Alexa? What is 2 + 3?

I made it home safely from the technology conference.  My flight for the last stage ended up being delayed 2 hours but I got in on the only plane of the day.

I am glad I went to the technology conference because the last keynote speaker turned me onto something I didn't know about.

Did you know that people have written lesson plans for all topics using the Alexa?  I didn't until he shared it with us. I'll start with normal uses and save the lesson plans for another day.

To begin with,  Alexa can be used to set a timer for those activities run for a specific length.  Instead of physically setting a timer, you can ask Alexa to do it and you can focus on other things.

Instead of keeping multiple pairs of dice in the classroom, you can ask Alexa to roll the dice for any activity requiring the use of dice.  Students can keep track of the response and then analyze the data to see if the numbers ended up meeting the 1/6 probability.  The dice results can also be used to create math problems for students to complete.

In addition, Alexa can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  For students who struggle with math fluency,  they can use Alexa to check their work after completing a worksheet.You can also use the Alexa to find data such as temperatures in another place such as the daily high and low in London.  Students can take the data, organize it into charts, or even compare it with historical data to see if it follows past trends.

Amazon has skills which others have written for math.  Many of the skills already written and free to download to your Alexa.  Some are easy fact type skills and others are more complex but there are also skills to help factor quadratics, learn more about the Pythagorean theorem and the Fibonacci theorem.


You can also go to Alexa Skill Builder which allows you to go and create your own Alexa program.  They have the basics done, all you do is fill in the blanks and then publish it.  For me, the quiz one under education is perfect because it allows you to create short questions, provide an answer, add in a small fact.

You can also create a flash briefing which can be used by students to catch up on what they missed when they are out sick.  You can also create flash cards so students can practice their multiplication and division problems.  Work on the AC method so students learn the possibilities when factoring trinomials.

For students who need music, Alexa can be used to play nice background music gently in the background.

I'll be revisiting this topic another day, once I've caught up on my sleep.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Heading Home

Timelines in Math

 One of the workshops I attended gave a list of websites which can easily be used in classes and of course are free.  Teachers love free and are always searching for apps that meet the basic criteria of easy to use, free, and is a great tool.

One of the areas of apps that always appears in these types of presentations are timelines.  Everyone knows timelines are easier to use in certain subjects such as Social Studies, History, or English.  Even Science can find uses for timelines but math is much harder.

I've never thought about using it in math until I realized that we no longer teach students any mathematical history.  When I was in school, teachers took time to discuss the mathematicians who contributed to the development of this topic.  In fact, most of my teachers  hung pictures of mathematicians around the room so we knew the names.  Now, we don't.  My students don't know who Decartes is or any one else who contributed to the field.

I propose, we build in time to explore the history of mathematics the people who contributed to it, or the development of various branches.  Perhaps look at the women who made contribution to the field so girls see that mathematics is not strictly male dominated.

It wouldn't be hard to a create timeline for the life of a mathematician giving information on their birth, death, marriage, schooling, and accomplishments. This type of assignment requires research to find the information needed for the time line.  If its an interactive time line, it could include a map with their place of birth, death, where they lived, etc , a picture of the person,  and any books they published.

Students could create a time line showing the development of Boolean Algebra, Topography, Logic, or other branch of mathematics.  A student could even create a timeline of the development of numbers.

Of course, one could have the class create a timeline of the history of math so each student gets a segment of time and when they are done, they've completed a timeline from  50,000 BC to the present.  The timeline can include mathematicians, their important theorems, etc so the final project is interesting rather than dry with only dates.

Today's timeline software allows people to create products that are more interactive, contain more informations, pictures, maps, rather than just dates and one line descriptions.  If we start adding this into classes, perhaps can show that its been around for a long time and developed to explain the world around us.

I think, I'll be doing this in class when we have a short week and can't do much or during testing when students are tired and need a change.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.

Lightbulb went off on X-Y-Z axis

 I came to Anchorage to attend and present at the Alaska State Technology in Education conference.  I love going because I always learn something new every time I attend.

The first day of the conference, they offered several three hour workshops so I chose the one on 3 D printing.  The speaker took us from start to finish including the fact they us a 3 dimensional axis for printing.

The speaker explained the x axis as going left and right, the y axis is front and back, while the z axis is the height.  I've never had this grid explained this way and it made so much sense. Much more than theoretical drawn grids.  In addition, since three dimensional grids are extremely difficult to visualize or draw, this explanation puts a context on it and when drawing on an app or graphing website, it makes it easier for them to construct the graph.

It also makes it easier to create three dimensional shapes on autocad or similar software because they know where to place the base or height.  I can see the pyramid in my mind as I draw it since I got that application and his explanation gave me what I needed to "see" the process.

  It also throws a different perspective on the regular x and y axis. We teach it as horizontal and vertical but it seems to the the left and right for x is still the same but why not express the y as front and back so it can be explained in terms of maps.

I don't know if they still have those books filled with maps for cities.  The ones with the numbers and letters to tell you what area the street is in but it operates on a flat x and y grid except one is numbers and one is letters.  I'm also thinking of the maps found in the middle of telephone books.

I've often explained the coordinate system using directions such as north, south, east, and west because that is something my students relate to.  My example puts the hotel at (0,0) and the coordinates give directions to the local McDonalds, or the store, or where ever because they need a way of understanding the coordinates are a location.

I realize there are situations where we want the x and y axis to run horizontally and vertically depending on the situation or context. Now I can communicate these contexts to my students and perhaps widen their knowledge base.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm-up

Warm-up

The Montgomery Alabama Bus Boycott

Most math teachers are looking for ways to make math more interesting and relatable to students.  Teachers also look at ways to incorporate other subjects into math.  So the other day, Dr Who gave me an idea of a topic that would be perfect in both Social Studies and Math.

We know that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat when requested to move so there'd be another row for "Whites".  We know this lead to a community boycott of the bus, and a couple of court cases ending bus segregation in Montgomery Alabama but what do we know of the economic repercussions of this event?

The boycott lasted 381 days, just over 1 year.  The boycott did some economic damage by denying the city income from transportation because 75% of the ridership were African American.  Due to the decreased ridership, many drivers lost jobs because fewer buses ran.  It is estimated that about half of the 44,000 African American residents used the bus daily.

The transit company lost 30,000 to 40,000 fares every single day amounting to at a loss of at least  $3000 per day since the cost was only ten cents per ride.  Instead of riding the bus people carpooled, took rolling taxi's run by churches, or walked up to 8 miles to work.  Overall, revenue for the bus company dropped 69% leading to drivers being laid off and routes being cut. By the end of the boycott the Montgomery city lines lost $750,000

Over 300 cars were used to transport people around Montgomery during the boycott so these cars increased the purchase of gas and oil as they were running more often.  This meant gas stations started to make more money but the cars underwent increased wear and tear.

There is enough information here for students to put it all together.

1.  If the bus company lost $3000 every day, that means its based on 30,000 fares at ten cents per day.
2.  Again based on losing $3000 per day with a total loss of $750,000 that means it accounts for 250 days out of the total 381 days.  What might account for the differences between the 250 days and the 381?
3.  If they lost $3000 per day and that represented 69% of their normal income, how much did they normally make?
4.  If only half of the 44,000 people rode the bus normally, what might explain the loss of $3000 per day?

There are other questions which could be asked but I'd let students see what mathematical questions they could come up with from all the information provided in this entry.  Then I'd share the four questions I've provided.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  have a great day.