Math in the Real World –

     Teaching Notes

The units designed and showcased within the Techno Bowl website have been created to engage students in higher-level cognitive skills.  For those of us who have “tested” these units with our students, we discovered that some of the students have been anxious at the beginning of the unit because the assignment is open-ended and the students have to “fill in the gaps” with their own creativity and research.    These units were intentionally designed to fully engage students in this manner and cover Archdiocesan Outcomes.   

There are several good online sources for you to use with your students to help them keep track of their research.  (The units don’t require use of either of these, they are just suggested here as teacher tools.)  A good example is NoteStar, it allows the students to keep track of all their web sources while allowing you to check their progress.   There are several programs that the students can use as well.  The one we have used is Research Assistant Software, this software teaches students how to cite Internet sources correctly. 

There is an online site http://mathforum.com/paths/measurement/e.measlessons.html that has resources and links to all kinds of math sites.  There are a number of links from the Student Pages for 5^th Grade Math in the Real World. 

Prior Knowledge Requirements:

      Slide Show Software, Power Point or Hyper Studio

      How to correctly site web sources (web source citations)

    Saving images from web site and inserting them in Power Point or Hyper Studio

Important Notes: 

      Because of the amount of on-line research and the requirement for using pictures and graphics from the web, it is imperative that the students learn how to cite each of these sources correctly.   This may be a good opportunity for a lesson on plagiarism. 

      Show and discuss the rubric.  Stress to the students that they are graded using this rubric.  Make sure they understand if any elements are missing they will be graded down.

 There is only one job that requires the students learn to use the online quiz maker.  This is the On-line Testing Company job.  It is imperative to teach these students how to use Quizmaster.  At the Quizmaster site you will see links to learning how to create a quiz.  There are many different quizzes to create.  It is a simple process.  The most important thing to remember is SAVE YOUR QUIZ!  You can save it to the hard drive or server.  It will save as an HTML document and a set of files.  You do not have to donate to use his quiz creator.  If you find the tool useful, please consider making a donation so he will keep it on line and available.

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© February 2002 Lisa Blaes, Eileen Colling, DeAnna Denney, Sheila Hagemann, and Jean Napier-Faeih