Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Vectors Activity Feedback


  • First activity - odd man out (which one isn't a vector) in breakout rooms. They found the non-vector quickly. Had them explain to their room why it wasn't a vector. Brought all back and then all together discussed why the rest of them ARE vectors - how their directions + norms were indicated and what their directions and norms were. What worked: Good for refreshing memories about Pythagoras What didn't: too easy, they found it so fast because it was the first one on the slide, and because they knew what they were looking for Next time: Don't tell them what the distinguishing feature of the odd man out was
  • Second activity - interpreting multiple representations (Find all the vectors that are identical) also in BOR, same groups. Wow. No one finished it, but lots of great discussions and questions between room members:
    • Is AB the same as BA?
    • AB representation really gave pause - how to see it as a vector
    • What do those < > brackets mean
    • Doesn't that mean 3 right then 4 up? 
    • Lots of time focussed on AB and BA. I suggested they graph the points A and B and join them to form AB then BA, then see what the components were. Next time I'll make the 2 graphs that were part of the slide bigger so they can fit those points on. Or have geogebra or explorelearning open so they can graph quicker.
    • Might have been too much in this slide?
    • We'll definitely continue it tomorrow, and maybe after they do the rest of the explorelearning gizmo activity they'll be back in the swing of things. I will remind them to have the vectors gizmo at the ready, and to use the gizmo if they need to graph a vector
And I thought it would take them 3 minutes to do it!

2 comments:

  1. Yep - they warmed up on part one (they are just waking up after March break!) and then really started thinking, with a little encouragement, on part 2. The discussions were great.

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  2. Dianne please don't hesitate to give me any feedback - I sometimes feel that I'm too impatient, or too harried due to tech probs, or too involved, or not involved enough...I am really at sea when it comes to those BOR activities.

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