Participation in Online Intermediate Algebra

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Participation in Online Intermediate Algebra

• Jeff Morford
• 313-317-4046
• jmorford_at_hfcc.edu
• http//msumorfords.com/jeff/
• presentations/presentations.htm

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Why?

• Ive never been thrilled by participation in my
  online classes . . .
• But, I get more posts per class than most
  teachers report at conferences . . .
• And I get some interaction between the students.

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Discussion Board

• Id gladly tell you about more than the
  discussion board- just not in 15 minutes
• 1. Textbook Homework Question Area
• (Credit for posting more credit for
• answering. Some semesters the students are very
  interactive.)
• 2. Discussions about Non-class Topics
• (Rarely Used)

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Discussion Board

• 3. Questions about The Course Structure and
  Software (Rarely Used after the Third Week)
• 4. Graded Questions (The Rest of Our Time Will
  Be Spent Here . . .)

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Affective/Reflective/Assessment

• Getting to Know Your Classmates Questions?
• How Can I Improve the Class?
• What Study Strategies Have Been Successful For
  You?

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Examples of Affective/Reflective/Assessment

• 1. Getting to know one another will help make
  communicating electronically easier. So each week
  I'll have a question that does not focus on
  mathematics. This week tell us where the computer
  you will use most often for this class is
  located. I'm not necessarily interested in
  geography, like "Dearborn, Michigan", or exact
  latitude and longitude from G. P. S. Instead use
  the prompt to tell a little about yourself.See
  my post to get an idea of how to start. And while
  a few typos seem inevitable in fill-in forms make
  sure your spelling and grammar are good enough
  for all of us to understand. You should also
  explain acronyms like, IMHO (In My Humble
  Opinion), or emoticons -) (Happy) for the first
  few postings so that the threaded discussion and
  chat room naive (including me) can understand.
• 2. Don't worry as the semester progresses these
  will ask more mathematical questions. For now I'd
  like to know why each of you elected to take an
  online course instead of a face-to-face course.
• 3. Feedback . . .Please write a 3 paragraph
  reply to this. In it tell what you feel works
  well in this course and should definitely be
  continued. Tell what does not work well and
  should be stopped. Suggest something we could
  start that would help students learn
  mathematics.Because we have to follow the
  syllabus and because of my views on pedagogy I
  might not adopt all suggestions, or I might only
  adopt them in a future semester. For instance
  based on last semesters feedback I introduced
  group projects (but only a few) and changed the
  way I structured the Discussion Board.
• 4. You may have read the letters to students in
  a future semester that my students wrote the
  first time the course ran. I had asked students
  to write 8-12 sentences explaining what you need
  to succeed in this online course. 3 semesters
  later it is probably time to do that again.To
  earn credit write a 8-12 sentence letter
  beginning with "Dear Student". Then, let me
  know1. May I use you comments on the web site
  explaining to potential students how the course
  works?2. If I may use it would you prefer me to
  use your name, or would you prefer to be
  anonymous?Feel free to answer no to either
  question. I certainly understand and do not
  always allow my comments to be used for
  advertising like this. A no answer is worth full
  credit!

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Examples of Affective/Reflective/Assessment

• 5. Please answer all parts of this question to
  give me some feedback about how the course is
  going and how it can be improved.Thinking about
  the structure of the BlackBoard web site Which
  parts of the site are easy to navigate?Are
  there changes to the site that would make it
  easier for this class, or future classes to find
  and do their work?Are there additional
  directions that could be given to make it easier
  for ths class, or future classes to do their
  work?Thinking about the course work you do
  How valuable is the Academic Systems software
  to helping you learn to do the mathematics?How
  valuable are the homework problems from the
  textbook for helping you learn the
  mathematics?Are the projects and activities
  interesting? Do the projects and activities
  help you learn the mathematics?How much time do
  you spend (on average) each week working on this
  class?

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Mini-Projects

• Gather Data from the Internet
• Research Resources on the Internet
• Compare Resources on the Internet

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Examples of Mini-Projects

• 1. Visit the Swarthmore Forum. Follow links to
  find at least three interesting pages. I
  recommend starting in the Student Center and
  going to Dr. Math, FAQ's (Frequently Asked
  Questions).
• Write a one paragraph reply to this message
  describing one interesting site you found. Give
  the URL of the site (the web address typically
  seen on the Location line of your browser). Also
  tell what was on the page and why it interested
  you.
• You MAY NOT report on a site another student has
  used so make sure you read the other students'
  responses before posting. See my example if you
  need help getting started.
• 2. Look at the sites other students found in
  response to Lesson IIE question 1. Visit two, or
  more pages that you did not visit before. Write a
  two paragraph response stating what you found
  that is valuable there and what else you would
  like to know after reading that.Format your
  response something like this.I visited _____ at
  the URL _____. I think ____ is really useful
  because ________. This also makes me wonder about
  . . .Then I visited . . .
• 3. Post your response to the two questions
  below. Later visit again and solve the equations
  that someone else posts to check that their
  equations work. I will not check these
  immediately to allow you time to find each others
  errors and correct your work.Your office is
  purchasing new furniture for a huge common work
  area. The furniture can only consist of tables
  and chairs. There must be exactly 4 chairs for
  every table. You can use only one kind of table
  and one kind of chair. (Otherwise you wouldn't
  have a consistent look.) You have 20,000 to
  spend and you must spend as close to all of it as
  possible, or your budget will go down next
  year.1. Give a detailed plan telling how many
  tables and how many chairs you would purchase
  including the price per table, the price per
  chair and the total amount you spent. Explain how
  you determined these numbers.2. Let x represent
  the number of tables. Let y represent the number
  of chairs. Write a 2 variable, 2 equation system
  of linear equations that you could have solved to
  find your answer from part 1.One place you can
  research prices is the Office Max site. You could
  also search for "furniture" on a search engine
  site like Yahoo.

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Examples of Mini-Projects

• 4. Students used a Webmath calculator to solve
  a mixture problem then answered these questions
• How did the Webmath calculators do in trying to
  solve your problem?Did the Webmath explanations
  help you understand how to set up the problems?
  Why, or why not?Would you recommend students in
  a future semester visiting this site? Why, or why
  not?
• 5. . These word problems have been a challenge
  for students in Math 110. Last semester I sent
  students to the WebMath site. They thought the
  calculator was somewhat helpful, but that the
  explanations contained too much information. So,
  I found a new site- the Purplemath site.Please
  answer the following questions in 3, or more
  sentences to earn credit.1. Did the calculators
  at the WebMath site help you understand the word
  problems in this lesson? Why, or why not?2. Did
  the explanation with tables at the Purplemath
  site help you understand the word problems in
  this lesson? Why, or why not?3. Next semester
  should I refer students to Purplemath, Webmath,
  or should I look for another site?4. Do you
  know of another helpful site?

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Math Related

• Solution Guides for Difficult Problems
• Write Word Problems
• Problem Tag
• Introduction to College Algebra Ideas

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Examples of Math Related

• 1. Tell a restaurant you like. Then give the
  range of prices for entrees there. Finally write
  that range using absolute value.For
  instanceI like Buddy's Pizza. Entrees there
  range from about 6 to 10. If x is the price of
  an entree x-8 lt 2.
• 2. Go to the polling site www.gallup.com,
  Gallup, or another polling site you find.Find a
  poll with a margin of error. You can use the same
  poll, but not the same question as another
  student. Give the poll date, topic and the margin
  of error. Then rewrite the margin of error using
  absolute value inequalities. I could write94
  of Americans think education should be a top, or
  high priority for the Bush administration. The
  poll had a margin of error of plus, or minus 3
  percent. In absolute value that isx-94lt 3,
  where x is the number of people who really
  believe education is a top priority.I got this
  from a January 10 release by Jeffrey Jones at the
  Gallup site. Its title was Americans Rank
  Education as Top Priority for the Bush
  Administration.
• 3. Give a realistic situation in which could be
  modeled by a linear inequality in two variables.
  Then give the linear inequality modeling that
  situation. Do not use the same situation another
  student has used. If possible try to use a
  situation from your life.For instance, I'm
  helping host a conference. A conference room in
  the ASCC building holds 150 people. Some of the
  people are vendors, x, and others are conference
  attendees, y.x y lt150 because the total
  attendance must not exceed the maximum for the
  room.

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Examples of Math Related

• 4. One way rational expressions come up is in
  inverse variation. Two variables x and y vary
  inversely if you could write yk/x and k is a
  positive number.In informal terms inverse
  variation means as one variable gets larger the
  other gets smaller.Try to think of a situation
  that involves inverse variation. Tell what the
  situation is, what the variable represent and
  give a guess at the constant.For instance,
  suppose 10 pies are shared. If y is the fraction
  of pie each person gets and x is the the number
  of people then y10/x. The constant is
  10.Creativity is appreciated (let's not do
  pizza, cake, cookies, . . .) and you cannot use
  exactly the same situation as another student.
• 5. One of the best ways to learn about
  application problems is to write your own. Take
  a look at the problems on page 362 and 363. Write
  a problem similar to one of these. Then check
  back later and solve a problem a classmate has
  posted. That classmate can then check your
  work.Sometimes the easiest way to create your
  problem is to start with the answer. For instance
  if a recipe requires 50 potatoes and 40 carrots,
  you could then write a problem mentioning that
  their were 90 vegetables and the ratio of carrots
  to potatoes was 4 to 5.For other problems- like
  the "working together" type- it is easier just to
  write a problem and solve it later.As usual you
  cannot duplicate another student's work.
• 6. Have you ever used a square root in your
  home, or business life? If you have tell how
  you used it. If you have not try searching for
  "Pythagorean Theorem" in a Search Engine (for
  instance www.google.com). Then tell how someone
  else used square roots, or invent a way you could
  use square roots. Try to make your response as
  different from those who have posted before you
  as possible.

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Examples of Math Related

• 7. The time in seconds it takes a pendulum L
  centimeters long to swing through one cycle is
  given by the formulat 2pisqrt(L/980)
  means timessqrt means square root.An artist
  has designed a small scale pendulum that takes
  only a few seconds to swing through a cycle. The
  full scale model will be 10 times as big. The
  artist claims the cycle for the full pendulum
  will be ten times as long- meaning that you will
  not need to stop the pendulum to vacuum beneath
  it. (He is trying to convince OSHA -)Try to
  find out whether the artist is right, or not by
  following the instructions below.Choose a value
  for L. Find t.Then put 10 times your L value in.
  Find t.How many times bigger is your second time
  value than your first?For example, if you first
  choose L 150 find t for L1500 as well. Do not
  use the same values as another student.
• 8. Choose two problems from the section 9.2
  homework. Write up solutions to the problems as
  though you were going to send them to me. But,
  instead post them here.Essentially we'll be
  making a solution guide for this section.There
  are two rules in addition to using enough detail
  . . .1. You can't do 21 on page 400.2. You
  cannot do the same problem as another
  student.You can, however, add comments to
  another student's solution if you have a
  different way to solve a problem.Suggestion
  Use sqrt(x) for the square root of x. Use
  3rdroot(), . . . for higher roots.

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Examples of Math Related

• 9. Consider x2 10x c 0.1. Choose 1
  value for c so that the equation has 2 real
  number solutions. Find those solutions exactly
  using the quadratic formula.2. Choose 1 value
  for c so that the equation has no real number
  solutions.You cannot use the same numbers a
  student who posted before you used.Sample
  solutionIf c -2 then two solutions are -5
  3sqrt(3) and -5 - 3sqrt(3).If c 100 then
  there are no real solutions because I get a
  negative under the square root in the quadratic
  formula. (A negative discriminant)
• 10. A couple of you have reformed your study
  habits and have requested I post a few more
  problems. Here is one you can try after
  10.3(1i)1 1 i(1i)2 (1 i)(1 i)
  1 2i i2 1 2i -1 2iI would like the
  next person to post to the board to calculate and
  simplify (1i)3. The person after that should do
  (1i)4 and so on.Then, check back before the
  final and let me know if you see any patterns.
• 11. Find, or create a quadratic equation that
  can be solved by factoring. Then solve it by
  factoring, by completing the square and using the
  quadratic formula. Explain your steps as though
  this were an e-mail homework problem.You may
  not use the same problem as another student.

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Examples of Math Related

• 12. Find two ordered pair that make x2 y2 lt 36
  true.Then find two ordered pair that make it
  false.List both pairs. Do not duplicate an
  answer another students gives. Try to predict
  what the graph of x2 y2 lt 36 might look like.
  (Do not post your predictions . . . yet)
• 13. Problem TagWork the problem that the last
  person in the list left for you. Then pick
  another problem for the next person to work.No
  repeating problems please, but you may each work
  two problems at two points apiece. You may not
  work the problem you suggest yourself!Start
  with page 86 29. You're it!This is what your
  work might look likeHere is how I solved
  problem 29 on page 86.The next problem is
  ______

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Examples of Math Related

• 13 (cont)

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Participation in Online Intermediate Algebra

• Jeff Morford
• 313-317-4046
• jmorford_at_hfcc.edu
• http//msumorfords.com/jeff/
• presentations/presentations.htm