Overview
How to Format and Submit homework
- Write up or type your responses. If you handwrite your homework, it should be readable to someone who is not you. We recommend checking with a friend before submitting if you’re unsure. This is especially the case for problems involving graphs or charts.
- We’ve set it up so Canvas will only accept doc, docx, or pdf files. That means if you work in Google Docs, you need to go to File, select Download, then select Microsoft Word or PDF. If you handwrite your work, please be sure to use a scanner app to convert your photos to a PDF document (e.g., Genius Scan).
- Name the file that you upload using the format of “First Name_HW#”, e.g., Alison_HW1. If you just call the document HW1, and we choose to download all the assignments to grade, then several documents will have the same name, which will make it difficult to identify whose work it is.
- Full credit will be given if responses are complete, thoughtful, show that you’ve processed the information in the assignment, and reflected on your own experiences.
Complete the activities described below and answer the questions in writing:
- Dan Finkel TEDx talk
Watch the video titled, “Five Principles of Extraordinary Math Teaching” by Dan Finkel, a former math teacher, who is the founder of Math for Love. This 14 minute video is from a TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVneQUA5-c
Write at least 1 full paragraph that addresses each of the following 3 parts:
- Summarize and elaborate one major point that Dan Finkel made in the video that you found to be particularly important. This can be one of Finkel’s 5 principles or some other important point from the video.
- Connect the point from Part A to some personal experience that you have had, either learning or teaching math. Provide details.
- Finally, explain why you think Dan Finkel’s point is important.
- “Challenging the Status Quo in Mathematics” Article
Read the article by Christopher Rakes titled, “The Status Quo in Mathematics: Teaching for Understanding.” Read the article online.
Then answer the following questions:
- Procedures are important in mathematics, but teaching ONLY procedures has resulted in negative consequences. In your own words, describe and elaborate two such negative consequences that were identified in the article.
- In your own words, describe and elaborate two benefits of teaching for conceptual understanding in math (i.e., emphasizing “ideas, meaning, and relationships”) that were identified in the article.
- The Haybaler Problem. You have five bales of hay. For some reason, instead of being weighed individually, they were weighed in all possible combinations of two: bales 1 and 2, bales 1 and 3, bales 1 and 4, bales 1 and 5, bales 2 and 3, bales 3 and 4, and so on. The weights of each of these combinations were written down and arranged in numerical order, without keeping track of which weight matched which pair of hay bales. The weights in kilograms were 80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, and 91. Your initial task is to find out how much each bale of hay weighs. There may be more than one possible solution; if this is so, find out what all of the solutions are and explain how you know. Once you have finished looking for solutions, look back over the problem to see if you can find some easier or more efficient way to find the weights.
- Solve the problem as it is written.
- Identify which standards of mathematical practice you used when solving the task. Give a 1-2 explanation for each standard you chose.
- Thinking ahead to the next unit, and thinking back to students you have taught or tutored in the past, what aspects of the problem do you anticipate students might struggle with? Why? Explain in a short paragraph.