Here is my first attempt at creating an Explore-Flip-Apply type lesson. These are basically all in draft form. I would like to be able to do this EVERY DAY. Not 100% sure that is going to happen. So far, I have created the first unit, which consist of about 5-6 lessons on solving equations. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I plan on posting 1 lesson per day for the next few days while I work on Unit 2 (graphing). I have tried to source pages that inspired me.
Class: Elementary Algebra
Class Time: 55 min, 3 days a week for 15 weeks
Topic: Order of operations, exponents, & the distributive property
Inspiration:
- Negative Numbers Squared: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/61633.html
- Order of Operations is (morally) Wrong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9h1oqv21Vs&sns=em
- PEMDAS vs GEMS:
http://goo.gl/buOdcQ
http://goo.gl/JRdu9C
http://jonoaks.com/pemdas-is-not-a-word/
Explore: Order of Operations (key) |Dist. Property (key)
Flip: Order of Operations (MP4) | Dist. Property (MP4)
Apply: Order of Operations (key) | Dist. Property (key)
Comments: I struggled with this one. Sometimes when the concepts are very simple, I am tempted to just TELL THEM. But I know from experience that they always mess up the order of operations. So I want them to realize that we need to have some sort of order, else we get different answers. I want them to see how this relates to evaluating polynomials (degree > 1). I want to point out the tricky problems that are actually just poorly worded problems (e.g. Evaluate 5÷xy for x = 2, y = 3). No self-respecting mathematician would every write something like this due to the ambiguity it presents. I decided against providing a broader application context. I did not want to obfuscate the simplicty of how we combine terms mathematically.
With regard to the distributive property, I am trying the “Area of a rectangle approach for the first time. I am including “Extension problems” for some of the lessons. This is for groups who finish early. I try to show where this topic is used later in this course. NCTM Illuminations has a lesson on this that extends to factoring that might help. Factoring is the last unit of the term and I may consider going in this direction later.
I have tried to link these to my Google Drive. I have the comments function open if you want to comment directly on the document, feel free. You may, of course, leave comments below.
I find that I kind of cave on the “Flip” part of the lesson. I bassically digress back to direct (Khan-like) instruction. This is the longest video in the first unit. Most are under 20 min. I have embedded a quiz (using Camtasia Studio 8). When I do this, I get a report sent to me about how they did and how much of the video they viewed.
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