Reactions to The Geometer's Sketchpad session

summarized by Cathy Borders

Below is a collection of folks reaction to using the SKETCHPAD yesterday to examine medians of triangles.

this was terrific and a true learning experience for myself. i will surely be an effective and ever ready die hard geometry teacher next year. the activity today made me reflect and actually visualize about some things that i try to get my students to see. i learned that we all including our students can get a better understanding and see a relevant connection among what we teach on a daily basis. i learned that instead of trying to teach some topics that i will let the students explore with sketchpad then we will begin a meaningful discussion and move from there. i'm thinking how can i practice with this some more this summer. can i purchase this asap!!!!!! i would have appreciated my teachers teaching me from this tool when i was in high school. again, this is truly fantastic and a learning experience that i shall never forget. i want to take this time to thank pam champion for helping me with learning this new tool. you are truly terrific with extreme patience. i know your kids love you.

Lenisera

Thanks for this new tool!! I really think that there is lots we can do with it (even if I have to work hard to learn it before the kids do).

Cathy

It's good to get back to doing some sketchpad. I've been away too long. I was reminded of some of the ways to do things but the best thing was the way the exploration was set up. "What can you find about the medians of a triangle?" was an especially good question for an upper level class or used as a review for average or maybe even lower classes. Thanks for fun.

Pam

I learned to use the vertical tool bar and some of the horizontal bar on sketchpad. I constructed a triangle, its medians, inscribed, and circumscribed circles. I measured segments, angles, and areas and calculated ratios of same.

Betty

Thoughts on Sketpad-powerful tool that long over due

What did I learn- need a lot more work on subject program

What am I thinking- would like to have had this program two years ago

Hank

I enjoyed the presentation of Geometry sketchpad and being able to play with it.We hope to add this software to our math department next year.

Frank

Using sketchpad, we constructed the medians of a triangle and then made conjectures. We found the area of each of the six smaller triangles and found them to have congruent areas. We measured the segments and found them to be in a 2:1 ratio. By dragging a vertex, we found that the medians indeed intersected at a single point inside the triangle. We disussed how to conclude that this point of intersection must be the center of gravity. Through this activity I also learned to color in a region, label points, and enlarge labels.

Peggy

Using the Sketchpad we discovered and showed several facts about the medians of a traingle. I think this would be a great tool to use in class to generate interest and stimulate independent thinking. Unfortunately we do not have computers available for our students to use at the moment. Hopefully with the new money that is to be spent on technology we will soon have a math lab so that more problems such as this can be used. I had never used Sketchpad before and found it to be very user friendly so far.This I feel is very important to get teachers to use the material in their classrooms and to have the students comfortable enough with the software taht they can concentrate on the problem not on getting the computer to work.

Mary

Sketchpad makes me want to teach geometry, again. Relationships would be so much fun to show and explore with the sketchpad.

I do not feel comfortable using the Internet but I have enjoyed muddling through. This could be addictive. How do people have time to sit down everyday to read and reply to their messages?

The information which could be utilized by using what was presented today seems astronomical. As a teacher from the olden days, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the leaps that computers have caused.

Lynnda

I found working with sketchpad to be an exciting experience and FUN,FUN,FUN! It is a wonderful means for discovery.

Nan

The sketchpad appears to provide a powerful, informative, and fun way to discover geometry. I feel that there is no way to master sketchpad in one afternoon. This instrument provides a great way for the student to expand his understanding by actually seeing a concrete representation of geometric figures. It will help encourage the student to ask "what if.....".

Sonja

This was the first time I have seen Sketchpad and I am not comfortable with the operating details. It will take alot of practice to bypass the frustration and confusion. It has a tremendous amount of potential and I hope to be able to implement it effectively and with ease. It will take a while.

Sandra

I love the sketch pad! Frank put in a request for our county media center to purchase Sketch Pad but at this time we do not know whether we have it or not. I have tried to use MS Paint at home but have not been successful in creating the images I would like. I feel this workshop will be a valuable resource to me and to those I can share with.

Loraine

Well, that pretty well sums it up!
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