A: I organized this out of necessity. My classroom is a computer lab with twenty computers. I teach all of my classes in it and I have talked another teacher, who also teaches 7th grade math, into trading with me one day a week. It was going to be two days a week but she can't handle that so my class goes to her "regular" classroom one day a week and the rest of the time we are in my computer classroom. Yes, I think it is better to have two rooms at your disposal at any time when you teach this way so that you can go back and forth, however, the reality of a school is that you have to make do with what you have.

A: I first learned about it during a professional development technology workshop. It was introduced as an ice-breaker activity and we used our bodies and tiles on a porch. After that experience I did not have a full mathematical understanding of the problem. During another workshop the instructor demonstrated a Java applet that let you do this puzzle on a computer. I later discovered that the same puzzle was in my Glencoe textbook as a warm-up exercise but did not get into any of the math. I used it with adults in a workshop and with those adults I learned the algebraic solution. So I decided to build on that lesson, put in the math, and use it as a more complete lesson with my students.

A: Actually six, I started the activity in the lab (but I would have preferred to have been in a classroom) but the students didn't use the computers. We read the problem aloud from the textbook; the students had the baskets and plastic people and they interacted with them. At the end of that period I was going to have the students interact with the applet but I ran into a java glitch (because of the age of the computers in my room) and we did something else instead the last ten minutes of class.

The second day we were in the classroom and I displayed the applet on the screen (using a video projector). One student interacted as the other students watched or gave suggestions and we started looking at the pattern. (This was not the only task that day but that is the only part of what we did on Traffic Jam.)

(There were some days in between here when we did something else.) The third day (I had fixed the computer glitch) we reviewed the problem and then went to the Java applet. We started discussing the problem putting the chart on the whiteboard and looking at the pattern.

The fourth day we were in the classroom again and this time we reviewed all of the information and worked through the pattern and the algebraic expression, etc.

The fifth day the students took a quiz. The sixth day the students practiced in groups to perform the activity with their bodies and near the end of the period I videotaped the results. If I had time tonight I would replay the video and maybe my memory would return better.....we did this activity the end of September....but... I know I spent about a week and a half of class time with this activity overall and I feel that it was time well spent.

Two years ago I taught in two-hour blocks. One hour we were in a classroom and the second hour we were in my computer classroom. This was a great arrangement to do Traffic Jam because if you start in the classroom and then go to the applet in the lab and then the next day you're back in the classroom again. Fun!

A: My computer room usually has twenty LC580s running System 8 with 40MB of RAM. We had to use Netscape 3 with the Java applet but usually run Netscape 4.05. All computers are connected to the Internet via ethernet.

A: Every time I do this lesson I change something, either the order of using plastic people, using the Java applet, and/or using student bodies or when I jump in and have the group discuss. Trying to assess where the students are in their learning is important and sometimes I assess correctly and other times I do not. So, I could list a variety of things that I might change but then the next time with a different set of students, those things might not apply. To answer your question honestly I would say I wouldn't change anything because I was happy with the results. My students were engaged and more importantly they were challenged. Some students thoroughly understand the algebraic formula that we finally developed and others still don't have a complete knowledge of it but they are much closer to understanding it than they were when we first started. 

A: I didn't assume anything. I rarely do. :) It's a weird quirk of mine. My students usually come to me so lacking that if I worried about background mathematical knowledge all I would ever do is drill them in their basic facts. So, I just dive in and see what happens.

A: Actually, I had no game plan. I was waiting to see how they would go. It seemed at one point that they were looking horizontally and I tried to follow that, but I had no way that I was guiding them (that I was aware of).

A: One thing that I distinctly remember cringing about was some of the notation that I used. Also, the overhead was not placed close enough to the wall - changing that would be an easy adjustment.

A: This Java applet that Mike Morton wrote gives the students immediate feedback. I only have the students use the "easy" and the "medium" settings which are two pairs and three pairs of people. Until the time that the students use the Java applet they are not certain that they have reached the minimum number of moves. Interestingly, once they do it once they can't always duplicate their success. At that point continuing to try using the applet reinforces their knowledge. Then it is important to have them return to using the plastic people and show me they understand the pattern.

A: In the following lesson, I had the students do a human puzzle. I had three students on one side and three on the other and they walked through the puzzle.

A: I tried doing it that way a couple of years ago. It was a disaster! The students had no idea what was going on. Even using the people pieces posed problems. What worked the best was the Java applet.

A: No. Using the computer made it easier for them to do the puzzle AND keep track of the number of moves at the same time. That was the big problem with the people pieces - not only was the puzzle hard for them, but they also had trouble keeping track of the number of moves. On the computer, it was much easier for them to experiment with different moves. They were able to focus more on the patterns and problem solving.