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MAA Meeting '94, Cincinnati, OH |
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MAA Meeting '94, Cincinnati, OH |
Sketchpad Resources ||
Interactive Geometry Classroom Materials ||
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AMS/MAA Joint Meeting, Cincinnati, 14 January 1994
Sketchpad Presentations
The following people gave presentations involving sketches related to work they are doing or classes they are teaching. The pages include links to the actual sketches - if you are using a graphical Web browser, you can set it up Sketchpad as a helper application, and automatically open the sketches in Sketchpad. (See CIGS - Dynamic Geometry for more information.)
- Problems: Doris Schattschneider, Moravian College
- Triangles: Mel Thornton, University of Nebraska
- Hyperbolic: Don Shimamoto, Swarthmore College
- Conics: Peter Andrews, Eastern Illinois University
- Circles: Jim King, University of Washington
Notes from the Users' Group Meeting
Approximately fifty people were present. The meeting lasted from 4:30 until 6:00.
The presenters at this meeting demonstrated a number of ideas and some student work with Sketchpad. The sketches themselves are archived on the Geometry Forum along with this set of notes.
Opening by Jim King, University of Washington
Jim King opened the meeting, mentioning the user group meeting held at the national NCTM conference in April, 1993 in Seattle and the subsequent convening of two local user groups, one in Portland and another in Seattle. He noted that this meeting of MAA Sketchpad users is an appropriate place to consider ways of using Sketchpad to teach college mathematics or even for research.
Jim announced that a volume about dynamic geometry will be put together, probably from contributed papers at a special session at next year's joint meeting in San Francisco. Those interested should talk with him or correspond with him.
What's Happening at Key Curriculum Press?
Bill Finzer, Educational Technology Director of Key Curriculum Press, briefly described an NSF-funded research project to look at uses of Sketchpad in the classroom and to develop support for teachers and instructors wishing to begin using Sketchpad. He invited members of the audience to contact him with accounts of classroom use and with ideas for improving the program.
Bill demonstrated version 2.1 of the Macintosh version of Sketchpad, an upgrade that brings it up to the functionality level of the Windows version. Features include:
- Durable traces that can be copied and printed.
- Traces of points will be connected by line segments if desired.
- Pictures from any source may be pasted into a sketch. Pasted pictures may be anchored by zero, one, or two control points. Pictures may be resized and their proportions changed, even dynamically by animating control points.
- Both major and minor arcs may be measured by specifying an arc by three points on a circle. (Previous two-point specification continues to work as before.)
- Lines and circles may be formatted as dashed.
- Files are fully compatible with Windows version of the program.
- Transformation calculations are much improved.
Doris Schattschneider, Moravian College
Doris emphasized that Sketchpad can be used in interesting ways outside geometry class, for example in calculus, where it can construct parametric curves and visual models of calculus problems or concepts.
Formation of the User Group
Those present expressed interest in getting together again next year and in staying in touch via the Forum. Sketches demonstrated at this meeting are to be posted on the Forum along with notes from the meeting. Those who presented will document their sketches and send them to Bill Finzer.Annie Fetter, sysop of the Geometry Forum, would like us not to start a new group on the Forum until we have a critical mass of conversation. This conversation can take place on the geometry.college newsgroup.
Notes by Bill Finzer, Key Curriculum Press (E-Mail: wff@well.sf.ca.us) and Jim King, University of Washington.
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