The Symposium

For the first three years in the GK-12 program, my classes did not participate in the Symposium. I consider that to be a big mistake on my part. Getting the students involved this year was more rewarding than I could have imagined: From an applications standpoint, my students experienced the practical use of the mathematics (statistics) that they had been studying since the beginning of the school year. Students also learned mathematics that wasn’t directly tied specifically to their statistics class, an added benefit so to speak.  Over and above the mathematics, Pratik Gandhi, my GK-12 fellow, taught these students the value of software programming through MatLab.

After having attended the Symposium, I began to spread the word to my colleagues that we could learn a lot from such an event as it relates to our Math Fairs. Although I am aware that the program will eventually come to an end, I am hoping that I will be in a position to do what I can to ensure that it will somehow continue.

The Value of MatLab

After seeing what MatLab is capable of last year, it gave me ideas for this year as far as using it as a tool for reinforcing a lesson. To this end, Pratik has been key to the success that we have had in using MatLab for such a purpose. As I work through my lesson plans each week, I think to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be nice to have a MatLab program that would emulate this problem.” So I send Pratik an email and I tell him, “Pratik, wouldn’t it be nice to have a MatLab program that would model problem such and such on page whatever? But listen, don’t kill yourself. If it’s possible and we could have it by Friday, that would be nice.” The next time the class meets, Pratik has the model ready. And these models ALWAYS help the students in understanding a concept that otherwise would have eluded them. Pratik’s background in Statistics also helps in that it complements what I have to offer in the way of examples and such. We are planning a Math Fair project for the class that involves doing a statistical analysis of weather data from the school’s weather station. The plan is to use Fathom statistical analysis software, but we are also planning to employ models created in the MatLab environment. The combination of the two should make for some interesting findings.

AP Test Problem: Bernoulli Trials and Binomial probability

This past week’s exercise involving an AP test problem involving Bernoulli Trials and Binomial probability really served to get the students to focus their efforts on a more advanced topic. I believe this will serve two purposes: 1.) Early exposure will help students in their understanding of these two topics when they encounter them in the future. 2.) Students will develop greater self confidence in their problem-solving capabilities as they develop logic skills at a more accelerated pace than they would ordinarily receive using the suggested pacing guide.