problems unrelated to the syllabus. For example, here is a movie of someone jumping off a bridge, find out how tall the bridge is. Or how can we create an oven using aluminum foil and can we bake a cookie with it? GREAT IDEAS TO STIMULATE CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING.

2. Ask students to spend time reading news in a search for economic implications. What is happening today that will cause ripples in the economic world around us? What is happening in Ecuador that has implications in the US or Europe? Or the other way around? Basically, open your eyes and start thinking about what’s happening around you.

3. How do we game the IB examination in mathematics? How can we use past exams to get an idea of what will be on an upcoming test? How can we possibly beat the IB at their own game?

4. Discuss a topic in economics but present your findings in any way you want. Video, print, online, photo essay, etc.

GLAD YOU REALIZE THAT MATH IS A PLACE WE CREATIVITY CAN GROW. FINE COMMENTS.

WHERE ARE YOUR LEARNING GOALS?

=Mini - Definition of Creativity=

--  Mini - Breaking Blocks What is my box? What keeps me confined in my way of thinking? Obviously there's got to be something related to my mathematical training as well as my hobbies associated with technology and web development. Often I find myself trying to solve nearly every problem with the same set of tools. You know, math, computers, just build a website for that. These are the thoughts that often come to mind. So is that an intellectual block to creativity?

Culturally I'm fortunate enough to have been acculturated in the US so I have that wonderful sense that no matter what the problem is, it can be solved. And when I find the solution to that problem I'm going to start a business and sell that solution to the highest bidder. Is this a block? Is it a problem to always look at issues and think in monetary terms? To always approach situations with dollar signs in my eyes? I create lesson plans, you know what I do with them? Of course I teach them, but I also post them online for sale. A few dollars here and a few dollars there, it's the american way!

SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE A FLAIR FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL CREATIVITY. =Mini - TED Talk - Folding Paper to Solve Everything!=

There's a picture here somewhere...

Anyway, the TED talk, like most TED talks, was very interesting and engaging. The main point was that a diversion in mathematics became the solution to a number of very difficult problems that faced scientists in a variety of fields. My take-home was that you've got to keep having fun with whatever you're doing because that's where the magic comes from. My time in undergrad math studies was a series of classes and very difficult math topics interspersed with three or four hour surf sessions where I'd be able to sit and process all of the information that was thrown at me during class and group work.

Without those surf sessions I don't think I would have been able to do nearly as well as I had in university. I try to get my students to adopt a similar strategy when it comes to their studies. We must play to be able to create. I AGREE THAT WHEN YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT YOU DO AND YOU CAN HAVE FUN DOING IT THEN YOU TRULY ARE BLESSED. =Mini - Math Problem - Minimum distance, time, relay to connect a cell call between Kenya and Switzerland=

GREAT PROBLEM-- CREATIVITY UNLEASHED IN MATHEMATICAL TERMS =Assignment #4=

Why are work and play opposites? How do you incorporate play into your high school classes? When did we all get so serious? Play often provides us with the opportunity to fully create, what ways do you play to create?

GREAT QUESTIONS. I SUSPECT YOU READ THE ARTICLES ABOUT PLAY/