Visualizing Functions Summary

Monday - Friday, July 14 - 18, 2008

Monday, July 14
Cal demonstrated the use of LoggerPro® to the whole group. The parabola group, Mary Jo, Rey, and Sergio, took photos of things that look like they might be parabolas and begin to overlay graphs in order to prove or disprove that they are parabolas. The maximizing profit group, Lori, Faye, and Scott, continued to work on the activity sheet and teacher materials. Sandy and Connie worked on dynamic functions using data they generated from a video. Martin Flashman presented his work on mapping functions using vertical number line charts.

Tuesday, July 15
The participants continued clarifying objectives and modeling quadratic situations. Sandy and Mary Jo gave short presentations on the work their groups have done so far.

Thursday, July 17
Lori presented the maximizing profit problem that she, Scott, and Faye are working on. All groups worked on their projects.

Friday, July 18
The working groups were thoroughly engaged today in activities that support their finished products. Mary Jo, Rey, and Sergio realized that none of the things they had photographed were parabolas and began to worry that students would not find any real parabolas when they do the activity. They talked about how they needed to change their objectives to make the project work. Troy gave them some suggestions for true parabolas.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0314808.
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