MacKinnon
MATRIX Grant
Text
Only Web Site
Overview:
The mathematics faculty at Wharton Borough Public School’s
Alfred C. MacKinnon
Middle School proposes to
increase students’ achievement in mathematics through creation of Learner-Active
Technology-Infused Classrooms TM.
Learner-Active Technology-Infused Classrooms TM are a signature product of the
educational experts affiliated with Innovative Designs for Education (IDE) Corporation, the school
district’s partner in this project. These classrooms incorporate
problem-based learning, differentiated instruction, technology-infusion and
other principles of learning correlated with high student achievement. Through
intensive training, on-site and remote mentoring, and summer institutes, IDE
consultants will provide professional development programming designed to
identify and promote curricula and teaching strategies that integrate technology
effectively into the school’s mathematics program and maximize student
learning.
In order to aide in the accomplishment of these goals, the MacKinnon Middle School applied
for and received grant funding through MATRIX,
a program affiliated with the New Jersey Department of Education. For details regarding
the MacKinnon MATRIX grant and Wharton’s year one abstract visit: http://www.state.nj.us/njded/techno/grants/matrix/year1.htm
.
2004-2005 Events:
On March 22nd MacKinnon sixth graders took part in the Noon Day Project,
sponsored by CIESE at
Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken,
New Jersey.
The purpose of the Noon
Day Project is to recreate the work of the famous Greek librarian and
mathematician, Eratosthenes. Over 2000 years ago this brilliant pioneer,
using the simplest of tools and shadows cast by the noonday sun, successfully measured
the Earth’s circumference. Today students from all over the globe are
afforded the opportunity to reenact this historic event by collaboratively
participating in hands-on measurement activities and on-line data collection.
The experience proved to be a smashing success! The sixth graders did a
terrific job making their noon time measurements of the sun's shadow angle.
All of us at the MacKinnon
Middle School are proud
of our colleague, MATRIX participant and sixth grade math teacher, Betsy
Riordan. Mrs. Riordan and her Learner-Active Technology- Infused Classroom™
are currently this month's Teacher
Feature at Innovative
Designs for Education. Take some time to check out Mrs. Riordan’s
feature presentation’.you’ll be glad you did.
Participating MATRIX Team Members:
This year the MATRIX Team lines up with some of MacKinnon's best math
teachers. Chris Herdman is not only the MATRIX Coordinator, he also teaches
three sections of the participating seventh graders. Michelle Freeman joins the
team as both a seventh grade and sixth grade math teacher. Betsy Riordan teams
up with three sections of this year’s sixth graders. Our bilingual
students are led through the MATRIX by their instructor, Karen Vaughan. Last
but not least, Tim McGrail instructs special needs students in both the
Resource Room as well as in class support.
We have a strong, knowledgeable team of veteran teachers and we look forward
to some very exciting lessons!
Activities:
Midevil Fair - The MacKinnon Class of 2007 enjoyed
celebrating academics at the annual Medieval Fair. This is a day when sixth
graders show off their learning through puppet shows, historical dioramas and
an exciting catapult contest. As part of their MATH MATRIX activities, teams of
students planned, designed and built catapults that they used to launch marshmallows!
Catapults were judged on trajectory distance and accuracy. To prepare for this
activity the Class of ’07 brushed up on their geometry skills in order to apply
them to their medieval creations.
Can You Feel the Madness? - In Chris Herdman’s 7th grade
math class, students participated in a math based Problem-Based Learning task
about the basketball craze; March Madness. Students created graphs following
the progression of the tournament and learned all about probability and
statistics throughout the month.
Probability Games A Big Success! - Mr. Herdman's seventh graders are proud to report that their probability
games were a big hit at this year's Senior Citizen
Day. Students
recently received thank you notes from the Seniors expressing how much they
enjoyed the games of chance the Class of 2006 shared with them. Mr. Herdman introduced this
lesson with a very cleverly designed problem based task.
How the West Was One + Three x Four - This award winning adventure game allows students to
put their PEMDAS skills to the test as they compete in a wild west stagecoach
race against the computer or their classmates. Published by Sunburst Technology the exciting, interactive software is being
put to great educational use in the seventh grade math program. Students
are learning the intricacies of the game and its clever use of mathematical
order of operations. They will soon be putting their honed skills to the
test in a round robin tournament to find the seventh grade champion of PEMDAS!
MacKinnon Seventh Graders Shop Around the
World - Seventh grade students learned about world markets, price comparisons and
currency conversions in an interesting online web quest, World Shopping Spree.
Students and teachers alike were often surprised by the tremendous cost differences
on the same items in various parts of the world. After making their
online price comparisons, students displayed their results in PowerPoint
slideshows that they shared with their classmates. The project proved to
be a great way to tackle the math skills involved and learn some world
economics at the same time.
Where's the Best
Weather? - MacKinnon
Sixth Graders explored online data bases to determine which USA and World
cities can boast the best weather. Using the online web quest, Best Weather, as their starting point, the students researched
major city locations, temperature highs and lows and rainfall. After
defining what qualities constitute "best weather" the students groups
compared their results and made their picks. Click on the links below to
download some samples of their results.
Getting Down to Business - Mrs. Freeman's seventh graders
are busy learning consumer math concepts through business simulations and
games. Some of the software and websites they are exploring include "Hotdog Stand: The Works" and
MathScape's unit
materials from "Getting Down To Business".
Click the link for a free trial download of the popular game: Hot Dog Stand Trial Download
Noon Day Activity - MacKinnon Sixth Graders wrapped up the Noon Day Project
by using their Equinox measurements to complete calculations of the Earth’s
circumference. All four classes did very well reporting circumference estimates
with error rates between 3% and 12%. Earth’s actual circumference is
about 40,076km at the equator. Polar measurements are slightly lower. All of
the student groups estimated our great planet’s girth at anywhere from
40,000 to just under 44,000km. Excellent work using nothing more than a stick,
a string and a protractor!
Bridging the Math Gap - Mrs. Freeman's seventh graders also
participated in a mini problem-based learning task recently. The students used
pictures of famous bridges to discover the mathematics and geometry behind
bridge building.
Today's Townsquare - The Sixth Grade MATRIX team is in the
process of developing a geometry unit whereby students use their geometry
skills and knowledge to plan and design "teen towns". Students will
present their projects in MS PowerPoint slide shows. More about this exciting
lesson will be coming soon!
Fraction Monster's - Sixth Graders in Mrs Riordans math
classes learned that fractions can be a lot of fun. The students used fraction
manipulatives to create Math Monsters which they labeled, colored and
displayed. Students also played fraction addition games in which they had to
identify classmates monsters according to the sum total of parts used. What a
neat way to learn about and use fractions!!
Bulletin Board:
Mrs. Riordan says...
"I believe it is my responsibility to not only prepare students for life,
but to make good memories. We all have that teacher that we remember because
they either gave us a reason not to succeed or a memory from a teacher that
gave us a reason to learn and make every effort for excellence. I insist on
being a good memory for my students and creating a reason to strive for the
best."
Singing Math Masters!
For some time now Mrs. Riordan's math students have enjoyed singing the math
memory songs their dedicated and talented teacher composes on their behalf.
Math students everywhere can benefit from Mrs. R.'s musical creations.
Monitoring Successful!
MacKinnon Middle School is proud to announce that MATRIX monitoring went
very well. Coordinator Chris Herdman and the MacKinnon MATRIX Team successfully realized the first year's goals
and are already gearing up for summer workshop days. All would like to
express our thanks to IDE Consultant, Sally Wassell, whose guidance and encouragement helped
tremendously in achieving our objectives towards technology enriched learner active classrooms.
Webmaster and Technology teacher Debra Leary
thanks all of the MATRIX Math teachers and Sally for making the development of
this site such a pleasurable learning experience.
"I am really looking forward to continuing the process
next year. Please email me over the summer with your thoughts and ideas
on tech enriched math lessons for the new school term." dleary@wbps.org
MATRIX 2005 looks forward to welcoming MacKinnon eighth grade
teachers, Mrs. Cunha and Mrs. Pillsbury, to the team. Our expanded
team will meet for MATRIX training workshops August 29th through September
2nd. Tanya Bosco from IDE will
be facilitating the summer workshop which will run the week of Aug 29-Sept
2. In this, teachers will be working on creating web quests and learning
the aspects of a learner active classroom.
Math Links:
Math in Daily Life
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/
The first thing students need to understand about math is… IT IS USED EVERYDAY!
This is a great site for ideas to help students understand the connection from
skills learned in the classroom to daily life.
Do We Need Mathematics?
http://www.cut-the-knot.com/manifesto/need_it.shtml
A great resource for parents and teachers to explain to students the
correlation between math and why they need to know math in today’s society.
Math Glossary – 6th grade
http://www.harcourtschool.com/glossary/math_advantage/glossary6.html
A sixth grade interactive math glossary. Easy to use and gives examples of
many functions that are defined.
Math Glossary – 7th grade
http://www.harcourtschool.com/glossary/math_advantage/glossary7.html
A seventh grade interactive math glossary. Easy to use and gives examples
of many functions that are defined.
Fraction Game
http://standards.nctm.org/document/eexamples/chap5/5.1/#applet
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics created this a great
interactive tool allowing students to understand size and equivalence of
fractions. The site also provides suggestions for collaborative work.
Fraction Math
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/mmath/mmath_frac.html
Harcourt School Publishers provides this interactive tool for students to
review basic fraction operations.
Bar Graph
http://illuminations.nctm.org/tools/tool_detail.aspx?id=63
How do you divide your day? Students enter the data of how they spend a 24
hours in a day. The focus is on the input and analysis of the data in the bar
graph rather than on the technical aspect of building the graph.
Circle Graph
http://illuminations.nctm.org/tools/tool_detail.aspx?id=60#
How do you divide your day? Students enter the data of how they spend a 24
hours in a day. The focus is on the input and analysis of the data in the
circle graph rather than on the technical aspect of building the graph.
Pentominoes
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~rsimms/java/pentominoes/index.html
Pentominoes is the general name given to plane shapes made by joining
squares together. Note that the squares must be 'properly' joined edge to edge
so that they meet at the corners.
Cryptarithms
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/cryptarithms/st_crypto.shtml
These are brain teasers obtained when digits in numerical calculations have
been replaced by letters. Cryptarithms are a great way to reinforce or
introduce concepts of problem solving while promoting group collaboration
between peers. Some of these are also available in Spanish.
Links for Teaching Bilignual Math:
Math Lessons in Spanish
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/fractions/spindex.html
This site gives ideas for teaching middle school math for bilingual or ESL
students.
Interpreting Graphs in Spanish
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/Algebra/sphottub.html
A site written in Spanish for ESL students in middle school math to
understand and decipher graphs.
Spanish Math Resources
http://mathforum.org/teachers/spanish/
From the Internet Math Library, this site is provided in Spanish for ESL
and bilingual teachers.
Contacts:
Richard Bitondo, Superintendent Schools
BOE Office 973-361-2592 FAX 973-895-2187
mailto:rbitondo@wbps.org
William Petrick, Principal MacKinnon M.S.
Main Office 973-361-1253 FAX 973-361-4805
mailto:wpetrick@wbps.org
Alan Bocchino, Curriculum Supervisor
973-361-1253 x224
abocchino@wbps.org
Chris Herdman, MATRIX Coordinator
973-361-1253 x809
cherdman@wbps.org
Jay Raynis, Technology Coordinator
973-361-1253 x280
jraynis@wbps.org
Betsy Riordan, Teacher, Grade 6 Math
973-361-1253 x875
briordan@wbps.org
Tim McGrail, Teacher, SE RC Math
973-361-1253 x872
tmcgrail@wbps.org
Debra Leary, MATRIX Webmaster
973-361-1253 x388
dleary@wbps.org
Michelle Freeman, Teacher, Grade 6/7 Math
973-361-1253 x832
mfreeman@wbps.org
Karen Vaughan, Teacher BiL/ES
973-361-1253 x836
mailto:kvaughan@wbps.org